We Want To Negotiate The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages, and Ransom

Starting in late 2012, Westerners working in Syria -- journalists and aid workers -- began disappearing without a trace. A year later the world learned they had been taken hostage by the Islamic State. Throughout 2014, all the Europeans came home, first the Spanish, then the French, then an Italian, a German, and a Dane. In August, 2014 the Islamic State began executing the Americans -- including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, followed by the British hostages.

Joel Simon, who in nearly two decades at the Committee to Protect Journalists has worked on dozens of hostages cases, delves into the heated hostage policy debate. The Europeans paid millions of dollars to a terrorist group to free their hostages. The US and the UK refused to do so, arguing that any ransom would be used to fuel terrorism and would make the crime more attractive, increasing the risk to their citizens. We Want to Negotiate is an exploration of the ethical, legal, and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?

Read more and purchase the book [HERE]. 

Book Review: Held Hostage

(Review By Scott Tillema) I’ve found an exciting read for negotiators who enjoy learning from an experienced practitioner! Dennis Flynn, formerly of the Las Vegas PD, shares a collection of stories from his time as a police negotiator in his new book, Held Hostage.

• Check out the book on Amazon.com HERE

What I love: Dennis isn’t the usual war-story teller, he provides true instruction for those of us looking to learn about what happened, and more importantly, why. Also, he shares interesting experiences that many of us don’t have, and probably never will!

For example, chapter 4 engages readers about a jumper from the Stratosphere, a 109 floor hotel. Instead of a full SWAT call-out, only negotiators were deployed. That will get you thinking about the limits to your BATNA awfully quickly. Dennis shares the details of that negotiation, all the way down to what he was wearing and why.

He talks about forming a bond with the man in crisis. A bond. That’s the key word in crisis negotiation, and without it, we have no influence, which is a huge problem when you have no other real options. It’s no surprise a veteran negotiator in a major US police department can clearly identify this as his goal and discusses in depth how he works toward it.

The section concludes with a dedicated “lessons learned” section. With every tip, I think of how any of us could apply these suggestions to our own work. Its clear, important and actionable. Another piece I love here is the admission his team was naive to safety practices of high angle rescue. How many of us professionals willingly admit we don’t know everything? That’s refreshing and real for the reader because we’ve ALL been in a situation where we say - well here’s a new one!

This is only one of 10 different incidents presented to the reader in “Held Hostage”. The author includes photos from each of these situations to help readers visualize each story, and they also underscore how real these incidents are. It's an easy book to pick up when you have only a few minutes! For both the interested observer, and the trained professional, you’ll enjoy this book!

Check out the book [HERE]

Check out reviewer Scott Tillema's article on Principles of Negotiation [HERE] and his TEDx Talk [HERE]. 

Mental Health Emergencies: A Guide to Recognizing and Handling Mental Health Crises

(From Amazon.com)- Ready reference to mental and emotional health crises and concerns, providing overviews and expert guidance on more serious problems. Ideal for first-responders, teachers, counselors, and human resource professionals.

Developed from best-practices of psychiatry, psychology and mental health counseling, Mental Health Emergencies is a guide to providing much-needed care and support to the people in distress who most need help including self-injury, eating disorders, substance abuse, psychosis, and suicidal thoughts.

Mental Health Emergencies will help you provide exactly the right kind of support--where and when it's needed most.

Check it more and how to purchase different versions [HERE]. 

Emotions & Negotiation

“The worst time to craft a strategy to deal with strong negative emotions is while you are experiencing them.”

From Beyond Reason: Using Your Emotions As You Negotiate - I highly recommend this book. 

Find it at Amazon.com [HERE].

New Melle Native Writes Book on Crisis Negotiations

Patrick Doering is a police Lieutenant with the Lake St. Louis Police Department and a skilled hostage/crisis negotiator. He recently published his first book: Crisis Cops — The evolution of hostage negotiations in America.

Patrick started his law enforcement career in Lake St. Louis about 20 years ago. As a new officer, he often looked for new and interesting training classes to attend, and soon decided he wanted to find a “niche” in which he could develop some specific area of expertise. One day he saw a flyer for a class called “Initial Response to Hostage/Crisis Situations.” He didn’t think the likelihood of ever being involved in such a situation was very high, but the class sounded “cool” so he signed up.

Read more from Boone County Connection [HERE].

Read more about the book and purchase it from Amazon [HERE]. 

Crisis Cops: The Evolution of Hostage Negotiations in America

(From Amazon.com)- Hostage/Crisis negotiations is one of the most demanding and stressful jobs in law enforcement. Crisis Cops will put you into the action, whether it be a bridge jumper, hostage taker or suicidal subject. 

These are the origin stories from the early beginnings of Hostage/Crisis negotiations throughout the country. From New York to Los Angeles you will see how Hostage/Crisis negotiation evolved into the art form that it is today. some of these stories may make you laugh, cry or sweat bullets. 

This isn’t what you see on television, these are real stories, from real negotiators who have saved hundreds of lives throughout their careers. You will hear how their teams got started, what hurdles they had to overcome and most importantly you will hear stories from the negotiators that were there in the moment.

Read more and purchase the book by Patrick Doering [HERE]. 

In This Corner: Never Split The Difference

In This Corner 
By Lynne Kinnucan

“I was intimidated.

“I’d spent more than two decades in the FBI, including fifteen years negotiating hostage situations from New York to the Philippines and the Middle East and I was on top of my game.  At any given time, there are ten thousand FBI agents in the Bureau, but only one lead international kidnapping negotiator.  That was me.

“But I’d never experienced a hostage situation so tense, so personal.

           

‘We’ve got your son, Voss.  Give us one million dollars or he dies.’”

Crisis Negotiations, Fifth Edition: Managing Critical Incidents and Hostage Situations in Law Enforcement and Corrections [Paperback]

The fifth edition of this seminal book is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. and comes out October 15.

Description:

The 5th Edition of this classic text presents a user-friendly resource for practicing negotiators and a ready reference for courses in crisis management in criminal justice, psychology, and criminology programs. The new edition has added summary bullet points for easy reference when negotiators are in the field, a review of the literature since the last edition appeared, a discussion of the strategic planning process involved in high-risk negotiation incidents focused clearly on the critical questions negotiators need to ask themselves about a high-risk incident, and a practical applied-psychology approach to personalities that engage in high-risk incidents.

Journalist recalls her kidnapping, torture, rape; yet forgives Jihadist captors

Amanda Lindhout in Somalia
Photo credit: Canadian Press

Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout has written a book about her traumatic 15 months in captivity, and the torture she endured at the hands of a gang of Muslim teenagers in Somalia in 2008.