Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator Hardcover – September 21, 2010

I’m retired from law enforcement. I enjoyed this book and wish some of this had been around when I was working.Anyone with an interest in this type of stuff will definitely enjoy the read. It is well written and has no low spots. It also keeps moving forward.Highly recommended!

We have been watching the television series about the Waco disaster with the Branch Davidians. The focus FBI negotiator Gary Noesner is an inspiration in trying to improve the FBI's tactics. The Waco incident was a horrible loss of human life.

Gary Noesner's book, "Stalling for Time", is enjoyable to read from the shear excitement of the hostage negotiations that made headlines all over the world. However, the more powerful aspect of Gary's book is the humanity that was shown for individuals at the worst time in their lives. No matter what the outcome the Bureau should take pride in the fact they had working for them an individual that showed unusual Grace towards the subjects, the hostages, and the families of those involved in each incident he handled. There is no doubt there are those living today because of Gary's, and others on his team, dedication to life versus time and money.The take away from this book is not the excitement of hostage rescue or negotiations, but the trauma that each member of the negotiation, HRT team, and law enforcement dealt with then and most likely continue to deal with. Hopefully not lost in the excitement of the situations Gary wrote about, are the lessons that we should take away from each incident. The things people missed, that could have prevented a hostage situation, e.g. abnormal behaviors. Another very important factor gleaned from the book is the humility of making mistakes under pressure with great consequences. It was so evident in a new and emerging field that everyone had something to learn about working together, optimizing human talent, and foregiveness. Gary's honesty about what happened and who was involved should be seen by all, including those he mentioned, as a very valuable lesson to the rest of us on how to treat others when enduring difficult situations. What I gained from this book is a deeper sense of concern for life, a greater need for me to show Grace to others, to be a more active listner, to respect others and value their input, and to thank God that I do not have to live with what the men and women of the FBI negotiation teams, HRT teams, and the many law enforcement officers now carry in their memories. We owe a debt of gratitude for their service and dedication, mistakes or no mistakes, they always did their best, the last point to take from this book.Vic Vogel

I struggled with the stars on this one. It's a fantastic, overall read. Noesner, at face value, doesn't seem to pull any punches when it comes to failures and successes. At a deeper level, when I went over the documents related to some of these cases, it appears Noesner either failed to check back in on the final reports or purposefully omitted them.To take the most notable example, in the Waco incident, he comes to the end of the section, noting how he was certain Koresh was stalling and not writing the Seals. Except, when Ruth Riddle came out of the burning building, she carried a disk with the First Seal. Now, we could parse over the meaning of that, the validity of Koresh et. al. but Noesner clearly sidesteps and omits this, and actually directly contradicts this. At a deeper level, reading without emotion, it becomes clear Noesner struggles with his "government hero" need to deflect or explain away faults (and expressly makes notes when naming names, that he means no harm, which takes away the sting from the bite) and his "personally moral hero" in Noesner being a naturally wonderful human, who truly wants to improve the ability to save lives. This struggle comes out - likely subconsciously - when detailing events that could have been handled better.There are a few other places where there was "sin by omission".That said, it was also a fabulous read, generally documented well from Noesner's angle, and had great explanations in the negotiation strategies employed in various fields, contexts and situations around the world. Noesner does have the ability to read people fairly well, but there is a touch of feeling in situations where things went wrong, Noesner, himself, claims no fault and "should have listened to me". Noesner may well have had the best idea, but it can come across underdeveloped on WHY his strategy is the best. One scenario may explain it thoroughly, then another scenario with a different strategy is reduced to "just trust me I know best". I would clearly believe he does, but this is a book written for readers, so I'd like to have seen some of that explained more.

Interesting !Ever watched those TV police series and wondered how the authorities could mess it up so badly by ignoring the hostage negotiators and storming in full force. Hollywood can be dramatic indeed. When on the other hand you read Gary Noesner first hand experiences as FBI hostage negotiator you realize that Hollywood can be also pretty accurate.Reading Gary's experience as FBI hostage negotiator is like reading on the internal history of the FBI over 2 decades. And it is fascinating to read how the FBI evolved over time for the better - with the sad message that improvements often only happened after mistakes were made during certain standoff situations (Waco and others). His autobiographic view and his personal impact on the hostage negotiation approaches are clearly explained and illustrated by many well known hostage cases.Gary Noesner points out frequently in this work that just listening as a skill was often enough to allow hostage situations end for the best. Creating and allowing time to have a situation cool down first, followed up by listening does take time. The `stalling for time' strategy is certainly a powerful tool to apply in such high risk high pressure situations and these are nicely illustrated in this book by real events.The book reads very smoothly. Many high profile hostage situations are described in detail and especially if you want to read a book with a deeper look into the history of the FBI I would highly recommend this book. As a pure negotiation book I would suggest other books though such as `Negotiation Genius' and `Bargaining with the Devil'. Similar and also worthwhile to read is `Negotiate and Win' by Dominick J. Misino (as former NYPD Negotiator).PrefaceChapter 1: It's time to dieChapter 2: My startChapter 3: My first major siege (Amtrak Silver Star, 1982)Chapter 4: Trouble abroad (TWA Flight 847, 1985)Chapter 5: Crisis intervention: Listen and Learn (USS Yorktown)Chapter 6: From success to hubris (Talladega Federal Correctional Institution Alabama, 1991)Chapter 7: Negotiating with the sinful messiah (Waco, 1993)Chapter 8: Picking up the pieces (Southern Ohio Correctional Facility)Chapter 9: A hell of a siege (Justus Township, Montana)Chapter 10: Prepare the missiles (Davis Mountain Texas, 1997)Chapter 11: No shortage of challenges (Vieques Island, Puerto Rico 2000)Chapter 12: Being our best when others are at their worst (Washington sniper, 2002)Epilogue

I ordered this book after watching the Waco miniseries that covered one of the situations the author worked on as a negotiator.This book is fascinating - so many experiences, all told engagingly, with great warmth, humanity and humility. It is a great, engrossing read in its own right.While it is not intended to be an instructional textbook on negotiation, if you are studying the subject then it provides some great examples of how problems can be solved, but sewn into truly memorable case studies - so it is a great way to put meat on the bones of anything else you may be reading that you might perhaps be finding a little dry.A great book.

An interesting read, particularly with regard to Waco.

Gary gives a clear account of his role and how the use of Negotiators has developed. A good account of the relationship/trust between the Negotiator and the incident commander, and how the benefits of negotiation were (slowly) recognised by the wider FBI. His account of Waco seemed a little too simplistic, but helped to illustrate the FBI is an organisation that learns from its experiences.Some good, practical examples of negotiation principles being used to save lives. Very much a US standpoint, which can be quite different to other countries, particularly in terms of the use of fatal force.VERY good value and a recommended read for anyone with an interest in negotiation, Armed Policing and incident command.Worth reading alongside Cialdini "Influence".

This is normally the type of book that I am engrossed in...Sorry but I found this boring. Too many people names and facts to remember as opposed to just telling the stories