Free Republic

The 20-year-old who, six months later, would open fire at President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally — striking his ear and killing an audience member — was busy polishing his applications to transfer from community college to a four-year engineering program. Crooks was gathering transcripts and asking friends to review his personal statement. He was also designing a bomb. Oh. Yeah, kind of an important fact to throw into the mix. Apparently, Crooks had placed an order for “more than two gallons of nitromethane from an online speciality fuel retailer using an encrypted email account.” “Twelve days later Crooks’...

Portuguese police have seized half a tonne of explosives at a house that they say was being used as a base by Basque separatist group Eta. The discovery, which also included bomb-making equipment, was made in the central Portugal town of Obidos. Fake licence plates, detonators and maps were also found, officials said. A militant group fighting for an independent Basque homeland, Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its campaign in Spain. "The material was stored in secure conditions which indicates the work of professionals," local police chief Helder Barros said. Several of the explosives were...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Terry Nichols admitted during plea negotiations in his state trial last year that he played a major role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, a newspaper reported Sunday. Nichols admitted to prosecutors in a signed statement that he helped Timothy McVeigh make the bomb that killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, The Oklahoman reported. McVeigh was put to death for masterminding the attack. "McVeigh told me what to do," Nichols said in the statement, which was prepared with the aid of his attorneys. Nichols, 49, is serving life sentences without...