Authorities were negotiating Wednesday with an armed man who has taken an unknown number of hostages, who might have an explosive or “metallic device” at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in
Most of the hundreds of employees, including children at an on-site daycare center, have been evacuated, police said. The station was airing its normal broadcast, and no injuries were reported. CNN said at least one of the unknown number of hostages was a security guard.
According to television accounts, hundreds of armed police and bomb-squad officers were seen descending on the building in suburban Washington, D.C.
Police identified the suspect as James Lee.
According to a Wednesday update on the savetheplanetprotest.com website believed run by Lee, the suspect demanded that the Discovery Channel broadcast its “commitment to save the planet.”
Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!
In February, 2008, Lee staged a sparsely attended protest outside the station. He was photographed carrying a placard: “Save the Planet Discovery Channel.” Aaron Morrissey, editor of DCist, told CNN that, at the time, the suspect was seen throwing money in the air.
From his website, and his postings on MySpace, Lee appears to be obsessed with the work of American writer Daniel Quinn, author of a trilogy of enviro-philosophy novels. Quinn’s 1992 Ishmael “uses a style of Socratic dialogue to deconstruct the notion that humans are the end product, the pinnacle of biological evolution,” according to Wikipedia. “It posits that human supremacy is a cultural myth, and asserts that modern civilization is enacting that myth.”
In a December 2006 post to a MySpace group, Lee described being deeply affected by the trilogy. “I have an idea on how to save the world,” he wrote. “I need people.”
I finished reading the Daniel Quinn books last month. It started off just as a recommendation from a girl who worked at a coffeehouse. After being blown away from his writings, I looked up and saw… nothing. No revolution, no people demanding change, no talk, no news, nothing. There should have been something, right? Nothing.
Then I had an idea of my own. A vision on how the world could be saved. I thought about it and thought about it and it made sense. It was possible. It not unusual but not so common. It was an idea.
So here I am trying to make that idea a reality. Here I am putting my every last cent into that idea. I believe it can be done and I am taking the first few steps to make that idea a reality. So strongly do I believe it can be done that I am putting up all my own personal money, my retirement money.
He did not describe his idea, but whois records show he likely registered savetheplanetprotest.com on January 7, 2008. He used he website to promote a protest he planned for February of that year outside the Discovery Channel headquarters, where he would demand the cable channel adapt its programming to broadcast Quinn’s vision for how to save the planet. A separate page on the website carries his detailed proposal for a reality game show called “Race to Save the Planet.”
Updated 15:58
Photo: Myspace
Authors: David Kravets