Posted on 04/15/2005 6:18:45 PM PDT by CHARLITE
A five-year manhunt for Eric Rudolph ended in 2003, when someone recognized him while he was foraging for food behind a grocery store in Murphy, North Carolina. Scavenging in a trash dumpster and hiding as a lone survivalist in the mountains of western Carolina are quite revealing. Rudolph had no support, aid or comfort within the pro-life community. Rudolph is a cowardly killer disguised as a defender of life.
Rudolph, 38, pleaded guilty April 13 to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing and two other explosions, after earlier admitting to orchestrating a 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Alabama. The bombings killed two people and wounded more than 120 others. His plea bargain allows him to escape a death sentence in exchange for spending the rest of his life in a federal prison.
Rudolph’s attorneys released his 11-page statement, a rambling rationalization. Ironically, Rudolph includes Bible passages to support his contemptible acts, despite the fact that it condemns what he did.
"Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified ... in an attempt to stop it. I am not an anarchist. I have nothing against government or law enforcement in general. It is solely for the reason that this government has legalized the murder of children that I have no allegiance to nor do I recognize the legitimacy of this particular government in Washington."
When asked by the Birmingham judge Wednesday morning whether he detonated the bomb outside the abortion clinic in 1998, Rudolph replied, “I certainly did, your honor.” Some in the court thought that he said it with “pride.” The clinic blast killed off-duty police officer Robert “Sande” Sanderson, maimed and blinded nurse Emily Lyons in one eye, and injured dozens more.
Rudolph said he is a Roman Catholic at war over abortion. He claimed that his hatred of the government isn’t because he is racist or because of involvement with a fundamentalist Christian Identity movement.
Authorities then took Rudolph from Birmingham to Atlanta, where he admitted to three other bombings, including the 1996 Olympics attack that left a woman dead and another at a gay nightclub that injured five in 1997, as part of his plea agreement.
The bombing at the Olympic Games killed Alice Hawthorne, a mother, and wounded more than 100 others. The Olympics bomb was hidden in a knapsack that sent nails and screws ripping through a crowd at Centennial Olympic Park during a concert.
According to FOX News, the plea agreements indicate that “for the Alabama crime, the maximum term of imprisonment is life without parole for each count and the mandatory minimum is seven years for count one and 30 years for count two. Rudolph had to agree to pay restitution to the victims, with the amount to be determined later, as part of both plea deals.”
Richard Jewell, a victim who escaped death and physical injury in the bombings but who said “the ordeal ruined his life,” was among those in the Atlanta court who watched Rudolph as he copped his plea. The FBI originally named Jewell as a suspect in the Olympics blast.
“I had sincerely hoped to achieve these objections without harming innocent civilians. There is no excuse for this, and I accept full responsibility for the consequences of using this dangerous tactic,” Rudolph said about the Olympic bombing. He claimed that he “left Atlanta with much remorse.”
Rudolph’s statement says that he wanted the Olympic bombing “to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand.”
What Rudolph has managed to do is to confound, anger and embarrass millions of true pro-life people, who give their voice, votes, time, money, medical care, food, clothing and shelter to save the lives of women and their unborn children.
Eric Rudolph is the antithesis of pro-life — no "however"—no "but" — no "on the other hand."
Recent Articles
Don’t Call Rudolph ‘Pro-Life’
Life Issues
Feeding Tube Reinserted Into Georgia Woman After 10 Days
REAL Women's Voices Lobbying Day
New Poll Shows Americans Were Misled About Terri Schiavo’s Condition
A Fallen Hero Champions the Culture of Life
"Pro-Life Women to Tell Congress: Women's Groups Wrong on Abortion"
"After Schiavo's death, Christians fight on"
"On the Day After, Attending to the Details of Death"
"Zogby Poll: Americans Not in Favor of Starving Terri Schiavo"
People like Rudolph are an embarrassment to the entire pro-life community. He is a terrorist and promoter of anarchy, he embodies the evil he claims to be fighting.
I suspect Rudoph's violence stems from being excluded from reindeer games in his youth.
Bombing the abortion clinic was okay with you!?
Eric Rudolph is a terrorist.
I agree with your comments, but the article says Rudolph had no support, aid or comfort from the pro life community. BS. He could not have survived 5 years in those woods with no support, aid or comfort.
YUP. The government permits the killing of innocent children, so the destruction of a clinic does not upset me, not that I advocate that action.
He obviously had the support of other anarchist-types or possibly white supremecists who have adopted the pro-life banner to seek legitimacy. To call him and his supporters pro-life would be like calling the KKK pro-Christian.
