Free Republic

Two former OU students accused of breaking into OU’s underground tunnel network are members of a local activist group that claims it has been harassed by the FBI. Group members said they were questioned by FBI agents about Joel Henry Hinrichs III and the books they own. Christopher Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 21, who are both charged with second-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary, belonged to the Greenbriar Collective, a group that practices organic gardening and operates a lending library out of a house in east Norman. According to the Cleveland County District Attorney’s office, Boyce...

Prosecutors are considering felony charges for an OU campus burglary. ‘The circumstances of today’s environment caused everybody to look at it in a worst case scenario framework,’ an assistant district attorney says. ----------------------- Two men arrested for breaking into maintenance tunnels beneath the University of Oklahoma and burglarizing a biology building entered a room marked “biohazard,” according to the Cleveland County District Attorney’s office. Cleveland County assistant district attorney Rick Sitzman said Christopher Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 21, broke into an opening into a tunnel network beneath the university, made their way underground into the Richards Hall zoology...

FRENCH Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has vowed his government "will not give in" to rioters, even as police braced for an eighth night of violence on the outskirts of Paris. "I will not allow organised gangs to make the law in the suburbs," he declared in parliament. More than 1300 police were deployed to again do battle with groups of stone- and bottle-throwing youths that have torched hundreds of vehicles and vandalised buildings in rampages in low-income, high-immigrant districts since last week. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose hardline law-and-order policies have been blamed for fanning the acts of defiance,...

Georgetown professor lectured on democracy and the Middle East. A specialist in Islamic studies spoke about democracy and misconceptions of Islam Wednesday, in a lecture titled “Islam, Terrorism and Democracy.” John Esposito is a professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University. He is also the founding director of the university’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Esposito said Islamic extremists are a strong minority of the 1.3 billion Muslims living in the world today. Nevertheless, he said the actions of this small group make Americans ask questions like, “What is the problem with Islam?” or “Why do they...

Three men knelt on the street in front of Dale Hale. Their bodies were shrouded in sand-colored jumpsuits and burlap sacks covered their heads. The chains around their necks were clipped to black leashes that they held in their hands and offered to passersby. “Take the leash!” they shouted through the sacks. “Does this make you sick to your stomach? It should, because people are being tortured!” The startling display of anger at the war in Iraq drew a crowd quickly. The group of protesters, which was made up of sign-wielding students and Norman residents as well as the hooded...

NORMAN, Okla. -- Hundreds of students are now under investigation after fake IDs are found on the University of Oklahoma campus. Police said the latest rash of fake IDs have come from Dallas and that an OU fraternity member is selling the bogus Texas driver's licenses for about $100 each. Experts say these IDs are so close to the real thing that they're virtually undetectable. "The ones coming out of Texas are really good, and they're getting better," said O'Connell's bartender Todd Emerson. Emerson has confiscated dozens of fake IDs at the Norman pub. "Most of these IDs are pretty...

OPERATION HERO ALERT: Funeral Services for Seargent Evan Seam ParkerCounter-Protest of WBCWednesday, 11/2/2005*South Haven Public School - South Haven, KS OPERATION HERO is spreading word of a planned picket by Westboro Baptist Church during the memorial service of Seargent Evan Seam Parker. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing during the funeral service for Sgt. Evan Seam Parker on Wednesday, November 2 in South Haven, KS. This anti-Troops/anti-war "liberal" hate group will be protesting from 1pm - 2pm outside the High School where services are being held. The funeral service is scheduled to begin at 2pm, so...

A middle school in Orlando, Fla., was evacuated Monday after a small bomb exploded in the girls' locker room, according to Local 6 News. Investigators said coaches at Memorial Middle School were walking through the girls' locker room and spotted a device that had already exploded. Detectives believe the explosive was thrown though a window and caused a small fire sometime over the weekend or early Monday. It was not determined what type of device was thrown into the building but it was deliberately thrown, according to officials. "The device was thrown through a window and it was possibly an...

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - Has terrorism returned to the Oklahoma City area? That is what folks in Norman have been asking, ever since a 21-year-old student at the University of Oklahoma killed himself in what some are calling an attempted homicide bombing. On Saturday, October 1, engineering major Joel Hinrichs detonated a homemade bomb near Memorial Stadium, where 84,000 fans were watching the hometown Sooners take on Kansas State. That was just a hundred yards from a newly replaced bench -- it was there, just before halftime, that a powerful explosion ripped through the entire area, taking Hinrichs with it....

Following a fierce investigation, two suspects have been arrested in connection to a bomb scare in Marshall County. After the Kingston police found two homemade bombs within blocks of each other yesterday, authorities say a total of 28 bombs were recovered. Friday morning near the corner of Second and Chickasaw, Kingston police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad diffused two homemade bombs found in mailboxes. A U.S. Postal worker noticed a yellow liquid oozing from one of the boxes and then notified authorities. Today, police tell KTEN they found several more explosive devices at a house on the 500...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police blew up a suspicious package in a car parked near the U.S. Capitol on Friday, more than two hours after the two occupants told authorities they had an explosive in the vehicle. Police said they were interviewing two men they took from the car to determine if the package was a bomb. (...)At 1:11 p.m., the Capitol Police bomb squad "disrupted" the package -- the police term for destroying it. The door of the car, a 2005 gray Chevrolet Impala, blew open at the time of the controlled explosion. (...)No evacuations were ordered for the Capitol,...

