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Unit Profile
Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) - Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team is the primary unit responsible for counterterrorist operations within the United States.
HRT operations are directed out of the Strategic Information Operations Center, located on the fifth floor of the J Edgar Hoover Building in Washington DC. In times of crisis, the SIOC operates 24 hours a day and serves an effective intelligence collection and dissemination site as well as a centralized, albeit distant, command post. When in the field, HRT can be augmented by the local FBI division's Special Operations Group and even behavioral scientists from the Investigative Support Units (ISU). The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is tasked with responding to terrorist incidents within the United States.
A significant problem affecting HRT has been the issue of jurisdiction. For example, in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and 1996 in Atlanta, there was considerable discussion as to which units would respond. In the former instance, the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team also entered the discussion, further complicating issues. Affecting the unit also is the recent decision to reduce the full-time status of HRT to a quarterly training status. It is not known to what degree this change has effected unit readiness or capabilities.
All members are skilled in close-quarters battle, hostage rescue (including special emphasis on negotiations), rappelling, long-range sniping, and unarmed combat. Some members may also have previous experience, such as SCUBA and even fixed and rotary wing aircraft operations.
There are regional units, also capable of responding, which are manned by former HRT operators. And while HRT is tasked primarily with domestic operations, their capability has recently been enhanced, permitting more use of the team abroad, to capture federal fugitives.
Examples of this include:
January 1987 - HRT members traveled to Frankfurt, Germany to retrieve Mohammed Hamadei for his part in the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in which a U.S. Navy enlisted man was murdered. This extradition was foiled when two West Germans were kidnapped in Beirut and German authorities decided to retain Hamadei as a possible bargaining chip. The FBI was unable to gain possession of the terrorist, however he was later convicted and sentenced to prison in Germany.
September 1987 - The abduction of Fawaz Younis, a member of the Amal militia who directed the hijacking and subsequent bombing of a Royal Jordanian jetliner. In this operation, the FBI lured Younis to a yacht traveling in international waters with the promise of drugs and women. At an opportune moment, HRT operatives came out of hiding and seized Younis (his arm allegedly being broken in the process). He was then transported to a waiting U.S. Air Force transport and delivered to trial in the United States. Younis was tried and convicted in March of 1989 on charges of air piracy and sentenced to 30 years in a federal penitentiary.
It should be mentioned that the FBI also maintains a VIP Protection unit, although it is not clear how this team would be used in light of the existence of the US Secret Service and the USSS CAT Team.
Ruby Ridge
Randy Weaver lived in a remote, plywood cabin, in the woods of Idaho. He was a white racist, believing that whites were the real Jews of the Old Testament. And while he expressed these racist views, they never turned into actions. He was also present at several meetings of the Aryan Nations, but never joined. In 1986, at one of these meetings, Weaver befriended a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) informer. A full three years later, the informer persuaded Weaver to cut off the barrels of two shotguns below the legal limit.
A few months later, the BATF threatened to indict Weaver for several offenses, for possessing, making and transferring illegal weapons. Rather than arrest him, they wanted him to become an informer on the Aryan Nations, which Weaver refused. Weaver's wife then warned the Aryan Nations what the BATF was up to, and suddenly, the description of Weaver. He was now a violent conspirator against the government and a bank robbery suspect. In 1990 he was indicted for gun violations. Weaver's trial was scheduled for March 20, 1991, to which he failed to appear. The reason could most likely be that Weaver was told that the trial is on March 20, 1991, but he had expressed that he was not going to show up either way. When he failed to show up for court, the task fell over to the United States Marshals Service (USMS), which is charged with bringing in fugitives from US courts.
For the next sixteen months, the USMS conducted surveillance of the Weaver property but didn't attempt an arrest. Instead, they threw in drug trafficking charges to gain the use of military hardware. A military airplane overflew the property to take photographs of it. The USMS attempted negotiations with Weaver, but there were problems with Weaver's court-assigned lawyer so they never got anywhere.
The "fueling fire" of the siege arrived in August of 1992. Six deputy marshals, one of which was a member of the SOG, snuck onto the Weaver property in full camouflage gear and carrying M-16 rifles and a silenced 9mm machine pistol. One marshal threw rocks at the house, which caused the Weavers' dog to come barking in their direction. Weaver's 14-year old son, thinking it was a deer, grabbed his rifle and followed the dog, along with Weaver's friend Kevin Harris. Randy Weaver meanwhile ran to where he hoped Sammy and Kevin would drive the deer into range. The following events have been described in two versions. The first is, that one of the marshals shot the dog, which caused an outraged Sammy to squeeze a few blind shots into the bushes, before Randy yelled at him to run home. When Sammy shot at the marshals, Marshal William Degan, a SOG operator, shot back, hitting Sammy in the arm. As Sammy was running off, Marshal Larry Cooper hit Sammy with a 9mm bullet in the back, killing him. Kevin Harris the family friend, claimed that he shot in the direction of a heavily camouflaged man, killing Degan. The USMS claims that the marshals yelled "US Marshals, stop!" and that Harris killed Degan in cold blood. The marshals then reported that they were pinned down, when in reality no shots were fired at them. They were 'rescued' by the FBI at night.
