Customer Reviews

Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Whenever I read a book about specialized police or military force staff like this HRT person, undercover agents, Special Forces etc. I am always prepared for a large helping of ego and bravado mixed into the story. I just expect that if these guys are brave enough to perform these very dangerous tasks then they must have to have a very healthy self-image. With that said, I did not find the same ego in this authors writing. He presented himself as a very professional, business like person that just happened to shoot people for a living. Because of the lack of the over the top "We Are The Best" tone through out the book, it made the book seam to be a very honest and accurate reflection of this persons job and the department he worked in, it added credibility to the text.

The book could be broken down to three main sections, the entry into the FBI, general FBI training, HRT training and training for the sniper part of the job. The second main section covers his part in the Ruby Ridge standoff and shooting. The third section handles his time at Waco. There are some other shorter story's mixed in, but these are the main ones. I think the general reader is really going to find the three sections very interesting. I learned a lot on the Ruby Ridge section; it presents the side of the story of the people that were actually doing the shooting - very detailed.

Overall this is an interesting and detailed view into a part of the FBI that has not been written about before. The book has a good amount of newer info and the author holds your attention through the whole book. If you are interested in American law enforcement, the main incidents in the book or just a good old action non-fiction book then you will enjoy this one.

1. first book of its kind, provided an interesting view into culture of FBI HRT

2. author's prose is a little irritating; he obviously has a very high opinion of himself and tends to use overly dramatic wording for events that are dramatic enough already

3. book does not gloss over Ruby Ridge or Waco but does not spend enough time on either of those incidents; it's been eight years now and there still isn't an objective book about Waco (just a bunch of anti-government propaganda and a few quicky books).

4. author states that all of the names have been changed and descriptions of techniques have been altered to protect privacy and FBI tradecraft; this raises questions about how much is fiction versus fact

5. author carries out principal discussed in item 4 to ludicrous degrees by not naming the FBI agent who shot Randy Weaver's wife to death. C'mon! it's a matter of public record that the agent in question is Lon Horiuchi (by the way, I believe that Weaver and the FBI share equal blame for what happened up there and that Horiuchi does not deserve to be punished if his superiors aren't).

6. book suffers from lack of pictures and diagrams (would have helped to explain Ruby Ridge and Waco better).

7. I'd recommend buying this book as used or checking it out from the library.

Christopher Whitcomb writes a nuanced real life thriller about his experiences at 'ground zero'in the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. His HRT is not a collection of automated uber-policemen, but men who are well trained, who are asked to do extraordinary things for this country, and who struggle with the impact of their actions on themselves and their families. Yes, we all remember the newspaper and CNN accounts of Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas; Whitcomb, though, conveys a reality that is certainly not as obvious as either side would like us to believe. This may be the central point of Cold Zero: with the resources and skills of the FBI and the HRT, we must be very careful in deploying this capability where both the root causes and eventual fallout are unclear. Throughout the book it becomes clear that the scope of the HRT's responsibilities have changed greatly. Mr Whitcomb describes his role in LA during the riots, the HRT's drug interdiction missions, and most heartbreakingly, its work in Bosnia investigating war crimes while essentially re-burying its dead. His confusion and horror is viscerally obvious.
Cold Zero is such a relief from other similar books written by "warriors". He portrays himself as neither an FBI synchophant nor as a rogue agent. Here is a man with self doubt, tremendous physical confidence, and a love for his family and upbringing. If this is an example of the typical FBI man, we have great reason to feel confident of our future post 9/11/01.

For anyone familiar with Danny Coulson's No Heroes, this book should be the requisite companion. Where Coulson's book suffers, Whitcomb's account excels. Coulson's book claimed to be an insider's account into the HRT, but really failed in that respect. Coulson's role was never really of the HRT operator but, rather, a skilled supervisor. Whitcomb's Cold Zero is all that and more.

More than anything I've seen, Cold Zero is a nearly exact account of an HRT operator/sniper's daily life. The rigors of selection and training and the hell of having to laying motionless for hours on end, always ready to take a shot that WILL kill someone, often only inches from an innocent hostage.

Whitcomb is, in a word, skilled. As the reader should quickly realize, HRT members excel at everything. They approach everything they do with the same intense concentration and focus on perfection that is required of the FBI's elite counter-terrorism force. Whitcomb's prose in unencubered and to the point. His descriptions of the seiges at Ruby Ridge, Waco and others are total sensory experiences. (Actually, ever visual picture in the book is partnered with this same sensory drama. One of my favorite, although brief, parts of the books is Whitcomb's description of his guille suit. It's easy to assume what it looks like, but the reader learns how it smells, feels, sounds, etc.)

The one flaw, which I think is unavoidable, is Whitcomb's distaste for Bureau resistance to his mission. One will recall from Coulson's book the apprehension of Bureau higher-ups about the role of HRT. Whitcomb's account calls upon the same pattern. Whitcomb has little patience for decisions made at FBI HQ that run completely against what training and experience have taught him is right (case in point, Ruby Ridge, where the rules of engagement were altered to allow HRT members to shoot anyone with a gun, regardless of whether or not they posed an immediate threat. Thankfully, Whitcomb and his brethren chose to ignore this order).

Cold Zero tells more about the HRT than anything I have seen. It is exceptionally well written and leaves the reader wishing Whitcomb had remained with the team. More stories would not have been unappreciated.

As a 15-year veteran who has worked on some of the most infamous cases in recent American history, Christopher Whitcomb gives us the opportunity to take a peek inside the FBI. But not only the inside story in the field, also a look at the day-to-day dealings from headquarters.

