Clinton office hit by hostage drama

01/12/2007 22:08

By Dan Gorenstein

ROCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A man carrying fake explosives seized several hostages at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign office on Friday before surrendering peacefully to end a tense standoff.

After holding three people hostage for six hours, Leeland Eisenberg, 46, emerged from Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester in a white dress shirt and red tie with duct tape wound tightly around his waist over what he said was a bomb.

"It was for me and my campaign an especially tense and difficult day," the New York senator and former first lady told reporters in New Hampshire. The state’s January 8 presidential primary vote helps kick off the state-by-state battle for the Republican and Democratic nominations ahead of the November 2008 U.S. presidential election.

New Hampshire State Police Col. Frederick Booth said Eisenberg had strapped highway flares to his body, held a detonator that gave the appearance he was holding an improvised explosive device and demanded to speak with Clinton.

Clinton had offered to cooperate, Booth said, but police negotiators did not want her to talk with Eisenberg. Police said there was no bomb.

"It appears he was someone in need of help who sought attention in absolutely the wrong way," said Clinton, who flew from .....continued below

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Washington after the standoff to meet with the hostages, their families and local police.

Clinton, who cancelled a speaking date in Virginia immediately after news of the incident broke, said she would stick with earlier plans to campaign on Saturday in Iowa.

"It affected me not only because these were my staff members and volunteers but as a mother it was just a horrible sense of just bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger, everything at the same time," she said.

Rochester police chief David Dubois said there were initially four adults and one child in the campaign office but that Eisenberg immediately released a mother and young child when the standoff began about 12:15 p.m. (5:15 p.m. British time).

A female campaign volunteer escaped from the building about 2 1/2 hours later and was quickly escorted to safety. A second was released soon afterward.

A man who appeared to be in his 20s was led to safety after the arrest of Eisenberg, who faces kidnapping, reckless conduct and possible federal charges.

CALLS TO CNN

Eisenberg, a Somersworth, New Hampshire, resident who made news in March when he protested a police campaign to stop car theft that he said was unconstitutional, was arrested after unwrapping the tape from his waist, raising his hands in the air and kneeling on the ground.

Eisenberg made multiple calls to CNN through the afternoon and told staffers he had mental problems and could not get help, the network said.

The Rochester offices of Clinton’s top rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination -- Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards -- were evacuated along with nearby businesses. Schools locked their doors.

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