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Hal Turner
BornHarold Charles Turner
(1962-03-15) March 15, 1962 (age 62)
Jersey City, New Jersey
Websitehttp://www.halturnershow.com

Harold "Hal" Turner is an American white nationalist, white supremacist, and Internet radio talk show host from North Bergen, New Jersey. His program, The Hal Turner Show, is webcast from his home once a week and depends on donations by his listeners.

Turner would go on to become a talk show host himself, but quit broadcasting from WBCQ after claiming he would not adhere to the requests of the Jewish owner of the radio station.

Turner has often made news for his views and stances on extremist right-wing issues. He promotes antisemitism (including rounding up and killing Jews); and opposes the existence of the state of Israel. He also writes and promotes Holocaust denial materials. In 2005, Turner organized what he billed as a "rally against violence" after a white student was beaten by a black student at a high school. In 2006, he got in a fight with Jaime Vazquez, a former Jersey City deputy mayor, after Vazquez called him a racist coward. Turner has made numerous threats against political figures on his website and in other forums.

Early career

Identifying himself as "Hal from North Bergen", he became notable in local conservative circles as a frequent caller to the WABC-AM radio talk shows hosted by Bob Grant and Sean Hannity. Turner parlayed this fame into a role as the northern New Jersey coordinator for Patrick J. Buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign. He went on to serve as campaign manager for Libertarian Murray Sabrin in a number of campaigns in New Jersey in the 1990s, including a 1997 gubernatorial campaign.

Turner reportedly established a friendship with Grant's replacement, Sean Hannity, on whose program he was a frequent presence. However, Hannity later stated that he had banned Turner from the show and never supported him.

Turner then became a talk radio host himself, joining fellow regular callers Frank from Queens and John from Staten Island to start the program The Right Perspective. Turner left the program in 2002, citing artistic differences. In 2002, Turner became a solo host, purchasing a time slot on shortwave radio station WBCQ, over which he broadcast for approximately four years. He gave up this show on WBCQ on March 22, 2004 because financial support from the listening audience had faded, the owner of the station Allan Weiner was Jewish, plus the fact that Turner's own health and personal financial condition was deteriorating which eventually led to the temporary closure of his web site and show.

2000 Congressional election

In the 2000 US congress election, Turner sought, but did not receive, the Republican Party nomination for election to the United States Congress from New Jersey's 13th congressional district, losing to Theresa de Leon. Turner has identified himself as the "Chairman of the Republican Party of Hudson County, NJ Corp," a group which has no connection to the official Hudson County Republican Party recognized by the state and national GOP. According to news reports, Hudson County Republican officials have stated that Turner's party is a "paper corporation with little or no membership".

Rally against violence

In response to an October 7, 2005 assault against a white student by a black student at Kingston High School, Turner, working with the white nationalist group National Vanguard, organized a rally which he called a "rally against violence". The case resulted in the perpetrator being indicted as an adult with two felony counts: assault and attempted assault. He characterized the rally both as "pro-white" and "against violence". The victim's mother chose not to attend the rally. In response, local residents, including political and religious leaders, organized a number of "Unity Rallies" with a tolerance theme. When the rally occurred on November 19, 2005, Turner and the National Vanguard attracted approximately 50 demonstrators, compared to the 100 counter-demonstrators.

Jaime Vazquez encounter

On April 12, 2006, Turner had a physical altercation with Jaime Vazquez, a former Jersey City Deputy Mayor and member of the Jersey City Council who was the Jersey City Commissioner of Veterans Affairs at the time. The North Bergen Reporter quoted Turner as saying "(t)he illegal immigrants are breaking the law, and people like me should break the law as well by shooting them down." In response, Vasquez picketed with a sign reading "Hal Turner -- shoot me! Racists and bigots like you are cowards." Vazquez suffered a back injury and a fractured wrist. Turner and Vazquez later filed criminal charges against each other. On July 16, 2006 North Bergen Municipal Court Judge Joseph Romano found both men to be equally credible and thus neither criminally liable.

Threats against judges and political figures

In 2005, Turner publicized the names of three federal court judges who handled lawsuits involving Matt Hale. Turner posted the judges' names and addresses on his Web site.

On December 6, 2006, Turner announced on his website:

We may have to ASSASSINATE some of the people you elect on Nov. 7! This could be your LAST ELECTION CHANCE, to save this Republic... Sorry to have to be so blunt, but the country is in mortal danger from our present government and our liberty is already near dead because of this government. If you are too stupid to turn things around with your vote, there are people out here like me who are willing to turn things around with guns, force and violence. We hope our method does not become necessary.

Since the announcement was made, Turner has had difficulties finding a host for his website. He alleged that his website has been the target of denial of service attacks, and subsequently filed a pro se lawsuit.

On April 4, 2008, Turner encouraged violence against Lexington, Massachusetts school superintendent Paul Ash for establishing a new curriculum supporting gays and lesbians. On his website, he stated:

I advocate parents using FORCE AND VIOLENCE against Superintendent Paul B. Ash as a method of defending the health and safety of school children presently being endangered through his politically-correct indoctrination into deadly, disease-ridden sodomite lifestyles.

