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Coulson’s next move is to make Ellison believe that he controls his own destiny. He allows Ellison to go back inside to consider his options. But Coulson soon fears that his plan will backfire.
Well, the biggest concern was that maybe Mr. Coulson wasn’t in total control. And that someone inside would say, “This is enough for this. We’re gonna shoot our way out of here.” And turn the whole thing to a very chaotic firefight much like the ATF ?.
Coulson and Ellison negotiate around the clock. FBI snipers hold their aim and TV crews hold their breathe, fearing a bloody gunbattle. After 4 days of tense negotiations, Coulson finally convinces Ellison to surrender. Hundreds of innocent lives are spared.
And the model for the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team is to save lives. And if we can negotiate a person now, it’s much better than to have to go and have to drag them out and maybe shoot them, and if you tutor your model into things you believe it. That was the only possible course of action that we could have taken.
The peace resolution, I think, came about, because of the government’s willingness to talk, to not command shooting, firing right off the bat. Their integrity, well I think, ultimately just as grace as god, working everything out to where nobody got killed.
Ellison serves 6 years in prison and today he is preaching in another compound in Oklahoma. Kerry Noble spent 2 years in prison and left the CSA for good. And in a remarkable turn of events, today Kerry Noble and Danny Coulson have forged a very unique friendship. One that wouldn’t exist if it were not for the secret strategies of the FBI.
To go from a time when, when we were pointing weapons of each other to a time now that we’ve sat around and drink ice tea and talk about our kids is a great irony for either. The first time I met with Kerry Noble after this event was many many years later. Then I said “Kerry, I am really glad I didn’t shoot you.” And he looked at me and said “Danny, I am really glad I didn’t shoot you too.”
Tonight, we’ve taken you inside one of the world’s most secretive crime fighting organizations, the FBI. We’ve seen how the Explosives Unit uses cutting edge technology and painstaking detective work to track down society’s most dangerous killers and how one artist relies more on her ears than her eyes to create the portrait of a suspect. We’ve shown you how the FBI uses everything from cutting edge technology to informants to infiltrate and arrest criminals. But there are many other tactics that can not be revealed in order to protect national security. Strategies that will forever remain among the FBI’s best kept secrets.
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