RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Hostages held at Clinton’s NH campaign office.

Hostages Taken At Clinton Campaign Office

Man Claiming To Have Bomb Holding People Hostage In N.H.
Jamy Pombo, Senior News Editor

POSTED: 1:13 pm EST November 30, 2007
UPDATED: 2:25 pm EST November 30, 2007

BOSTON -- A man claiming to have a bomb took two workers hostage Friday at a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign office in New Hampshire, police said.

The incident happened at about 1 p.m. Friday at 28 Main St. in Rochester. The man had what appeared to be a bomb strapped to himself inside the Democrat's office, according to Bill Shaheen, a top state campaign official.

A witness said that she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the hostage-taker.

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape," witness Lettie Tzizik said.

Witnesses described the man as in his 40s with salt-and-pepper hair. There are several police officers positioned across the street from the office, crouched down behind cruisers with guns drawn, according to a reported at the scene.

"There are sharp shooters on the roof, and police are negotiating with someone in the building," said another witness, who did not want to be identified. "The police are notifying all the business owners on the street to evacuate. There are fire trucks behind the Hillary Clinton office.

"I walked out and I immediately started running, and I saw that the road was blocked off. They told me run and keep going," said Cassandra Hamilton, who works in an office adjacent to the building.

Nearby businesses have been evacuated, and the St. Elizabeth Seaton School has been locked down. Several elementary and middle schools in the area also locked their doors in what officials called a "soft lockdown." Children at the McLelland School, Maple Street School and William Allen School were only being released directly to their parents.

Clinton, who is not in New Hampshire, is attending a National Democratic Committee meeting in Virginia. Presidential candidate Barack Obama also has an office in Rochester, and it has been evacuated. There were no reports of any injuries.

NewsCenter 5 and TheBostonChannel.com will have more information when it becomes available.

From the July 17 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: Tonight's winner: Coultergeist! Again! For the same thing. She went on another radio show to suggest staffers of The New York Times be executed. Hey Annie, you do realize that there are chowderheads out there even stupider than you are, and they don't get that you're a screaming fraud, and that they read or hear what you say and then they send envelopes full of white powder to The Times like they did last week, and that one day somebody at The Times, probably some guy in the mail room, is going to get hurt and it'll be on your conscience -- if you have one. Ann Coulter: today's "Worst Person in the World."

Fear of this type of escalation is why I've repeatedly argued with Wonder Boy about his rhetoric of blaming liberals for hating and trying to destroy America. It's inciteful.

I think the same thing could be said of a lot of the Bush hate.

Jesus Christ, you people are asses.

Whoever this guy is and whatever his motivations are, I hope everyone comes out alright and his ass gets nailed to the wall.

Which ever way will work the best.

Whoever this guy is and whatever his motivations are, I hope everyone comes out alright and his ass gets nailed to the wall.

Sick Stuff. Hope the hostages are all okay.

As I mentioned in the "Getosama" thread, regardless of party, violence against presidents is something we should be able to unversally condemn. The same thing applies to candidates and/or their staff.

Also, I hate to break it to Ray and anyone else here trying to make this a case of "evil right winger out to get poor liberal," but it looks like this guy's motivation is mental illness, not politics:

• The man's ex-wife told FOX News that his name is Troy Stanley, and that he is a paranoid schizophrenic who has not been taking his medication.
  
  She said he has delusions that he has a chip implanted in his head

Let's keep a good thought for the hostages, and even the hostage taker's family. This is a hell of a thing for both of them.

UPDATE: “Local police are believed to be negotiating with a man described as a well-known local resident with a history of emotional problems who told his son to ‘watch the news today.’”

One things for sure. When his political affiliation is revealed and this is all over...the mud slinging is gonna be unprecedented whether he's Democrat/good or Republican/evil.*

*Slight sarcasm used. The Democrat aren't absolutely good and the Republicans aren't absolutely evil. However, right now, the Dems are better.

Leeland Eisenberg was already in trouble before he walked into one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign offices. Three days earlier, his wife had filed for divorce; he was due to appear in court with her for a domestic violence hearing in about half an hour.

Then, the nicely dressed, gray-haired man peeled open his jacket to reveal what looked like dynamite strapped to his chest, authorities said, and things got much worse.

Police say Eisenberg went to the office Friday demanding to talk to Clinton about helping him get mental health care and ended up taking at least five people, including an infant, hostage. Night would fall before the last one walked free and the hostage-taker peacefully surrendered.

....

