Campaign Hostage Drama; Sean Taylor Death: Four Arrests Made; World AIDS Day
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was someone that was not known to my campaign headquarters until he walked in the door today. Insofar as I'm aware, we had no contact with him.</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton talks about the man who held some of her New Hampshire staff hostage for hours. We have the latest on the troubled suspect. That's just minutes away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have more than one confession. I'll put it at that.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Four men are in jail suspected in the killing of NFL superstar Sean Taylor. They went before a judge this morning. We'll get a live report.</s>NGUYEN: And are you planning to fly out west? You better check your flight right now because dozens are being canceled as a blizzard warning has many states in emergency mode.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not growing up seeing our friends die of HIV like they did in the '80s and '90s. So people don't really feel like they are being affected by it.</s>HOLMES: And this is World AIDS Day. While much of the attention is on Africa, we're shining the spotlight on young Americans, many of whom don't think they are at risk. Good morning to you all. It's Saturday, December 1st. I'm T.J. Holmes. Good morning to you, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: Good morning, T.J. And I'm Betty Nguyen, from the CNN Center here in Atlanta, where it is 10:00 a.m., 9:00 in Minneapolis, where a blizzard just might be brewing. Hey, T.J., we're going to be checking in with you shortly, as well as throughout the show, there standing in front of that AIDS quilt. What a remarkable site. We'll be talking with you very shortly. But in the meantime, let's start with Jim Acosta, who has been in Rochester, New Hampshire, since last night. He has the latest on the hostage situation at Hillary Clinton's state campaign headquarters. Jim, bring us up to speed on how it all went down.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Betty. Well, luckily, this all went down peacefully. We are standing outside of Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire, where the office is dark. It's closed this morning. And that is just as well, because the campaign in Iowa today, the campaign is basically saying that they want to appear to not be politicizing this event. They want to be careful that they don't do that. So today, for this campaign staff here in Rochester, it's a day to take a collective sigh of relief.</s>ACOSTA (voice over): Wearing a fake bomb that was nothing more than road flares duct-taped to his chest, Leeland Eisenberg surrendered to police, ending a tense hostage crisis that brought the race for the White House to a standstill. For more than five hours, Eisenberg, a 46-year-old with a history of mental illness, was holed up inside this Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, threatening to blow up a handful of staffers, a child and himself. At one point during the crisis, Eisenberg called CNN complaining that he had been unable to speak treatment for his illness and added that he had gone to that campaign office to speak with the candidate directly. But police say involving the presidential hopeful was not an option.</s>CHIEF DAVID DUBOIS, ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, POLICE: We decided not to introduce anyone from the campaign or the senator's office into the negotiation process.</s>ACOSTA: Eventually, the hostages were released. The fake bomb was destroyed by police. And late in the evening, Senator Clinton flew to New Hampshire for a brief visit with the then released hostages and their families.</s>CLINTON: Good evening. We are immensely relieved that this has ended peacefully. To see the people who were directly held hostage and their families and to thank the New Hampshire professionals who made this day turn out as well as it did...</s>ACOSTA: Over at Eisenberg's mobile home community a few miles away, neighbors say they saw early warning signs of trouble ranging from alcohol abuse to loud arguments at the suspect's home.</s>GEORGE ISAACSON, NEIGHBOR: He would walk over to the filling station right up the street every day and always get either a 12-pack or something like that. This is every day.</s>ERIC CARLSON, NEIGHBOR: They hauled him away for domestic violence, yes. I don't know what happened. I was coming in from work and they were hauling him in the cruiser.</s>ACOSTA: On Eisenberg's front door, a note from his family saying they have no comment for now.</s>ACOSTA: As for Leeland Eisenberg, he is behind bars in jail this morning. He has a court appearance scheduled for Monday at 1:00 here in Rochester. And as one neighbor put it yesterday, they see all of this as a desperate cry for help -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: No doubt. All right, Jim. Thank you for that. Well, in other news, four young men facing a judge at a Ft. Myers, Florida, court today dealing with the death of football star Sean Taylor. The proceedings ended about 30 minutes ago. And our John Zarrella is following the developments from Ft. Myers. He just left the courtroom. Want to talk about what exactly happened today -- John.