Sept. 23, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'Stalling for Time' Delivers Hard-Hitting Message About Hostage Negotiators and How They Work
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
If all you know about hostage negotiators and how they do their very complicated jobs comes from movies like "The Negotiator" and "Proof of Life" you don't know jack, says former FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner, author of "Stalling for Time: My Life As An FBI Hostage Negotiator" (Random House, 240 pages, $26.00).
In a telephone interview from his Virginia home, Noesner (pronounced Nessner) said "The Negotiator" (1998), starring Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson, showed a lone-wolf Chicago hostage negotiator (Spacey) trying to get police officer Jackson to release his hostages.
"In a real-life situation, the Spacey character would be working with a team, passing him notes and information while he attempts to maneuver a non-violent release of the hostages and the surrender of the hostage-taker," Noesner said. "In "Proof of Life" (2000) with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan, it's ridiculous for the Crowe character -- the hostage negotiator -- to have an affair with the Meg Ryan character, who's the wife of a man held hostage by insurgents in a South American country."
Noesner added that he has little respect for crime shows on television: "'NCIS' is totally bogus, since there has never been an incident with the agency where they've fired guns; most of the time they're investigating drug smuggling by Naval personnel. Don't even ask me about "CSI"! The only show I can think of that's even close to reality is 'Hill Street Blues.'"
Since he retired from the FBI in 2003, Noesner has worked with Control Risks, the London-based company that worked for the release of the hostage situation portrayed fictionally in "Proof of Life." He retired from the FBI after 30 years of service, believing he had accomplished his goal of making hostage negotiation a serious priority with the Bureau -- and needing to earn the income in the private sector to put his three children through college.
Noesner's account of his experience as a negotiator who was the first chief of the FBI's groundbreaking Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) reads like a crime thriller, with its accounts of individuals and groups holding hostages and threatening to kill them.
He opens the book with the saga of Charlie Leaf, who abducted his former wife and child, also named Charlie, and holed up in a cabin in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, not far from Noesner's then home in Northern Virginia. Sometimes -- very rarely -- the only option is to target the hostage taker and that was the case in the Charlie Leaf stand-off in Sperryville, VA, Noesner says. All too often, he writes, the end-game of the Leaf incident is the only option considered by law enforcement: "to use the old quote, 'to a hammer, everything is a nail.'"
Noesner faults several of his FBI colleagues in the handling of the 1993 Branch Davidian situation near Waco, Texas. Using non-violent confrontation and communication techniques, Noesner's team -- and he emphasizes the teamwork aspect -- managed to secure the release of 35 hostages from David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound before his colleagues -- and he identifies them by name -- abandoned the non-violent approach and went in with guns blazing. More than 70 people were killed as a result of this failure to "stall for time" the way Noesner wanted it.
In another Texas stand-off described in the book, the 1997 Republic of Texas (ROT) incident in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, Noesner meshed well with the FBI agents and Texas Rangers and secured a non-violent resolution to the hostage situation. It may or may not be a coincidence, but as a kid in Atlantic Beach, Florida, near Jacksonville, "The Lone Ranger" was his favorite TV program. After he graduated from Florida Southern College in the spring of 1972, he met with an FBI recruiter in Jacksonville. The G-Man advised him to apply for a clerical position with the Bureau, which he did. In 1976, Noesner received a letter appointing him to the FBI Academy at Quantico, VA. During his three and a half years as a clerk, Noesner met his future wife, Carol Drolsbaugh.
Gaining respect for the fledgling art of crisis negotiation in the hard-boiled culture of the Bureau, where the shadow of J. Edgar Hoover still loomed large, was an uphill battle, educating FBI and law enforcement leaders on the job at an incident, and advocating the use of psychology rather than force whenever possible. Noesner’s many bloodless victories rarely garnered as much media attention as the notorious incident management blunders like the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco and the Ruby Ridge tragedy.