Authorities said a state police negotiator spoke to the hostages, and then to Eisenberg, eventually persuading him to give up. Shortly after 6 p.m., the suspect walked out of the storefront office, put down a package and was immediately surrounded by SWAT team officers with guns drawn. They put him on the ground and handcuffed him.

The package was not dynamite, but rather road flares duct-taped to Eisenburg's body that were made to look even more realistic by a separate detonator, said Col. Frederick Booth, commander of the New Hampshire State Police.

Clinton, in the Washington area during the day, traveled to New Hampshire Friday night to meet with the hostages, their families and police.

....

"He was someone that was not known to my campaign headquarters until he walked in the door today," Clinton said at a late-night news conference in Portsmouth. "It appears that he is someone who is in need of help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way."

Rochester police Chief David DuBois said Eisenberg was being held on state charges of kidnapping and reckless conduct, and that federal charges were being considered.

Eisenberg had a hostage call CNN three times and spoke to network staffers during the standoff, CNN reported after the ordeal was over and all the hostages were safe. Eisenberg said he wanted help getting psychiatric care, but had been turned away because he didn't have the money.

"I need to speak to Hillary Clinton," CNN quoted him as saying. "Something's got to change. Ordinary people need help" with their insurance.

The network described Eisenberg as "well-spoken, articulate and impassioned about his cause," but said he became increasingly agitated and laced his third phone call with profanities.

About two hours after Eisenberg let a woman with a baby go, at least one other woman escaped from the office; two other hostages made it out later, the last about half an hour before Eisenberg surrendered, police said.

Soon afterward, police maneuvered a robot to the road flares and triggered an explosion to destroy them.

Eisenberg had been scheduled to appear in Strafford County court with his wife for a domestic violence hearing, according to Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover.

Divorce papers filed Tuesday indicated he had been arrested and charged with criminal mischief, domestic related, and violating a protective order, the newspaper reported. In the papers, Eisenberg's wife said he abused drugs and alcohol and subjected her to severe verbal abuse and threats.

A man who said he was Mrs. Eisenberg's son declined comment Friday night.

Eisenberg also was arrested at least twice earlier this year, once for allegedly driving under the influence and once on two counts of stalking. The status of those cases was not immediately clear.

Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said a Leeland E. Eisenberg with the same 1961 birth date as the suspect was released from the state prison in Concord, Mass., in March 2005 when he completed his sentence. She would not give details about the nature of his offense or length of his sentence.

Eisenberg made local headlines in March when he held a news conference on the steps of Rochester City Hall to complain about a police policy of placing fliers in unlocked cars warning motorists to lock their doors.

"This is nothing more than a gimmick to get around the Constitution and go around in the middle of the night upon unsuspecting citizens in their own yard and search their vehicles," he said at the time.

Police, who said they were just trying to reduce theft from motor vehicles, changed the policy in response.

Maybe now people will realize there's more to worry about in the world then terrorists.

...
....

"He was someone that was not known to my campaign headquarters until he walked in the door today," Clinton said at a late-night news conference in Portsmouth. "It appears that he is someone who is in need of help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way."

...

So he's not a 'crazy right winger', but a 'crazy left winger'.

I like how Clinton handled this.

Wow.

So you think insurance is a "left wing" issue? You must have missed my Mike Huckabee YouTube clip then. He must have sounded like a crazed "left winger" to you, in that one then.

This is best discussed in that thread but wow, i'm amazed that you can say something like this when this is one of the big issues facing the country, both right and left today.

It just seems to me that partisans or even the people backing them up, seem to get locked into their ideology and rhetoric rather than their own best interests and the reality of the world around them.

I don't disagree.

I don't disagree.

However, with all due respect, Clinton could take a dump on your breakfast cereal and you'd say that you liked how she handled it, whereas if Rudy Guiliani or Fred Thompson had said the exact same thing as Hillary said here, you'd find a reason to attack it.

Wow.

You must have missed the part where it was obviously me just making fun of you for politicizing this event from the get-go. Maybe one day you'll take your head out of your idealogical ass and get a sense of humor.

Whatever dude.

your meaning was clear. Besides, the " I was only making a joke" fallback only works for Sammitch. Having someone else use it only cheapens it's effect.

Whatever dude.

your meaning was clear. Besides, the " I was only making a joke" fallback only works for Sammitch. Having someone else use it only cheapens it's effect.

Why bother saying "with all due respect"

I don't disagree.

However, with all due respect, Clinton could take a dump on your breakfast cereal and you'd say that you liked how she handled it, whereas if Rudy Guiliani or Fred Thompson had said the exact same thing as Hillary said here, you'd find a reason to attack it.