Hostages taken at Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters in Rochester, NH

[motivez]

Officials with the campaign confirmed that there were two workers taken hostage in the office on 28 North Main St.. A woman and her baby told workers at a neighboring business that she was released 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.

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.

"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.

"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."

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.

Man Takes Hostages At Clinton Campaign Office - New Hampshire News Story - WMUR Manchester

[motivez]

At least he let the woman and her child go.. situations like this are always worse when children are involved.

I wonder if this is because of her being seen as inevitable in so many circles.. I know there are some people out there who hate her with every fiber in their body..

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by motivez

At least he let the woman and her child go.. situations like this are always worse when children are involved.

I wonder if this is because of her being seen as inevitable in so many circles.. I know there are some people out there who hate her with every fiber in their body..

I think we need a roll call in here...

[RockPusher]

November 30, 2007, 2:02 pm Hostage Situation at Clinton Office in N.H.

By Jeff Zeleny

Updated | 2:25 p.m.
VIENNA, Va., — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has cancelled her appearance before the Democratic National Committee this afternoon as her campaign deals with reports of a hostage situation in one of her New Hampshire campaign offices.
As Democratic national chairman Howard Dean made the announcement in a hotel ballroom here, gasps were heard from the crowd of several hundred delegates and party officials.
“Details are sketchy at this time,” Mr. Dean said. “We will keep them in our prayers and hope for a resolution of this situation.”
Mrs. Clinton was scheduled to appear before the D.N.C. meeting this afternoon. Her rivals, Senator Barack Obama, former Senator John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson addressed the crowd this morning. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware is scheduled to speak this afternoon.
According to reports from WMUR-TV:

ROCHESTER, N.H. — An armed man has taken two campaign workers hostage at the Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, police said.
Officials with the campaign confirmed that there were two workers taken hostage in the office on 28 North Main St. A woman and her baby told workers at a neighboring business that she was released 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.
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.
“I walked out and I immediately started running, and I saw that the road was blocked off. They told me to run and keep going,” said Cassandra Hamilton, who works in an office adjacent to the building.
Nearby businesses have been evacuated.

Updates from the Union Leader
Ariel Alexovich and Patrick Healy contributed to this post.

[Simius]

Holy shit

[Donkey®]

BTW, it's only a matter of time before people here claim she planted that bomber.

Any more news on this? I hope everyone makes it out ok.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

BTW, it's only a matter of time before people here claim she planted that bomber.

Actually this reeks of nutjob out to get media attention.

Right-Wing Nut?

Left-Wing Nut?

Just Plain Nuts?


The only other thing I can think of is something personal with somebody who works at that office?

[JaJae]

Why do people assume it's Republicans doing this? Is there anything to show that this is the work of a politically motivated Republican?

I hope everyone is ok. I think the cheapshots in such a serious situation are a bit below the belt and premature at this point.

[David Octavius]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

Any more news on this? I hope everyone makes it out ok.

Three hostages freed at Clinton campaign office - CNN.com

According to this link a few more people were freed and there maybe only one person left inside (though not sure). If true that is a good sign, he is crazy but he is letting people go and hopefully will let this last person go without hurting him/her.

[David Octavius]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Why do people assume it's Republicans doing this? Is there anything to show that this is the work of a politically motivated Republican?

I hope everyone is ok. I think the cheapshots in such a serious situation are a bit below the belt and premature at this point.

Where did you get that assumption from? Not in this thread obviously

[JaJae]

Suspect Arrested: Leeland Eisenberg
Link

Didn't seem to have anything to do with the Clinton campaign. He was just making a political statement regarding mental health in the US. Go figure.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported that Mr. Eisenberg had been calling the cable network’s Washington bureau throughout the afternoon. Mr. Blitzer said that Mr. Eisenberg had been complaining about the mental health care system in the United States. Also, WMUR reported Mr. Eisenberg had been scheduled to appear in Strafford County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. today with his wife for a domestic violence hearing.

[motivez]

Glad to see this resolved peacefully..

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

Glad to see this resolved peacefully..

Hopefully this guy will go some place where he can't beat his wife or terrorize innocent people for a very long time. I'm glad nobody was hurt.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Hopefully this guy will go some place where he can't beat his wife or terrorize innocent people for a very long time. I'm glad nobody was hurt.

Afghanistan?

Oh, that's the opposite of what you said.

[JaJae]

Clinton: ‘Everything Stopped’
By Katharine Q. Seelye

With the hostage situation over, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared obviously relieved but poised and delivered a brief statement before flying to New Hampshire to be with her shaken campaign workers.

Standing outside her Washington home, Mrs. Clinton thanked her staff and law enforcement officials — everyone from local police to the F.B.I. and the Secret Service were involved — and smartly turned the focus to the hostages, their families and her campaign workers. She paid particular tribute to the young people who come to places like New Hampshire to work on campaigns, not just hers.

“Everything stopped,” she said of her day. “And it had to, because we had nothing on our minds except the safety of these young people.” She said she spent her time talking with the families of the hostages, which she said was the hardest part of her day.

Clinton: Everything Stopped - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

She handled this very well. I'm sure this is a nightmare for any campaign. I definitely hope nobody uses this as some form of political tool against her or drags her campaign down over this with political jokes on Fox or late night shows. I hope this event doesn't make her campaign any less off than it was beforehand.

[motivez]

There have already been people out there suggesting that Clinton staged the whole thing..

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

There have already been people out there suggesting that Clinton staged the whole thing..

Yea because there's some intrinsic benefit for her to stage this... Wackjobs. I kinda feel sorry for her here. This was some bad luck.

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by motivez

There have already been people out there suggesting that Clinton staged the whole thing..

I called it.

[JaJae]

Out of curiousity who suggested it was staged?