Stalling for time My life as an FBI hostage negotiator

Formerly chief of the FBI's unit for hostage negotiation, Noesner interlinks principles for talking to cornered desperadoes with cases from his career. Some of those caught nationwide attention, such as the disastrous 1993 siege of religious zealots in Waco, Texas, and here Noesner tells his side of the story. In his discussion of less-well-known incidents, Noesner underlines his core belief that negotiation is more effective in peacefully resolving standoffs than law enforcement's method of tactical assault. Although professionals are the audience for that debate, true-crime readers have plenty to absorb in Noesner's accounts, which include several episodes of the husband-abducting-wife-and-kids scenario, a couple of prison riots, three 1990s showdowns between the law and beleaguered fanatics (the Branch Davidians, the Montana Freemen, and the Republic of Texas ), and a miscellany of terrorism and kidnapping incidents. Working his ideas into the narrative, Noesner reconstructs negotiating dialogue both as a critique of techniques, such as establishing rapport with a hostage taker, and as life-or-death drama. The latter, plus the inside-the-FBI tone, renders Noesner's recollections a guaranteed attraction in new-books displays.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist

Noesner, a former FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years, was the first person to run the bureau's Crisis Negotiation Unit. Looking back, he recalls some major standoffs along with his efforts to understand and interpret the behavior of hostage takers, sometimes finding negotiations thwarted by the actions of his own colleagues. The compelling centerpiece of the book is Noesner's analysis of "what went wrong at Waco" with the Branch Davidians when negotiation and tactical teams were working at cross purposes. After opening with a dramatic account of a man who abducted his estranged common-law wife and their son and was holding a gun to her head, Noesner describes his own "quintessentially American childhood," when he got the idea for his life's work from a segment about the FBI on The Mickey Mouse Club. Drawing on official reports, personal notes, memos, and memories of conversations, he writes with a simple style that nevertheless generates much suspense, recreating past events with a vivid intensity certain to fascinate true crime readers. (Sept. 21) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Longtime FBI hostage negotiator Noesner details his rise from mail clerk to the first chief of the agency's Crisis Negotiation Unit.The author's low point came in Waco, Texas. As one of the negotiators the FBI sent to coax David Koresh and the Branch Davidians out of their compound, Noesner and his team spent weeks trying to bring a peaceful end to the standoff. They continually bargained with the group and had the Davidians ready to leave the compounduntil Koresh had a vision from God. Unfortunately, at the time, FBI officials eschewed negotiation for force, something that Noesner had spent more than a decade trying to dissuade. It would take one tragedy (Waco), a few years and several congressional investigations before his tacticscalm, prolonged negotiationwould be vindicated and made the standard for law enforcement. The narrative chronicles how Noesner helped to define those tactics through a series of standoffsa prison riot in Ohio, a domestic kidnapping in Virginia, a standoff with secessionists in Texas. Each case had its own unique set of issues that Noesner and his team had to solve. The author effectively provides an intense, immersive narrative, making his real-life experiences read like episodes of a good cop drama. By the end of the book, readers will be impressed by the number of crucial moments in which Noesner has played a significant rolefrom the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985 to the Freeman militia standoff in Montana in 1996.Vicariously entertaining.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

CHAPTER ONE IT'S TIME TO DIE Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours. --Mark Twain There it was, hard and direct. "You going to shoot me when I come out?" Charlie said. "No," I responded. "That's not going to happen. You said you wouldn't hurt anyone. You said you'd drop off the pilot somewhere in the mountains. So there's no reason for anyone to get hurt." The logic of this formulation appeared to work for Charlie, perhaps because this was his only chance to go on living with Cheryl and their son, little Charlie. But what I knew that he didn't was that somewhere out in the fields surrounding us, FBI marksmen were poised, waiting to take his life. A large part of a negotiator's job is to establish trust, yet there are fundamental contradictions in that. In order to convince someone that despite all appearances to the contrary, everything will be okay, you have to project sincerity. You have to make him believe that what you are saying is honest and aboveboard. You have to address his primal need for safety and security by establishing a bond. And on rare occasions, you have to lie. "Have you ever been on a helicopter before?" I asked. "No," he said. "You'll enjoy it. The view over the mountains will be spectacular." Of course, I knew that he would never take that ride or experience that view. Once again, the contradiction: he was hearing what he wanted to hear. "Charlie," I said, "I need to ask you an important question." "What?" "The helicopter pilot is an old friend of mine. His name is Tom Kelly. I've known and worked with Tom for many years, so I need your absolute promise that you won't harm him in any way. If anything happens to Tom, I would never be able to live with myself." "I won't hurt him," Charlie said. About ten days before, Charlie Leaf had abducted his estranged former common-law wife, Cheryl Hart, and their young son from her parents' home in Connecticut. After a seven-year relationship, Charlie and Cheryl had separated two years ago. When Cheryl had finally left him, she said she saw him snap. She moved in with her parents, trying to get on with her life, but Charlie, like so many men in such situations, was not willing to let her go. The way he saw it, Cheryl and little Charlie were his possessions, and he wanted them back. Over the next two years he threatened her and physically abused her whenever he found her. He had once even abducted little Charlie for six months, and gave up the boy only when the police intervened. Cheryl had sought and obtained a restraining order a year ago. The next day, right before he had to go to court, Charlie came to kill her. It was on Friday, April 1, 1988, that Charlie cashed his paycheck and purchased a carbine rifle, sawing off the gunstock in order to conceal it. Then he drove to Cheryl's parents' house--they were away for the weekend--and pried open a door leading into the garage. He kicked in the door to Cheryl's bedroom with the rifle in his hand. He beat her and raped her before telling her to pack things for little Charlie. He told her that she could go or die. Fortunately, Cheryl had the instincts of a survivor. She remained calm and said she would come; she convinced Charlie that he didn't have to kill her. "We can go away," she said. "We can start a new life together with little Charlie." Cheryl had made it clear by now that she wanted no part of Charlie, yet he wanted so much to believe her that this gleam of hope obscured his judgment. He gave her a few moments to get the boy out of bed and to gather up some clothes. Then they took off in Charlie's car. Cheryl had no plan other than to try to stay alive. Charlie's plan, to the extent that he had one, was to avoid being caught. Both knew that Cheryl's parents would call the police the moment th Excerpted from Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Gary Noesner All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.