July 18, 2005 – CNN Radio News – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
July 18, 2005 – 13 years ago it was about sentencing domestic terrorists and quickly approaching hurricanes. Life in prison was the sentence for domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph for bombing a Women’s clinic in Birmingham Alabama in 1998. Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American domestic terrorist convicted for a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay-motivated bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured over 120 others. At the sentencing, Rudolph showed no remorse and stated that deadly force was needed to stop abortions.
Rudolph spent five years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list until he was caught in 2003. In 2005, as part of a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to numerous state and federal homicide charges and accepted four consecutive life sentences in exchange for avoiding a trial and a potential death sentence. He remains incarcerated at the ADX Florence Supermax prison near Florence, Colorado.
Hurricane Emily was in the Gulf of Mexico, gaining strength as it continued churning towards either the Mexican mainland or the Texas coast. No one was taking any chances as supplies were being stockpiled and sandbags were being filled. Attempts were being made to deepen drainage points, in case a large amount of rainfall brought potential for serious flooding.
And insurgent attacks in Iraq were responsible for killing 18 Iraqi police and government workers. Iraqi and U.S. forces uncovered a large weapons cache on a farm near Mosul.
NASA engineers admitted to being stumped as to what caused a faulty Hydrogen Fuel sensor that forced them to scrub a Shuttle Discovery launch the week before. NASA had until July 31st to launch Discovery. The next available window of opportunity wouldn’t be until September.
And that’s what happened on this July 18, 2005 as presented by CNN Radio News.
