Gunman Shot and Killed After Hostage Standoff at Discovery Channel Building

Police block the street in front of the headquarters of the Discovery Channel networks building in Silver Spring, Md., Wednesday Sept. 1, 2010. Police say a gunman has taken at least one person hostage in the building. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

A man known for protesting the Discovery Channel's environmental programming stormed the network's Maryland headquarters carrying a handgun on Wednesday, holding three people hostage for hours until he was shot and killed by police, according to authorities.

The hostages -- two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard -- were unhurt after the four-hour standoff. Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said tactical officers moved in after officers monitoring the man on building security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage.

The gunman was identified by Discovery Communications as James Jay Lee of San Diego, Calif., a man well-known to the building's employees because of his history of protesting the network.

Manger said the gunman had been wearing "what appeared to be metallic canister devices" when he entered the building.

"The man told everyone to just stay still," Manger said.

A website registered to Lee criticized Discovery and announced plans for the protest in January 2008: "These guys have been very sneaky and deceptive as to their contribution to the planetary problems. Just look at their 'new' show about saving the planet, 'Planet Green,' to me, it's just another show about more PRODUCTS to make MONEY, not about actual solutions. We can't let them get away with doing it anymore."

Lee is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery building several weeks ago that called on the network to "broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet."

"All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions," the list of demands read.

"In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it."

Some witnesses reported that the man fired a shot before declaring, "Nobody is going anywhere," police said.

Employees at the Discovery Channel building were told to take cover in locked offices, according to local press accounts.

A company e-mail sent to employees reportedly said: "Don't Return to 1DP Until Further Notice...No employee should return to 1DP for any reason."

Manger said most of the 1,900 people who work in the building were able to get out safely while the hostage standoff was unfolding.

Witnesses from a building across the street told Fox News that authorities rushed four stretchers into the building.

Children at a day care center located inside the Discovery Building were reportedly safely evacuated to a nearby McDonald's restaurant. Some babies were wheeled out of the building while still in their cribs.

Police sources have reportedly said that Lee previously protested outside the building, where he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in February 2008, according to court records.

Police reports indicate he paid homeless people to join his protest and carry signs outside the building. He gave one individual $1,000 for what he considered a prize winning essay.

At one point, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered around Lee, who referred to money as "just trash" and began throwing fistfuls of it into the air.

At the trial, Lee reportedly said he began working to save the planet after being laid off from his job in San Diego. He said he was inspired by "Ishmael," a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

Thomas Leonard, Lee's brother-in-law, told Fox News that Lee became a "darker type of character" after some deaths in the family and said he believed Lee was capable of killing.

Leonard described Lee as "talented but misguided" and said his "spirit took a nose-dive" in recent months.

"He's been very hurtful to loved ones who have tried to help him over the years," Leonard said.

Discovery Communications LLC operates cable and satellite networks in the U.S. including The Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet. Discovery shows include "Cash Cab" and "Man vs. Wild," and TLC airs "American Chopper" and "Kate Plus Eight."

Animal Planet also airs the controversial series "Whale Wars," about attempts by environmentalists to disrupt the Japanese whaling industry.

Reference: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/01/maryland-police-respond-hostage-situation-man-gun-enters-building/

Humiliation of Humanity by Israil

Now a day, why human beings are being humiliated and insulted? Are we living in modern era of peace or cruelty and ignorance? If we look upon the ancient times we feel the human beings have been killed with cruelty and there was no concept of kindness and pittiness and affectionate. In these days we are practising same but slogan of day is "Freedom of Expression, Peace and Prosperity". But we are living so far away from these and I am observing that especially Muslims are mostly being hatred. Now a days a war is being fought against Muslims, war against Iraq and Afghanistan are examples.

Freedom Flotilla is a humanitarian assistance for the people of GAZA, Palestine. Turks and other more than 40 countries participated in this aid program for the Gaza which is surrounded by Israel and Gaza is isolated from the entire world. In the words of Hamid Mir (A Famous Pakistani Journalist), Gaza is the biggest jail of the world.

People of Gaza are being deprived from basic needs of life. In Freedom Flotilla Aid Program, Non-Muslim Countries also participated and cooperated for Palestinians. But unfortunately Zionists attacked the ship and killed 20 innocent, peaceful and unarmed people. And Israeli government officials are not ashamed on this action. They are feeling proud after killing 20 innocent but precious lives and 60 more were injured too. UN, OIC, Arab League, USA, UK and other nations of the world should take some diplomatic steps to stop such type of incidents in future.

Article Written By: Syed Baqir Hussain Naqvi

Contact: 0333-9824314

jaun_baqi@yahoo.com

Discovery Channel hostage situation: Gunman James J. Lee shot dead; hostages safe

Employees of Discovery Communications hadn’t heard much from James J. Lee in the last two years. For a brief spell in early 2008, Lee was a fixture outside the company’s Silver Spring headquarters, leading a bizarre protest aimed at forcing the television giant to alter its programming. When his week-long spectacle ended in an arrest for disorderly conduct, Lee headed to a courthouse in Montgomery County as his own lawyer and quietly slipped out of the company’s consciousness.

When the 43-year-old finally returned today around 1 p.m., Lee came with a gun in his hand, a possible explosive device strapped to his body, and a list of demands that made sense only to himself. He walked into the company’s lobby brandishing his gun, starting a four-hour standoff full of fear and negotiations, with co-workers and loved ones hanging desperately on every update from police.

Lee never moved beyond the company’s lobby. He immediately took three people hostage — two of them Discovery Channel staffers, the third a security guard. Once it became clear something was amiss, the 1,900 employees either hunkered down in their offices or headed to the building’s side exits and out into the streets.

The building went into lockdown, the Montgomery County police arrived on the scene and cordoned off the area, and Discovery managers sent out an e-mail: “URGENT: Employees Should Go Home - Don't Return to 1DP Until Further Notice. Employees at 1DP should go home for the remainder of the day. No employee should return to 1DP for any reason.” The roughly 100 children at Discovery Kids Place, the company’s day care center, were ushered by their teachers to a nearby McDonald’s.

Discovery staffers texted and e-mailed one another in a flurry of confusion. The situation was shocking and bizarre. There are plenty of government buildings around Washington to attract angry extremists, but who could hold a potentially violent grudge against Discovery?

“It took all of us by surprise,” says one employee, who was set to work at the office that evening. (Employees were instructed not to talk the press, which explains why staffers quoted in this story requested anonymity.) The company, she says, is quite good about keeping employees abreast of any controversy or demonstrations----like earlier this year, when some people protested against Discovery’s plans for a reality show featuring Sarah Palin. There’d been nothing of the sort in recent weeks.

But the situation made a little more sense when the press aired a loose description of the perpetrator. “When I came in to talk to one of my supervisors, we had the TV on,” says another employee who works in a separate building. “There was a crawl at the bottom of the screen saying the suspect had been identified as an Asian male. We said, ‘That’s got to be the guy who was protesting a couple of years ago.’ And an hour or so later they confirmed it.” The employee says he hadn’t seen or thought of Lee in more than two years.