Clint Van Zandt, a former US Army Counter-Intelligence Agent and a Vietnam War veteran, retired from the FBI in 1995 after 25 years of service, ending his career as the FBI's Chief Hostage Negotiator and a Supervisor in the Bureau's Behavioral Science or better known "Silence of the Lambs Unit." He has traveled the world in response to international hostage situations and has provided criminal investigative analysis assistance (psychological profiles) to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Upon retirement from the Bureau he started his own company, Van Zandt Associates, Inc., which provides behaviorally oriented crisis management, threat assessment and forensic consulting services to the corporate security world. It was after leaving the FBI that he was acknowledged as the leader of the analytical team that assisted David Kaczynski in the identification of his brother "Ted" as the infamous "Unabomber," this work bringing to an end the longest, the most extensive, and the most expensive investigation in US law enforcement history to that time. Clint is also credited with correctly profiling Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on the day of that fateful bombing.
Clint is a well-known national and international television and radio guest and commentator on various issues concerning criminal justice matters. He has appeared on over 2,000 television shows and has contributed to hundreds of media stories on criminally oriented topics. He has published dozens of professional articles and his newest book, entitled Facing down Evil, Reflections of an FBI Hostage Negotiator, will be available in the Fall of 2005.
Clint, who has also served as a consultant for movies and various television series, has had his life and career profiled in The New Yorker magazine and other publications, to include a 2003 Court TV special about his life, appropriately entitled "The Negotiator."
He received his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University and his graduate degrees from the State University of New York, Brockport. He currently resides in Virginia.