He is to the pro-life movement what terrorists are to Islam: an embarrassment, a freedom fighter, a hero, or a murderer, depending on your point of view. He killed for what he believed in. Jihad, personified.
In 100% of his bombings he played a game of "two for". He created a stir that would attract cops. Then he set off a bomb, or, if he could find a cop moonlighting at a lonely site in the middle of the night, he'd just set off a bomb to kill the cop.
Eric doesn't like cops.
At the same time the FBI spent 5 years looking for him and couldn't find him. This statement was written for Eric by that same FBI. None of it should be believed.
So, who do you imagine was providing support to Eric? Could it be the guys who decided to let him off the hook in all those capital murder cases? Makes me wonder what else Eric knows.
I agree with you. However, the mainstream media has consistently labeled Rudolph as pro-life, they are obviously doing this in an attempt to smear those of us who value the sanctity of life -- in this regard he is an "embarrassment" to us.
Simply privatize the business ~ like liquor stores. They provide their own armed guards and security. There's really no excuse for the government to get involved in the abortion industry is there?!
No. What he did was ILLEGAL.
On the local news today (Charlotte) they showed where he camped on a hill overlooking the Armory where the FBI set up their HQ. I believe a lot of locals sympathized with him and helped him out from time to time.
Look, as an internet comment provider I am embarassed by Dan Rather. What will people think of us if that man is allowed to speak in public? Oh, the horrors!
Why didn't the FBI provide support to Eric? He was camped right there near them?
I didn't say they didn't, but since you bring it up I don't believe they did. I think they probably wanted to kill him more than help him.
I call it extra legal. Illegal is legal, ask the Border Patrol.
Lots of hunting, drinking and just hanging around in that period of time ~ this was an on the job vacation for those guys.
US Marshalls got caught doing the same thing at Ruby Ridge.
Nothing worse than a zealot who wields a broadsword where a scalpel is called for.
Have you ever been in Murphy? Humpin those gorges is no picnic.
??? What he did was murder 1 with special circumstance's!
See www.foxnews.com "ATLANTA — Abortion clinics around the country are bracing for attacks after Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph (search) issued his manifesto justifying the use of violence to stop "the worst massacre in human history."...
BTW, your same logic would have us as the "colonies" and the UK as our Government; George Washington would be a traitor, murderer and a terrorist. To me "LIFE, Liberty and..." are part of the AMERICAN culture and abortion is the antithesis. Abortion is the modern version of all totalitarian "solutions". Partial birth abortions are MURDER. sic. ILLEGAL, plain and simple. Again, I do not advocate violence, but, as you said, Rudolph stuck to his beliefs, Jihad I believe you called it. In a righteous cause some admire that backbone but not the deaths of any innocents who might have been inadvertently harmed.
I'm also familiar with professional lawmen who like to hunt and fish, and who seek out assignments to areas with plenty of both.
That's why a number of federal agencies REQUIRE their investigative officers to rotate into certain urban areas (e.g. New York) or leave the service.
I find it insulting that you would accuse me of ignoring the holocaust of the millions of innocent children who have been denied the right to live by the detestable culture of death. Please go back and review anything that I have ever said on Free Republic that would make you think even for one second that I "ignore" the murder of babies.
I am very impressed that he pled guilty. It saved us a lot of money and agony.
Good. I think all pro-life groups should make it clear that they condemn any vigilante-type violence. It is wrong morally, as well as suicidal politically for the pro-life cause.
So, we save some money and a guy who failed to file his state income tax return in a recenter year will get to pay for it with his life.
One of the things our culture needs to understand is the difference between "innocent" blood and the "guilty."
The Bible, in Genesis 9:5 and 6, lays the foundation of human government, and places the responsibility on the government to extinguish the life of the guilty.
Genesis 9:5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
But God finds the shedding of innocent blood an abomination:
Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
And the Lord commands "Thou shalt not kill."
America is continuing to heap up innocent blood through abortion, tens of millions of innocents slaughtered, and has just opened the door officially in the Terri Schiavo case to kill the disabled in violation of our Constitutional guarantees of "life, liberty, and property."
Our government has it backwards, and makes itself illegetimate every time an innocent is killed. We are protecting the guilty and klling the innocent, all because we have abandoned an aboslute and told God He has no right to tell us how to run our system of justice.
If you were the Schindlers, and the judge decided to kill your daughter, so you petitioned another court but you found no help there, so you appealed to the legislature, but found no enforceable help there, so you turned to the executive, but they said they didn't have any authority to effectively save your daughter from being murdered, where would you go?
When the government says it can kill the innocent, where does it get its authority?
