Somber in tone and menacing in content, the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope that they would be released by the end of the week.

(A) leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope that they would be
(B) leader of the terrorists holding the hostages sent a message that left little hope for their being
(C) leader of the terrorists holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope of the hostages being
(D) message sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope that the hostages would be
(E) message that was sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope for the hostages to be[/b]

Below is my take on each choice. Please share your thoughts on each answer choice. OA is D.

A) wordy b/c of the use of "who were holding" -- there more succinct phrases in other choices. Also, the phrase "sent a message leaving little hope" seems off. "leaving little hope" seems to be modifying "message" when in fact it should be a consequence of the message sent. Thus, the use of "that left little hope" would be preferrable.
b) This was my pick. It is concise. Some may raise an issue with the use of "their" pronoun, BUT, per Ron's guidelines, it is not okay to dismiss an answer choice solely based on an ambiguous pronoun reference when everything else is good
c) In my opinion, has the same problem with the use of modifier "leaving little hope" that seems to be modifying "message" when that is actually a consequence/result of the message
d) i dismissed b/c it is in passive voice. This is the OA. The only justification i can fathom is that...since the message sent left little hope...this would be preferable compared to phrase where "leader" was subject
e) unnecessarily wordy and in passive voice

Will appreciate prompt instructor feedback.