Noesner wasn't involved in Ruby Ridge, but he devotes a lengthy chapter "A Hell of a Siege" (Chapter 9) to the Montana Freemen 81-day 1996 siege outside the town of Jordan, Montana, in which he was involved as the negotiator. Following his procedures, and keeping in daily contact with FBI Director Louis Freeh, the siege ended without the bloodshed of Waco and Ruby Ridge.
His final case before his retirement was the 2002 D.C. Sniper case, which included sniper attacks on men, women and children at businesses in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. It was too close to home for Noesner because one of the victims was shot at the Exxon gas station in Fredricksburg, VA where his daughter Katie, then 20, regularly bought her gas. Katie was attending Mary Washington College in Fredricksburg, about 50 miles south of D.C.
Noesner offers a candid as well as fascinating look back at his years as a rebel in the ranks and a pioneer on the front lines. Whether vividly recounting showdowns with the radical Republic of Texas militia, the terrorist hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and self-styled messiah David Koresh, or clashes with colleagues and superiors that expose the internal politics and power-plays of America’s premier law enforcement agency, Stalling for Time crackles with breathtaking suspense and insight in equal measure. Case by case, minute by minute, it’s a behind the scenes view of a visionary crime-fighter in action.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Noesner retired from the FBI in 2003 following a 30 year career as an investigator, instructor, and negotiator. A significant focus of his career was directed toward investigating Middle East hijackings in which American citizens were victimized.
In addition, he was an FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years of his career, spending the last ten years as the Chief Negotiator for the FBI. He retired as the Chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, Critical Incident Response Group, the first person to hold that position. In that capacity he was heavily involved in numerous hostage, barricade, and suicide incidents; covering prison riots, right-wing militia standoffs, religious zealot sieges, terrorist embassy takeovers, airplane hijackings, and over 120 overseas kidnapping cases involving American citizens. Following his retirement from the FBI he became a Senior Vice President with Control Risks, an international risk consultancy, and most recently spent five and a half years working a kidnap case involving three American defense contractors taken hostage by the FARC in Colombia, South America. He continues to do kidnap management consulting work for Control Risks part-time.
Publisher's Website: www.atrandom.com
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BOOK REVIEW: 'Stalling for Time' Delivers Hard-Hitting Message About Hostage Negotiators and How They Work
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
If all you know about hostage negotiators and how they do their very complicated jobs comes from movies like "The Negotiator" and "Proof of Life" you don't know jack, says former FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner, author of "Stalling for Time: My Life As An FBI Hostage Negotiator" (Random House, 240 pages, $26.00).
In a telephone interview from his Virginia home, Noesner (pronounced Nessner) said "The Negotiator" (1998), starring Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson, showed a lone-wolf Chicago hostage negotiator (Spacey) trying to get police officer Jackson to release his hostages.
"In a real-life situation, the Spacey character would be working with a team, passing him notes and information while he attempts to maneuver a non-violent release of the hostages and the surrender of the hostage-taker," Noesner said. "In "Proof of Life" (2000) with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan, it's ridiculous for the Crowe character -- the hostage negotiator -- to have an affair with the Meg Ryan character, who's the wife of a man held hostage by insurgents in a South American country."
Noesner added that he has little respect for crime shows on television: "'NCIS' is totally bogus, since there has never been an incident with the agency where they've fired guns; most of the time they're investigating drug smuggling by Naval personnel. Don't even ask me about "CSI"! The only show I can think of that's even close to reality is 'Hill Street Blues.'"
Since he retired from the FBI in 2003, Noesner has worked with Control Risks, the London-based company that worked for the release of the hostage situation portrayed fictionally in "Proof of Life." He retired from the FBI after 30 years of service, believing he had accomplished his goal of making hostage negotiation a serious priority with the Bureau -- and needing to earn the income in the private sector to put his three children through college.
Noesner's account of his experience as a negotiator who was the first chief of the FBI's groundbreaking Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) reads like a crime thriller, with its accounts of individuals and groups holding hostages and threatening to kill them.
