Danny Coulson

Danny Coulson (born June 29, 1941) is a former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI. In his thirty-year tenure at the FBI, Coulson created and commanded the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and commanded four field divisions.

Danny Coulson in 2008

Quotes

No Heroes: Inside The FBI's Secret Counter-Terror Force (2001)

• That the snipers managed to pick off five terrorists in pitch darkness attested to their superior marksmanship, but in law enforcement, unlike war, success is never measured by the number of adversaries killed. All that counts is lives saved, and the Germans scored zero.
  • pp. 102-103
  • Note: About the 1972 Olympic hostage situation,

• What do they [Delta Force] have that we [FBI SWAT] don't have?"
  "Lots of things." [...]
  "I don't see any handcuffs.
  We don't have handcuffs. [...] It's not my job to arrest people."
  Oh? Oh! Webster's eyebrows curved like his beloved St. Louis arch as the realization dawned that since the military resolved situations with bullets, there might be no one left to be taken to jail.
  • p. 118

• He had an ego so big the joke around the Bureau was 'We gave Buck a zip code but he wanted an area code.
  • p. 123

• We consoled ourselves with the thought that we would never face terrorists as well trained, equipped, or courageous as Delta operators. "Go home tonight and pray to God that no Delta personnel ever decide to go bad," I told Don Brigham, one of our 'dead'.
  • p. 152
  • Delta and SWAT were training together. Delta had taken 'hostages' and the SWAT team was to rescue them. The SWAT team launched a surprise attack, but still 'lost' several men to the totally surprised Delta team.

• Our SAS hosts got a big kick out of our confusion. 'It's the nature of the people in Hereford to protect us,' explained an officer. 'They believe that if you have business with the SAS, you damn well ought to know how to get there, and if you have to ask directions, you're probably a terrorist or stupid, and in any event, they aren't about to help you.
  • p. 153
  • SWAT went to practice with the SAS and got lost along the way. When they asked for directions from the locals, they always ended up in front of a school or pub.

• They spew all sorts of conspiracy theories about black helicopters and the New World Order, but in their hearts, they'd love nothing more than to be a Green Beret or a Delta commando or HRT operator. They're well aware they can't pass the physicals, let alone the intelligence or psychological tests. In fact, they never succeed in anything they tackle.
  • pp. 212-213
  • About people like Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh.

• At times like this, I flashed back to a movie I'd seen as a boy, The Charge of the Light Brigade, about the massacre of a brigade of British lancers during the Crimean War. [...] They claimed to have done it for glory and honor, but how could slaughter be glorious? [...] I always prayed the same prayer: No heroes. Don't make them be heroes to get this job done."
  • p. 216 (emphasis in original).
  • The film mentioned is presumed to be the 1936 version as Coulson was born in 1941. For the historical incident, see The Charge of the Light Brigade.

• I was always being asked, 'Boss, did you have a good run?' To which I would snarl, 'Hell, I've been running most of my life, and I haven't had a good run yet.'
  • p. 233