US News
Clinton campaign's hostage drama ends peacefully (Roundup)
Dec 1, 2007, 11:52 GMT
A member of the Police tactical team takes his position outside the Rochester New Hampshire campaign head quarters of the Hillary Clinton for President during a hostage situation in Rochester New Hampshire USA 30 November 2007. A man claiming to have a bomb entered the offices around 1 PM EST and demanded to speak with the candidate; police negotiated with the individual and ended the situation after five hours with no injuries. EPA/CJ GUNTHER
Washington - A five-hour hostage standoff Friday at a Hillary Clinton campaign office ended peacefully when police arrested a man who allegedly held three captives claiming he had a bomb.
The suspect, described by US media as a local man in his 40s with a history of mental illness, surrendered to police in Rochester, New Hampshire, after a tense afternoon of negotiations by cell phone.
The purported bomb strapped around the man's chest proved to be a bundle of road flares with 'no ability for it to detonate,' town police chief David Dubois said. The man initially took four adult hostages but immediately released a woman with a small child, police said.
Clinton, a US senator for New York who leads the race for the centre-left Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination, voiced relief that her young campaign workers emerged physically unscathed.
'I am very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well,' the wife of former president Bill Clinton said outside her home in Washington. 'All of my campaign staff and volunteers are safe.'
'I want to thank them for their extraordinary courage and coolness under some very difficult pressures,' she said in televised remarks.
Witnesses said the alleged hostage-taker, named by police as Leeland Eisenberg, walked into the street-level office at about 1 pm, told people to lie on the floor and and demanded to talk to Clinton.
He let the mother leave with her child but kept three young Clinton campaign workers - two women and a man. One woman escaped, and the hostage-taker let the two others go before surrendering, police said.
'All of the hostages are doing well. No one was injured,' Dubois said.
Clinton was hundreds of miles away in the Washington area, but she cancelled an appearance at a party meeting outside the capital after news of the hostage drama.
New Hampshire gets special attention in the US political calendar because it hosts the nation's first primary vote in presidential election years. For 2008, the primary is set for January 8.
Friday's events had no apparent political motive.
Still, Bill Clinton reportedly cancelled a book promotion event Friday in New York. In downtown Rochester, nearby campaign offices for rival Democratic candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards closed after the hostage-taking.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I am glad this turned out ok, but, the first thing my cubicle friend said when he heard about it (and he is about as political as a cow) said
'I bet this is just some fake thing to get sympathy for Hillary.'
How telling. Even real news from the Clintons seems fake.
She can not be trusted. Everyone knows that.
We need a president we can trust. Not Hill.
It sounds like the comments are coming from more men who are intimidated big time with an intelligent woman. The person who was holding hostages was mentally disturbed and thought this was a way of getting attention paid to help for him and others like him.
Hillary is ho hum politics. No difference between her and the rest of the pack. Ron Paul has substance----no fluff; Google him, you might change your mind.
I didn't say I was for or against Hillary - just that some men seem to be intimidated by an intelligent woman, and she is, regardless of what people think of her.
I couldn't help notice that Ron Paul and all his supporters are speechless when it asked about his policy in fighting global warming .Now here is the greatest menace ever looming over the future of mankind ,and it is catching these guys with their pants down .Nobody of them seems to have other opinion as saying that it isn't happening.Ignorance is no excuse for a presidential candidate .Better start learning the facts that already are common knowledge in the rest of the world .Truth does not stop at the borders of the USA.Look for a candidate with at least elementary knowledge if you care for your children.Sympathy and incensing are NOT going to save us.
Ron Paul supporters are not buying the Dem line of 'we have everything to fear, including fear itself'.
I find that refreshing.
No one is fooled by your new religion Tonny. Even acclaimed scientists, like John R. Christy, co-recipient of the Nobel prize and director of the Earth System Science Center at the U of Alabama, are now backing away from this hoax and are not willing to stake their OWN reputations on it.
Now, the euros are backing off Kyoto, because they will never meet the terms, and mouthing some 'post Kyoto' propaganda. They got Bush to get them out of it too! Funny, don't you think?
No, Tonny, a policy of acknowledging climate CHANGE while studying climate WARMING is the correct policy. One might even call it Conservative....
..someone at M&C could get off their fat butts and start updating the site more...?
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NoneDec 1st, 2007 - 17:11:25
of this is really important. I would rather see Dr. Ron Paul more in the spot-light. He's the man everybody wants see and listen to. Let's just cut the crap and give all the candidates equal time. Ron Paul would drop them all in their tracks (actually, he already has).
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