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, here at the justice center in Lee County, it's a terrible, terrible, tough day for the families, the relatives of these four individuals. Now, only three of them had their first appearance here today. Jason Mitchell was processed too late, they said, for him to make an appearance today. His first appearance will likely be tomorrow. All of these four men will, at some point in the very near future now, be transported to Miami where they will again face a first appearance, of course, because the charges are Miami charges that they face. And listen to this, Betty. A 17-year-old is one of them, as we know. Eric Rivera. These are the charges that he is faced with now as of this morning. He's faced with felony first-degree murder. He's faced with burglary with a firearm. And he is faced with home invasion robbery while armed. Now, according to the affidavit and according to police, he confessed to driving to Miami to participate in an armed burglary. Now, his attorney, after this was all said and done today, said that he is not quite clear how that confession was obtained by police. He has not had an opportunity to talk to his client yet. He was going to go do that this afternoon. But clearly he said this is just a very, very sad day for the 17- year-old, as well as the family of the 17-year-old. And before this, his client had only had one minor run-in with the law. Well, this, by no stretch of the imagination, is minor. Now, the other two defendants, Venjah Hunte and Charles Wardlow, they appeared by videophone from the jail, and they also face the exact same charges at this point in time. They, too, will be transported also at some point in the very near future to Miami. The juvenile, the 17-year-old, his transport time, his attorney said, maybe not before Monday. But again, very serious charges. First-degree murder -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: No doubt. Especially we've got a football star who is no longer alive because of all of this. All right, John. Thank you for that. Let's take you to Aruba now. Two brothers rearrested in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, they will be released this afternoon. A judge yesterday denied prosecutors' requests to keep them in jail, saying the evidence wasn't strong enough. A third suspect does remain behind bars. The Alabama teen, as you remember, vanished two years ago while on a graduation trip. All right. We have some severe weather to tell you about today. The Des Moines International Airport is closed. A United Airlines flight has gone off the runway because of ice. Roy Criss, a public information officer, joins us by phone. Give us just a look at the situation there on the ground. What caused you to shut this down? Are you facing blizzard-like conditions?</s>ROY CRISS, DES MOINES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: It's not blizzard- like conditions, Betty, right now. It's just ice on the taxiways. Actually, the runways were OK, but the taxiways were iced over and the planes could not get to the runway.</s>NGUYEN: This is going to be a bit of a problem, especially there in Iowa, as you've got candidates wanting to come in today and do their campaign stumping. How long is the airport going to be closed?</s>CRISS: Well, the original estimate is four to six hours here locally, but, obviously, as the system takes over the whole Midwest, there's going to be a ripple effect that will back up. So we're probably going to be affected throughout the whole day.</s>NGUYEN: Really? OK. And then this United Airlines flight that pretty much kind of ran off the taxi because of ice, are there any injuries or any damage because of that?</s>CRISS: No injuries. All the folks have been shuttle-bused back to the terminal, being taken care of. And just waiting now for United to determine how they want to handle moving the plane.</s>NGUYEN: Now, did all this ice and the snowy conditions, did it happen very suddenly? Were you surprised by it? Is that why the airport wasn't prepared?</s>CRISS: No. We actually -- we had known it was coming for the last day or two. It's been forecast. It's just that I think that probably when it hit, it hit a little bit quicker and a little bit earlier. Again, the airport did a really fine job in having the runways ready. It's just that it overtook portions of the taxiways leading to the runways much quicker than they anticipated.</s>NGUYEN: Yes. When that stuff comes down it can come down pretty fast. So you're thinking this is going to back things up throughout most of the day. And you don't expect to be open until maybe later this evening?</s>CRISS: It looks like at least mid-afternoon. This was about 8:30 Central Time, four to six hours. We can do the math. That puts it in the middle of the afternoon at the very early.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Roy Criss joining us by phone with the Des Moines International Airport there in Iowa, which is shut down at this hour. But as you heard him say, hopefully by this afternoon they can get that back up and running.</s>NGUYEN: Take a look at this. Pictures a little bit earlier of the World AIDS Day concert under way right now in Johannesburg, South Africa. The day-long event started a few hours ago. This is the fifth year. Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, the Goo Goo Dolls, Ludacris, those are just some of the artists performing today. And we'll be talking with some of them throughout the morning, so you'll want to stay here for that. But in the meantime, my partner T.J. Holmes is at the site here in Atlanta where the AIDS memorial quilt is stored. And it's part of our coverage of World AIDS Day that you'll see only on CNN. Boy, that quilt is huge, T.J. It really just is a sign of how enormous this epidemic is.