 DELIVERING US FROM EVIL BY KEN WALKER
Though he says he’s faced “every scourge on society, every horror and nightmare and personal tragedy you’d care to imagine,” former FBI agent Clint Van Zandt doesn’t have a retirement plan that involves sitting on a riverbank fishing. He’s still intent on making a difference. IF YOU WATCHED TELEVISION COVERAGE of this spring’s tragedy at Virginia Tech University, you may remember Clint Van Zandt’s face, even if you don’t automatically recognize his name. A consultant for NBC, the retired FBI agent did 100 interviews that week, off ering his views on the psychological makeup of the man who killed 32 people before turning his gun on himself.
Th is exciting work capped a boyhood dream of becoming an FBI agent under the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, and it gave him a way to serve his country by putting assorted crooks and misfi ts behind bars. Yet the demanding travel and physical routine—he once got so dehydrated in the Philippines he had to return stateside for a week to recuperate—also took an emotional toll. “By the time I was 50, I had done everything I thought I could do, and I saw myself repeating the same things again,” says Clint, who for nearly 12 years has directed Van Zandt Associates, Inc., a threat-assessment company based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. “What I thought my master plan was after leaving the FBI was to go teach criminal justice at a college someplace.” But when 25 letters to Christian colleges produced no response, he considered law-enforcement-related consulting, the fi eld that had attracted many former federal agents. Two weeks after turning in his shield, Clint received a call from the widow of a former professional colleague, asking if he would be interested in taking over her recently deceased husband’s riskassessment business. The following year, Clint was contacted by the attorney of an unidentifi ed client with letters from a mysterious mail bomber who had killed several people, injured 23 others, and eluded justice for 18 years. Clint’s analysis convinced the client, later identifi ed as David Kaczynski, that the author and the Unabomber were the same person: his estranged brother, Ted. Soon after, acting on a tip from David, FBI agents arrested the 50-year-old culprit at his cabin in Montana. When one of David Kaczynski’s attorneys publicly identifi ed Clint as the person responsible for determining the assailant’s identity, he turned into a media celebrity overnight. Over the past decade, Clint has logged more than 3,000 TV appearances and recently signed a two-year consulting agreement with NBC. (Ironically, during his FBI career, he avoided the media with the same disdain he carried for the American Civil Liberties Union.) “The Unabomber case gave me that platform to step up on,” Clint says. “Th at was God-given, nothing I could have put together or ever thought would happen. Between that and my colleague passing away and his wife asking me to take over his practice—those were two huge, monster events in my life.” STAYING ACTIVE Van Zandt Associates is a small practice, employing only Clint and his youngest son, Jonathan, as a business manager. A fl ock of psychologists, psychiatrists, forensic examiners, and other specialists add contractual services as needed. Although he admits to fretting about attracting enough business to keep the bills paid, each year fi nds him busier. Th at forces him to juggle business, travel, media appearances, and time with his wife, Dianne, and their four (soon to be fi ve) grandchildren. Yet, the 61- year-old consultant wouldn’t have it any other way. When people ask, “When are you going to retire?” his standard reply is “Never. I’m not going to stop.” Although recognizing problems with his health, voice, or mind could erect permanent roadblocks, Clint feels a calling to continue using his talents and experiences. “I think everybody over 50 has an absolute responsibility to do that,” Clint says. “Th is is not the day and age when you go sit on a riverbank and fi sh. You can do that occasionally, but otherwise, get out there and be a part of it. Keep making a difference.” His belief: people who aren’t actively engaged in some kind of productive activities will see their mind turn to dust. So whether it’s still working for a salary, volunteering, or tutoring someone in an educational or occupational skill, Clint emphasizes staying alert and informed. One warning he off ers is to avoid getting so tied up in 24-hour news coverage that you relive events to the point of terror. As a guest on National Public Radio after the 9/11 attacks, Clint suggested frantic callers stop watching television so they wouldn’t repeatedly view planes crashing into the World Trade Center. As horrible as it was, he reminded them, it only happened once. Aside from that, he thinks boomers and seniors should be involved in the world as wise consumers, mentors, and supporters of their children, grandchildren, and communities. “We need to look for outlets, whether we’re compensated monetarily or we’re compensated emotionally, because we’re helping someone,” Clint says. “If we do not do those things when we get past 50, all of our education and experience goes to waste and goes away.” FAITHFUL TO GOD & COUNTRY Clint has had numerous opportunities to turn his back on his faith. As he notes in his 2006 memoir, Facing Down Evil (Penguin Group), he has dealt with society’s tragedies, nightmares, and scourges. But he is able to separate the two, saying he can’t sit and shake his fi st at God because terrible things happen, not even when he sees horrors of immense proportions. One of those horrors was the day in 1993 when he watched the Branch Davidian compound, in Waco, Texas, erupt into fl ames. Among the 75 victims, including Koresh, 21 children died that day. 
It was especially frustrating to him
that he wasn’t able to succeed with Koresh.
In trying to reason with the charismatic
cult leader, Clint would point out
that Koresh was lifting certain Scriptures
out of context to buttress his misguided
beliefs, but ultimately, the negotiator’s efforts
went for naught.
Clint reflected that seeing those children die at the end of a 51-day standoff was one of the saddest times of his career. Th e reality is that adults can choose to commit mass suicide, but when they make that choice for their children, they are abdicating their parental responsibilities to keep them safe. “I’ve gone through post-traumatic stress reaction to seeing people die around me and helping kill people and things like that,” Clint says. “It doesn’t make me emotionally or spiritually bulletproof. I’ve got a lot of holes in me, but that doesn’t keep me from knowing that God is in control. “It doesn’t shake my faith. In fact, it gives me a place to go to where, without it, I think I would be shaken. Th e ground would be moving under my feet because then I would have to say there is no order to the universe. It’s just all chaos. And I don’t believe that.” Raised a Southern Baptist and now involved in a nondenominational Bible church, Clint credits his wife with helping him maintain his faith by supporting him physically, emotionally, and spiritually throughout their 38 years together. Now in their 30s, their three children are all Christians and the Van Zandts remain a close-knit family. “Th is is one of the joys of walking with Christ,” he says. Though Clint has experienced a few of life’s ordinary bumps, he remains happy. Besides, he says, “Th at’s one measure that you’re still alive, that you still have challenges, and you sometimes experience pain.” In Clint’s world of dealing with terrorists, would-be assassins, and corporate security threats, pain is a daily fact of life. But that is a reality the Master helps him overcome. |