He opens the book with the saga of Charlie Leaf, who abducted his former wife and child, also named Charlie, and holed up in a cabin in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, not far from Noesner's then home in Northern Virginia. Sometimes -- very rarely -- the only option is to target the hostage taker and that was the case in the Charlie Leaf stand-off in Sperryville, VA, Noesner says. All too often, he writes, the end-game of the Leaf incident is the only option considered by law enforcement: "to use the old quote, 'to a hammer, everything is a nail.'"
Noesner faults several of his FBI colleagues in the handling of the 1993 Branch Davidian situation near Waco, Texas. Using non-violent confrontation and communication techniques, Noesner's team -- and he emphasizes the teamwork aspect -- managed to secure the release of 35 hostages from David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound before his colleagues -- and he identifies them by name -- abandoned the non-violent approach and went in with guns blazing. More than 70 people were killed as a result of this failure to "stall for time" the way Noesner wanted it.
In another Texas stand-off described in the book, the 1997 Republic of Texas (ROT) incident in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, Noesner meshed well with the FBI agents and Texas Rangers and secured a non-violent resolution to the hostage situation. It may or may not be a coincidence, but as a kid in Atlantic Beach, Florida, near Jacksonville, "The Lone Ranger" was his favorite TV program. After he graduated from Florida Southern College in the spring of 1972, he met with an FBI recruiter in Jacksonville. The G-Man advised him to apply for a clerical position with the Bureau, which he did. In 1976, Noesner received a letter appointing him to the FBI Academy at Quantico, VA. During his three and a half years as a clerk, Noesner met his future wife, Carol Drolsbaugh.
Gaining respect for the fledgling art of crisis negotiation in the hard-boiled culture of the Bureau, where the shadow of J. Edgar Hoover still loomed large, was an uphill battle, educating FBI and law enforcement leaders on the job at an incident, and advocating the use of psychology rather than force whenever possible. Noesner’s many bloodless victories rarely garnered as much media attention as the notorious incident management blunders like the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco and the Ruby Ridge tragedy.
Noesner wasn't involved in Ruby Ridge, but he devotes a lengthy chapter "A Hell of a Siege" (Chapter 9) to the Montana Freemen 81-day 1996 siege outside the town of Jordan, Montana, in which he was involved as the negotiator. Following his procedures, and keeping in daily contact with FBI Director Louis Freeh, the siege ended without the bloodshed of Waco and Ruby Ridge.
His final case before his retirement was the 2002 D.C. Sniper case, which included sniper attacks on men, women and children at businesses in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. It was too close to home for Noesner because one of the victims was shot at the Exxon gas station in Fredricksburg, VA where his daughter Katie, then 20, regularly bought her gas. Katie was attending Mary Washington College in Fredricksburg, about 50 miles south of D.C.
Noesner offers a candid as well as fascinating look back at his years as a rebel in the ranks and a pioneer on the front lines. Whether vividly recounting showdowns with the radical Republic of Texas militia, the terrorist hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and self-styled messiah David Koresh, or clashes with colleagues and superiors that expose the internal politics and power-plays of America’s premier law enforcement agency, Stalling for Time crackles with breathtaking suspense and insight in equal measure. Case by case, minute by minute, it’s a behind the scenes view of a visionary crime-fighter in action.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Noesner retired from the FBI in 2003 following a 30 year career as an investigator, instructor, and negotiator. A significant focus of his career was directed toward investigating Middle East hijackings in which American citizens were victimized.
In addition, he was an FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years of his career, spending the last ten years as the Chief Negotiator for the FBI. He retired as the Chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, Critical Incident Response Group, the first person to hold that position. In that capacity he was heavily involved in numerous hostage, barricade, and suicide incidents; covering prison riots, right-wing militia standoffs, religious zealot sieges, terrorist embassy takeovers, airplane hijackings, and over 120 overseas kidnapping cases involving American citizens. Following his retirement from the FBI he became a Senior Vice President with Control Risks, an international risk consultancy, and most recently spent five and a half years working a kidnap case involving three American defense contractors taken hostage by the FARC in Colombia, South America. He continues to do kidnap management consulting work for Control Risks part-time.
Publisher's Website: www.atrandom.com
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