Two Norman men face felony charges after allegedly breaking into a tunnel under the University of Oklahoma campus to get into a building on the South Oval. Christopher Thomas Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 20, were charged Thursday in Cleveland County District Court with conspiracy to commit burglary and second-degree burglary. According to an affidavit, a witness saw Boyce and Eldridge entering an underground tunnel system by cutting the locks to a manhole cover in the 1100 block of Asp Avenue. Police said the pair then opened a perimeter door and entered Richards Hall, where they removed a "stoppered...

Additional bomb scares have increased safety measures by Scooby Axson October 19, 2005 After the Oct. 1 explosion outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and three additional bomb scares on or near university campuses in the following two weeks, OU officials are taking extra safety precautions. OU Department of Public Safety officials said officers will take additional security precautions at Saturday’s game against Baylor University, the first home game since Oct. 1. OU President David L. Boren sent a letter to season ticket holders explaining the stadium’s security measures. “Your safety while on the OU campus will always remain our top priority,”...

STOCKTON -- Students and staff were forced to evacuate San Joaquin Delta College around 6 p.m. Monday after police found a false pipe bomb in a courtyard on campus. Police cordoned off the area and class was canceled for the rest of the evening, said B.R. Brown, the college's spokesman. Stockton Police Department explosives team, assuming it to be real, attempted to destroy the suspected pipe bomb by shooting water at it, said Officer Pete Smith, spokesman for the Stockton Police Department. The suspicious device, which was a PVC pipe with tape on both ends, was found next to a...

OPERATION HERO ALERT: Memorial Service for Army Staff Seargent Troy S. EzernackCounter-Protest of WBCSaturday, 10/22/05 *United Pentecostal Church - Shreveport, LA OPERATION HERO is spreading word of a planned picket by Westboro Baptist Church during the memorial service of Army Staff Seargent Troy S. Ezernack. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing during the memorial service for Army Staff Sgt. Troy S. Ezernack on Saturday October 22, in Shreveport, LA. This anti-Troops/anti-war "liberal" hate group will be protesting from 3pm outside the United Pentecostal Church. The church is located at; 3001 Merriweather Rd. *PLEASE NOTE: Date &...

Indonesian forensic experts fear terrorists have developed a bomb that does not leave a trace. Police working with Australian, Japanese and British experts to piece together the methods used for the October 1 bombings in Bali believe that Malaysian terrorist Azahari bin Husin may have used ingredients that are impossible to detect after detonation, the Indonesian investigative magazine Tempo reports. Few details are known about the analysis being conducted at police headquarters in Jakarta to establish what was used in the attack that killed 23 people, including four Australians. But there is speculation hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen chloride and triacetone triperoxide...

(KUTV) An explosion ripped the back off of a car in a Midvale parking lot Thursday afternoon. The blast sent debris flying and damaged other cars in the area. One witness said she was exiting a store in the Family Center on Union Park Avenue when she heard a “mighty boom” and saw debris flying from the explosion. Another witness said the blast " took off the back of the car and sent debris 200 feet into the air." Pieces of the BMW were found scattered all over the parking lot some at least one hundred yards away. According to...

OUR VIEW: 10/13 October 13, 2005 The FBI broke its silence Wednesday and announced, among other things, that a press conference summarizing their investigation is on the way. As of now, they are “more and more convinced” that Joel Hinrichs was acting alone when he blew himself up on the South Oval Oct. 1. They have found no connection between Hinrichs and any terrorist organization, and dispelled rumors that Jihadist materials were found in Hinrichs’ apartment. Still, we know that some people will put a lot of effort into contradicting the FBI’s analysis, facts be damned. But U.S. Rep. Tom...

CHELSEA - People who knew Army Staff Sgt. John Doles and many who didn't took up U.S. flags Tuesday in his hometown to honor his sacrifice and defy an outside group that sought to turn the slain soldier's funeral into a stage for its message of hate. As Doles' funeral procession rolled past the brick buildings of the small town where he grew up, men, women and children stood with tears in their eyes and hands on their hearts. "Respect," said 73-year-old Betty Benson, explaining why she waved a flag for the 29-year-old she never knew. "I think he deserves...

(Atlanta, Georgia-AP) Oct. 10, 2005 - Police are investigating suspicious bottles found in a courtyard at Georgia Tech. The discovery of the bottle containing chemicals led to the evacuation of two dormitories, but students have been allowed back into the buildings. No serious injuries were reported after the devices were found by a janitor this morning. Officers later found at least two more devices fashioned from plastic bottles. The worker who found the bottle was picking up trash. He was taken to a clinic for evaluation. Spokeswoman Amelia Gambino says about 100 students were evacuated from Cloudman and Glenn dormitories....