</s>HOLMES: It's enormous. And can you believe it's been the 20- year anniversary now? This quilt has been around 20 years. And again, I'm at a warehouse just outside of downtown Atlanta where the quilt is kept now. And take a look at this. It's really hard to put it in perspective, but these panels, where it's kept, you see it here. All these panels like the one you see there with Marvin Feldman's name, that's actually the first panel ever made for someone who died of AIDS for this quilt. But all those panels now, we've got 47,000 of those. They are made into -- put into 12x12 blocks, and that's what you see here all stored in all of these shelves. This quilt is enormous. And it's hard for people to really understand what this quilt is. You are only looking at half of this quilt folded up right now in this warehouse. The rest of it is out on display at various locations around the country. But 47,000 panels just like that one you are seeing that says Marvin Feldman are sewn into those 12x12 blocks, and it makes up some 91,000 people who are honored in memoriam, who have died of AIDS. And again, it's been around for 20 years now. And this is where it's stored. It's really hard to put in perspective. So large that the quilt may never, may never be viewed and displayed and put together in one place again. The last time it happened was back in 1996, and the whole quilt laid out, took up the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C. And it has grown, of course, since then in 1996. So we may never find a location large enough to lay the quilt out again. But, of course, World AIDS Day that we have today, this quilt such a big part of it, has been a big part for so many years now. And, of course, it's part of raising the awareness. It's also part of education, the education so many young people need to have, young people, 18, 19, 20-plus years old who have not known a world without AIDS. So now, a big part of the message and a big part of what the AIDS quilt does is to get those young people interested and aware of this epidemic and what this -- a big part of what this quilt has been doing this weekend is traveling to college campuses. Take a look.</s>HOLMES (voice over): Universally known as a symbol of both national and personal grief, the 54-ton quilt over the past 20 years has become part of the fabric that makes up America.</s>JULIE RHOAD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NAMES PROJECT: Being designated as an American treasure puts us in the league with very significant material culture collections and buildings and artifacts, and will stand as testimony to our value in telling America's history.</s>DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: How much love has gone into each one of these panels? And what it really means in terms of the human beings that have suffered from this disease and left behind so many families and loved ones.</s>HOLMES: That history began with the quilt's first panel for an AIDS victim from San Francisco in 1987. The AIDS memorial quilt now has about 47,000 memorial panels and represents the lives of more than 90,000 people who have died from the disease that afflicts millions worldwide.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kay Haring (ph), Brian P. (ph)...</s>HOLMES: Four hundred large sections of the quilt will be on display from coast to coast this month at churches, museums, and even the CNN Center. More than 100 displays are traveling to college campuses, where AIDS activists say greater awareness is needed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George M...</s>NINA MARTINEZ, EMORY UNIVERSITY STUDENT: And I am here at Emory just because you all have such great researchers in HIV. And I'm actually HIV positive.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, right now, we're not growing up seeing our friends die of HIV like they did in the '80s and '90s. So really, people don't feel like they are being affected by it, even though if you look at the statistics they are.</s>HOLMES: Those statistics, according to the Names Project, show that half of all new HIV cases in the United States involve people under the age of 25. Atlanta's Emory University is hosting the largest display of a section of the quilt on a college campus hoping it will serve as a powerful and important educational tool for students.</s>MARTINEZ: It's just part of just being a young person and believing nothing will ever happen to you. But I think when you walk around in that kind of state of denial, that's when it's mostly likely able to happen to you. I don't think we talk about denial as a risk factor for</s>HIV. HOLMES: But many college students have gotten the message and even make the HIV question a part of dating life.</s>TAHIRAH MUHAMMED, CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I would ask him, one, if first they ever, you know, even had sex. You know, how many partners they had, if they've ever been tested, things like that.</s>HOLMES: The quilt on the quad (ph) campaign hopes to make AIDS a part of college education.</s>HOLMES: So, Betty, it's really tough for some people to really realize how large this quilt is. It's not just one quilt that you just fold up and carry around. It's all of these 12x12 panels that have -- 12x12 blocks that have smaller panels dedicated to one person who has died -- who has died of AIDS. And they are kept here and stored here, shelves and rows and rows throughout this warehouse. So we're going to be talking to the person who is head of this project, the Names Project that maintains this quilt, coming up in a little while. But certainly a lot more to come this morning to educate people a little more about this quilt -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: And what a job on that person's hands to maintain all of those pieces of that enormous quilt that you showed us.</s>HOLMES: You wouldn't believe it.</s>NGUYEN: All right.</s>HOLMES: And just about eight people maintain this whole thing, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: Really? That's it?</s>HOLMES: Just about eight folks are working to do this. Yes, the staff keeps getting cut and they are tight on that money, but they are trying to maintain it the best they can.</s>NGUYEN: Well, you know, each one of those stands for a person's life. So it's important work that they do.</s>HOLMES: Yes.</s>NGUYEN: T.J., we'll be talking with you shortly. Thank you. There is a lot going on this morning. Developments in that hostage crisis at the Hillary Clinton campaign office there. And we want to tell you about this, the Sean Taylor case. Four suspects have had a hearing today, and we're going to update you on what happened during that hearing. Also, the daredevil of all stunts. We are remembering Evel Knievel.