All three branches, through their action or inaction have allowed the killing of children and are now through their action or inaction killing the disabled.
Do we stand idly by as innocents are murdered, or are we required to take any action?
Good to hear!
no, my logic is that he attempted to right a wrong by doing a wrong, which is never right. Any other attempt to justify what he did is just stupidity on your part.
get off yourself with "your logic would have us as colonies blah blah blah" argument and the "Iraq war is illegal blah blah blah" too. It isnt going to work just to prove your admittedly thinly veiled attempt at trying to convince us that rudolph is some sort of hero to you.
Rudolph is a terrorist. He is no different than Muhommed Atta. Atta believed that innocent Palestinians were being murdered by Israel and the US supported it. So it was okay to kill Americans. Change Atta to Rudolph and it's okay to kill receptionists and nurses who support abortion.
Killing is wrong. Jesus takes great joy when the sinner comes to him. To kill a man before he has that chance is EVIL, too. ALL life is to be respected, not just those you feel sympathy for.
Rudolph was not in any way pro-life, he was pro-revenge. Revenge is not Christian.
"Again, I do not advocate violence, but, as you said, Rudolph stuck to his beliefs, Jihad I believe you called it. In a righteous cause some admire that backbone but not the deaths of any innocents who might have been inadvertently harmed."
I hope you had as much sympathy for the 9/11 bombers. You just made an eloquent defense of their actions.
I can use nasty words as well as anyone, but see that you lack the intellectual ability to state your case any other way - not that you have a case. As in a business transaction where the first to mention money usually looses, so do those unable to express themselves otherwise. Keep trying, someday you will grasp the ability to state your case without attempting to denigrate (look it up) the opponent, even if your position is a loser.
I like Rudolph, so? You don't, so? You like war, Iraq, being a British subect etc. but assume an alleged moral position when the aborting of innocents is involved. As far as 911 goes, the people slaughtered were innocents, not the attackers. In the case of the clinics, the doctors, nurses etc were not innocent.
BTW 911 the people IN the buildings were the innocents, the attackers were not. You seem to equate the motivation of the hijackers striking civilians to a civilian, Rudolph, attacking the murders, "doctors" violating their oath and morality. I do not justify Rudolph's Olympic attack.
To the 9/11 highjackers, the people in the building were not innocent. They were a part of the American financial machine which supported Israel and the US military. The nurses, guards and receptionists in abortion clinics support the abortion industry in the same way.
There is a moral equivalent to the 9/11 highjackers and Rudolph. Both thought what they were doing was MORAL. Atta felt innocents were being slaughtered, too. Both bring derision to their causes.
I have been active in the local pro-life movement. With the exclusion of clergy (and even then, not entirely), many of the people I came into contact with cared more about the unborn than the born. They had no sympathy for the poor, the addicted, the criminal. How can you claim to be a Christian and turn from those Christ embraced and tried to bring to him? I have been reminded at times of the PETA crowd who care so much for animals but don't give a flying fig for people.
Maybe you aren't one of them. But the hypocracy in SOME in the pro-life movement disgusts me. It's easy to sit here and say "the innocent babies" and never get out and help those that have been born.
your a joke. A simple joke.
Go bust him out of jail if you feel so strongly then.
What you said was stupid, it cased your stupidity for all of us to see. Therefore I called you on it. If you want to act all high and mighty, go over to DUmmieland you troll.
Who said anything about 9/11?
Who said I liked war?
get your facts straight there....
Revenge is not Christian.
Neither is taking the law into one's own hands.
Nor is it Christian for government to fail in its duty to try and execute murderers and their accomplices.
But don't deny what hundreds of babies already may know---That Rudolph is definitely pro-life.
You doing anything to stop the Holocaust?
Will any babies ever say you saved their lives?
Have you improved the life of anyone actually born yet?
In case you need my credentials, I have been active with pro-life committees from my churches for the last 30 years. Grew up going to the DC Mall for the March for Life.
Could you please tell me on what criteria you would differentiate between someone who is guilty, according to God's standard (Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:4), and forfeits their right to live and someone who is innocent and should be protected (rather than executed) by legitimate government.
Just because the state executes someone they are not sending them to hell, e.g. the thief on the cross who went to Paradise with Jesus.
In your view, does or should the "pro-life" community differentiate between the innocent and the guilty.
In other words:
Is it OK for the state to execute a convicted murderer?
Is it OK for a person to kill a person committing a violent crime against them where their life is in danger?
Is it OK to, as a police officer, to use deadly in stopping the commission of a crime?
Is it OK for any citizen to prevent the murder of fellow citizens?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.