http://www.timesunion.com

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Police: Suspect is holding hostages in Clinton campaign office in Rochester, N.H.  
  
By BEVERLEY WANG, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:02 p.m., Friday, November 30, 2007

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A man claiming to have a bomb walked into a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign office Friday and took at least two hostages, police and witnesses said. Clinton was not in the state at the time.
  
"We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction," Clinton said in a statement. "We will release additional details as appropriate."

The man ordered the hostages onto the floor and then released a mother and her baby, said State Police Maj. Michael Hambrook. Two campaign volunteers were still being held, said Bill Shaheen, a top state campaign official.

Witness Lettie Tzizik told television station WMUR of Manchester that she spoke to the woman shortly after she was released and that she was crying, holding the infant.

"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," Tzizik said.

Clinton was scheduled to give an address at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Va., Friday afternoon, but DNC Chairman Howard Dean announced from the podium that Clinton would not speak.

Authorities were sending a tactical bomb unit to assist local police, and the area was evacuated, Hambrook said. Authorities were trying to negotiate with the suspect, he said. A nearby school was in lockdown.

The small Clinton office is located in the New England community's downtown area in a strip of several storefronts, and has large glass windows with a campaign sign out front. Police with guns drawn crouched behind cruisers across the street from the office.

Workers for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign office also evacuated, a campaign spokesman said. The office is four doors away from Clinton's. Staffers in John Edwards' office, a few buildings away, evacuated as well.

This guy must not be  registered to vote or very intellegent or both. Cause if he were, he would know that NOT VOTING for Hillary is the way to get rid of her. So now he has a bomb strapped to himself and if he follows through he will actually 'kill himself' over Hillary! IDIOT!! He should use his anti-Hillary passion and get out there and campaign against her....not blow himself up...for Pete's sake! DIMWIT!

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Tense standoff
Hostage-taker surrenders
Man demanded to speak with Sen. Clinton
BY BEVERLEY WANG The Associated Press

   ROCHESTER, N.H. — A distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign office Friday and demanded to speak to the candidate during a hostage drama that dragged on for nearly six hours before he peacefully surrendered.
   Shortly after releasing the last of at least four hostages unharmed, 47-year-old Leeland Eisenberg walked out of the storefront office, put down a homemade bomb-like package and was immediately surrounded by a SWAT team with guns drawn. Clad in gray slacks, a white dress shirt and a red tie, he was put on the ground and handcuffed.
   Clinton was in the Washington area the whole time, but the confrontation brought her campaign to a standstill just five weeks before the New Hampshire primary, one of the first tests of the presidential campaign season. She canceled all appearances, as did her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the security around her was increased as a precaution.
   “Everything stopped, and it had to because we had nothing on our minds except the safety of these young people who work for me,” Clinton told reporters shortly after the standoff ended. She said she was “just relieved to have this situation end so peacefully,” and that she was headed to New Hampshire to thank law enforcement officials.
   According to police, the drama began shortly before 1 p.m., when the man walked into the office and peeled back his jacket to reveal what appeared to be a bomb duct-taped to his chest.
   He took several hostages, but let a woman with an infant go immediately. At least one other woman got out about two hours later.
   Seconds before he surrendered, shortly after 6 p.m., the last hostage walked from the office. The hostage then ran down the street toward the police roadblocks surrounding Clinton’s office.
   Not long after the surrender, police maneuvered a robot to the hostage-taker’s package and triggered an explosion to destroy it.
   Witness Lettie Tzizik told television station WMUR of Manchester that she spoke to the woman who was released first and that she was crying, holding the infant.
   “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,’ ” Tzizik said.
   Heavily armed SWAT team members, protecting themselves with shields, called to the man over bullhorns and attempted to hand a phone into the office.
   CNN reported after Eisenberg surrendered that a woman had called the network from the offi ce and put Eisenberg on the phone. He told CNN he had mental problems and couldn’t get anyone to help him, and called the network several times during the standoff.
   CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said the network called police after hearing from Eisenberg, but did not air those details until Eisenberg surrendered out of concern for the hostages’ safety.
   A law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press earlier that the suspect’s name was Leeland Eisenberg, and was known around the town to be mentally unstable. The official declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
   The official said the man walked into the campaign office and opened his jacket, revealing what appeared to be a pipe bomb, and that he demanded to speak with Clinton. Authorities did not know what Eisenberg wanted to talk to Clinton about.
   They believe the device strapped to the man’s chest was made with road flares, not a bomb, the offi cial said.
   The office, in a town of 30,000, is one of many Clinton has around New Hampshire. The campaign said the people taken hostage were volunteers for the campaign.
   Eisenberg walked into the office about a half-hour before he was scheduled to appear in Strafford County court with his wife for a domestic violence hearing, according to Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover.

CRAIG OSBORNE/FOSTER’S DAILY DEMOCRAT SWAT team members take up positions during a hostage and standoff situation at the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign office in Rochester, N.H., on Friday.

CRAIG OSBORNE/FOSTER’S DAILY DEMOCRAT SWAT team members take Leeland Eisenberg into custody after he surrendered outside Clinton’s campaign office.

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“Everything stopped, and it had to because we had nothing on our minds except the safety of these young people who work for me,” Clinton told reporters shortly after the standoff ended. She said she was “just relieved to have this situation end so peacefully,” and that she was headed to New Hampshire to thank law enforcement officials.

Always a podium stance with a political football to kick around.......

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A law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press earlier that the suspect’s name was Leeland Eisenberg, and was known around the town to be mentally unstable. The official declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
   The official said the man walked into the campaign office and opened his jacket, revealing what appeared to be a pipe bomb, and that he demanded to speak with Clinton. Authorities did not know what Eisenberg wanted to talk to Clinton about.

Maybe he is a friend of Scooter Libby??? I'm sure they know......