Andrew Breitbart has an A.P. story up about a New Jersey man named Hal Turner who's lawyers claim he was trained by the F.B.I in how to provoke "right wing" activists into breaking the law.
Hal Turner worked for the FBI from 2002 to 2007 as an "agent provocateur" and was taught by the agency "what he could say that wouldn't be crossing the line," defense attorney Michael Orozco said."His job was basically to publish information which would cause other parties to act in a manner which would lead to their arrest," Orozco said.
Prosecutors have acknowledged that Turner was an informant who spied on radical right-wing organizations, but the defense has said Turner was not working for the FBI when he allegedly made threats against Connecticut legislators and wrote that three federal judges in Illinois deserved to die.
Where are all the whiny civil-liberties hand-wringers of the left on this one? I'm guessing that they'll stay mum on this since Turner was targeting "Right Wingers" rather than radical leftists or islamists. Still, its intensely disturbing - but not at all surprising in light of the post 9/11 paranoia that engendered the Patriot Act (a law that Obama voted to re-authorize in the summer of 2008)- that federal law enforcement agencies should be in the business of stoking passions so high that someone goes out and does something stupid and criminal.
Very interesting- getting to where nothing is surprising anymore with THIS crew.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've already got DHS, CIA, and State Dept hitting my blog- nothing better to do?
PS- added you to the blogroll today LA- keep up the Good Fight, our side's winning now-