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My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator
Random House
October 2010
On Sale: September 21, 2010
240 pages ISBN: 1400067251 EAN: 9781400067251 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
An enraged man abducts his estranged wife and child, holes
up in a secluded mountain cabin, threatening to kill them
both. A right wing survivalist amasses a cache of weapons
and resists calls to surrender. A drug trafficker barricades
himself and his family in a railroad car, and begins
shooting. A cult leader in Waco, Texas faces the FBI in an
armed stand-off that leaves many dead in a fiery blaze. A
sniper, claiming to be God, terrorizes the DC metropolitan
area. For most of us, these are events we hear about on the
news. For Gary Noesner, head of the FBI’s groundbreaking
Crisis Negotiation Unit, it was just another day on the job. In Stalling for Time, Noesner takes readers on a
heart-pounding tour through many of the most famous hostage
crises of the past thirty years. Specially trained in
non-violent confrontation and communication techniques,
Noesner’s unit successfully defused many potentially
volatile standoffs, but perhaps their most hard-won victory
was earning the recognition and respect of their law
enforcement peers. Noesner pursued his dream of joining the FBI all the way to
Quantico, where he not only became a Special Agent, but
also—in the course of a distinguished thirty-year career—the
FBI’s Chief Negotiator. 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 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.
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