He went on to provide Ash's personal information, including his address.

Anonymous website raid

In December 2006 and January 2007, individuals who identified themselves as Anonymous "raided" Turner, taking his site offline, and costing thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. He retaliated by sending a "formal legal notice of criminal activity in violation of several federal laws" by email to 7chan, multacom, and multicom, as well as redirecting his domain to 420chan.org causing that site to take a bandwidth hit as well. He also sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites in court over copyright infringement; however, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.

Informant allegations

Allegations that Turner acts as an informant to the FBI surfaced after unidentified hackers claimed on Turner's website's forums that they had read email correspondence between him and an FBI agent, apparently his handler. This led to a discussion on a neo-Nazi website on 10 January, 2008, in which Turner revealed he was quitting political work, was ending his radio show and that he was separating "from the 'pro-White' movement". Both the FBI and Turner declined to comment on the matter. The Southern Poverty Law Center later reported that they had "revealed... that Turner was an FBI informant" and the Anti-Defamation League reported that "a neo-Nazi Website had posted material reportedly found by the hackers, including alleged exchanges between himself and law enforcement agents that indicated that Turner had been providing information to them."

Footnotes

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  1. "Hal Turner in His Own Words" Instead of fighting Muslims, we Christians should be rounding up jews and killing them here in America.
  2. http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/turner_own_words.htm
  3. http://www.halturnershow.com/RedCrossRecordsProveHolocaustWasFraud.html
  4. ^ Max Blumenthal (2005-06-03). "Hannity's Soul-Mate of Hate". The Nation.
  5. "F.E.C. IMAGE 20020212929 (Page 13 of 25)". Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  6. Jason Linkins (2008-03-23). "Sean Hannity Confronted Over His Relationship With Neo-Nazi Hal Turner". The Huffington Post.
  7. Max Blumenthal (2005-06-03). "Hannity's Soul-Mate of Hate (page 2)". The Nation.
  8. Stopped broadcasting on March 22, 2004 from WBCQ http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=show_program&id=50
  9. Lack of financial support http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld4123.txt
  10. Turner's was in the hospital a number of times in 2003 and 2004 http://www.frn.net/vines/Forum1/HTML/000877.html
  11. The financial condition was deteriorating which eventually led to the temporary closure of his website and show http://www.adl.org/learn/news/Suprem_Urge_Bomb.asp
  12. "Congressional Races". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  13. http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/elec2000/results/2000g_c_candidate_tally.html
  14. GET NJ - Hudson County Hate Monger Hal Turner Faces Purple Heart Veteran Jaime Vazquez in Court
  15. [http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=356782 Woodstock Times: "Turning our backs in unity Kingston falls into line behind mayor's call to SPURN white supremacist rally"]
  16. Fairchild, Mary (2005-12-14). "KHS teen indicted for assault, not hate crime". DailyFreeman.com. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  17. Paul Kirby (2005-11-08). "Supremacist vows KHS rally". DailyFreeman.com. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  18. ^ Daily Freeman - Supremacist vows KHS rally
  19. "Media do not agree about Hal Turner's Kingston Rally". national-socialism.us. 2005-11-20. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  20. http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=356782 Woodstock Times: "Turning our backs in unity Kingston falls into line behind mayor's call to SPURN white supremacist rally"
  21. http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/turner_051117.htm
  22. The Hudson Reporter - No charges in case of ex-councilman v. white supremacistNorth Bergen judge rules Turner, Vazquez not guilty
  23. Jim Hague No charges in case of ex-councilman v. white supremacist Hudson Reporter/NorthBergenReporter.com July 16, 2006
  24. ^ "White Supremacist Radio Host Urges Bombings, Assassinations". Anti-Defamation League. 2005-08-22. Retrieved 2008-02-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. The New York Times > National > Haunted by Threats, U.S. Judge Finds New Horror
  26. 'Assassination' schedule announced for Congress: Radio-show host says leaders won't be allowed to 'betray' nation World News Daily, December 6, 2006
  27. Official show blog
  28. Dallas Morning News. Hate-talk radio host down in mouth. February 6, 2007
  29. Hal Turner's blog (defunct as of 11-07-07)
  30. Lexington superintendent threatened by radio host - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News
  31. Winston, Ali (2007-01-08). "'Hate Host' is hacked". Jersey Journal. Retrieved 2007-01-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. "Cyber foes find ways to silence hate-talk radio host". freep.com. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  33. "Hal Turner Retaliates For Attack On Radio Show". Hal Turner. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  34. "Harold C. "Hal" Turner v. 4chan.org". Justia. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  35. ^ Potok, Mark. "FBI's Use of Neo-Nazi Informant Knocked". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  36. Mock, Brentin. "Virginia Developer is USA's Loudest Neo-Nazi". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2008-03-26. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  37. "Hal Turner Claims to Leave Movement After Accusations of Being an Informant". Anti-Defamation League. 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2008-03-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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