We follow his story from the unbelievable moment he is told that he's been accepted into the FBI and then into the elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). It's in this unit that he was involved in some of the FBI's most well known hostage situations and has been awarded the FBI's Medal of Bravery. Whitcomb's account reads like any best-selling thriller, the only difference being that this is real life. You can track the author's fast learning curve that takes him very rapidly from a raw recruit to a seasoned veteran. But it's not only the action that the author saw that really makes a mark. The amount of training that this unit goes through is truly phenomenal, and gives you an amazing insight into just how dedicated these men must truly be.

We get a unique inside view on events surrounding such high profile and high-pressure situations as Ruby Ridge and Waco and even the atrocities he witnessed towards the end of the Kosovo conflict. This gives us a fascinating insider's view of what goes on inside the FBI as well as the toll, both emotional and physical, that it takes on the agents. A brilliant and fascinating read for anyone interested in true crime, action stories and the workings of the FBI.

I first heard Christopher Whitcomb on a local NPR program and was fascinated by his stories. Interested enough to buy his book.
The book is hard to put down. It gives us a first hand look at the physicality and courage it takes to go through this rigorous training: first to become an FBI agent and then to go on to the Hostage Rescue Team. I fear Mr Whitcomb is a might too coy to allow us to see the real fear and pain it takes to make this team. It is a very elite team that is in danger most of the time-he was on-call 24/7, and required constant vigilance and training to stay within the group. His version of the sorties that he took part in are insightful. I felt like I was part of the group. Mr. Whitcomb did not share much of his family life and it would have been a better book if he had- how does the family endure the amount of time they were apart? His decision to leave the FBI and take part in civilian life tells some of the story. Hope there are more books to come..

COLD ZERO is not your typical Rambo insider look at a macho unit of Alpha males exposed to danger and violence who save society by indescribable feats of heroism. Instead it is the unique perspective of a former speechwriter who aspired to challenge himself and make a difference in American society by becoming an FBI agent. It describes the extreme mental and physical torment he endured and overcame to be selected. After paying his dues as an agent, he applied for the elite Hostage Rescue Team and became a sniper. He gives insight into Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas operations and the effect they had on him personally.

The importance of the book is found in its perception of the United States in terms of vulnerability, preparation and response to a terrorist attack as seen through the eyes of the FBI and its specialized departments and programs. The book was written prior to September 11 but after the FBI was designated the lead agency in any foreign or domestic act of terrorism. Whitcomb describes what Hostage Recovery, Critical Incidence Response, and the Strategic Information Operations Center are designed to do in a crisis. His book now begs for a sequel which would inform and educate the public on its operations post 9/11. He could follow up a very good book with another. If it is close to being as good as COLD ZERO it will be HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I am mad at myself. How could I have missed this book when it came out last year! For once, there is a book in my hands where the FBI is not Efrem Zimbalist sugar-coated, where warts are admitted and quite openly discussed. Don't go to the library, brother, buy it.

And how I hate to admit that other book reviewers can be right! Don't bother to read anymore reviews (of course, my own is excepted), but go into what Tim Smith and Dianne Davidson had to say.

All I wish to add is that this is the first FBI-sanctioned publication where (page 21) you find out that chubby he-man J. Edgar had a predilecton for "madras sun dresses and suede pumps". But what poleaxed me was one sentence I almost missed: where Whitcomb speaks of the magic bullet that went through bones and soft tissue of two people, twisting and turning all the way, and yet, two days later was found in remarkably clean, nay pristine condition, looking as though it just had been recovered from the water barrel, found on a gurney that was never used to transport JFK. One sentence - but how revealing. Where is this sentence? Go buy the book, it is worth it.

PS: Going back to the sentence that nags me so. Will I live long enough to read a rewrite of the US's lengthiest series of one-subject fiction, the Warren Report?

Whitcomb has written a fascinating account of the HRT and a successful career in the FBI. It appeals at two levels: it is a revealing account of a career in a government agency that most of us are interested in yet know little about; on a deeper level, it is a cautionary tale to civil libertarians (they will be disturbed by the accounts of government power and its unbridled response to challenges). This account of the abilities of the HRT is both reassuring (after the events of September 11th) and disturbing (didn't these law officers stop to think about the implications of their actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge?). I wished that Whitcomb had been a deeper analyst of events that he witnessed, eg didn't Whitcomb wonder why the kids in L.A. regarded him (and other paramilitary units who poured into the city with enough weaponry to invade Afganistan) as the enemy? Whitcomb unswervingly presents the party line (both as a member of the HRT "gang" who rejected all outsiders) and of the FBI where he still works (in his analysis of Ruby Ridge, he makes no mention of the fact that the U.S. goverment settled with the Weaver family for $3.1 million). His book begs the question: HRT is the biggest hammer law enforcement has, but what are the safeguards to prevent it being the first tool reached for rather than the last resort?

Military adventure is not my usual choice for pleasure reading. I picked up the book based on the copious glowing reviews on the jacket cover, and I wasn't disappointed. Whitcomb takes you behind the scenes at the FBI and shows you a side that most of the public never sees. I always pictured the FBI as suit-clad persons sitting at desks, but Cold Zero pretty much destroys that out of date idea. This book was highly entertaining, but educational also about one of the most powerful government agencies. He gives personal glimpses into the stresses of such dangerous jobs. Whitcomb's accounts of Ruby Ridge and Waco strike me as honest and forthcoming.