The FBI was called in, along with state and local law enforcement officers. The marshals' briefing for the FBI was too brief and misleading. They gave an impression that Weaver was 'Rambo' running around in the woods armed to the teeth. The Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) was called in, but were deceived about the nature of the shootout. New rules set by Larry Potts, the FBI supervisor in Washington, D.C., allowed the FBI to shoot any armed male on sight outside the cabin. Six two-man HRT sniper teams were stationed around the cabin. When Weaver, Harris and Weaver's daughter Sara left the cabin to prepare Sammy for burial, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot at Weaver, hitting him in the back. He claimed he shot Weaver in order to keep him from shooting the helicopter which was overhead, but the helicopter was in fact well behind Horiuchi, and therefore behind Weaver. Weaver's wife, Vicki, then came outside with their 10-month-old daughter and yelled at Weaver, Harris and Sara to run back inside. The FBI sniper fired again, at a man who he incorrectly identified as Weaver. The shot, however, hit Vicki Weaver, blowing her face off. Skull fragments hit Harris with such force that he was injured. Vicki was instantly dead from the .308 bullet.
Over the next few weeks, the FBI 'taunted' the family through microphones, saying things like, "Good morning Mrs. Weaver. We had pancakes for breakfast. What did you have?" Then, Bo Gritz, a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, a Green-Beret to be exact, showed up at the cabin to negotiate an end to the siege. The FBI had sent a robot vehicle with a telephone to Weaver, which he refused to answer, and was later criticized for it. But besides the telephone, the robot was armed with a shotgun, pointed directly at the door. Eight days after Vicki was shot, Gritz negotiated a settlement, and Weaver surrendered. Had Weaver not surrendered, the FBI was planning to launch a CS gas attack on the cabin.
The FBI's, BATF's and USMS' images were tarnished, several people were dead, and an outrage had been sparked. A similar 'blunder' would be performed soon after at Waco, Texas.
Sources: No More Wacos: What's Wrong with Federal Law Enforcement and How to Fix It by David B. Kopel & Paul H. Blackman
Deadly Force: On the Streets with the US Marshals by Carsten Stroud
Exercise Equus Red
Information Provided courtesy of Rexer.
This exercise was a part of the HRT's certification demonstration. Held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1983 on a remote part of Kirtland Air Force Base. The scenario involved terrorists with nuclear weapons, and demanded a simultaneous assault on two hostile positions.
At 2am, on an October night, operators from the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), and a local SWAT Team sneaked into their pre-determined positions. This was it, either they would do this right, or the city would disappear in a mushroom cloud. A few days earlier, a terrorist group with a nuclear weapon on hand had made certain demands, and threatened to blow up the nuke if they were not met. A HRT advance team arrived on scene ahead of the main force, set up a Tactical Operation Center, and started collecting intelligence on the suspects. Shortly after, the main HRT force arrived in a C-130 loaded with vehicles and weapons. As negotiations drag on for the next few days, investigators find the location of the nuclear weapons. This is further confirmed by a Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) helicopter with a gamma ray sensing device. The bomb is located in a building in the downtown area, while the terrorists have a hideaway not far from there. Previous surveillance has identified all booby-traps at the terrorists location, and each terrorist has been identified. The HRT has also built a replica of the hideaway in the desert where they practice assaulting it.
That night the HRT crept up to the hideaway, while the local SWAT Team prepared themselves outside the building with the nuclear weapon. The attack was to be simultaneous as the terrorists had a remote detonator, but the HRT planned to use electronic jamming to interfere with the detonator's signal. The HRT operators placed charges in two different locations and stormed the building, tossing flashbangs into rooms as the went. Thirty seconds later the terrorists lay dead, and the bomb was not detonated.
This completed the HRT's certification exercise, after which they were officially recognized and incorporated into the FBI.
Exercise Joshua Junction
This three-day exercise, held by the FBI and Delta Force, was the start of the counter terrorist partnership between these two units/agencies. Held in 1978, one year after Delta's creation, this was one of their first training exercises. For the FBI, it was a chance to practice and refine their hostage negotiation skills. The exercise was planned and carried out at Jackass Flats on the Nevada Test Site. The terrain was desert, and it had important structures such as roads, bunkers, and an airport nearby. Actually, the airport is not specified, but Delta did assault an aircraft.
The scenario of the exercise went something like this. Middle Eastern terrorists have seized an underground nuclear weapons site, along with several hostages (role-playing FBI agents). They demand a safe passage to their home country, along with the nuclear weapon, I suppose. At first, the FBI negotiates several hostages, in return for two buses and an airplane. The buses carry the hostages and some of the terrorists to an airplane waiting on a nearby strip. When the last terrorist boards the airplane, Delta Force operators do an assault. The hostages are recovered intact. Next, the FBI convinces the terrorists that the first group had reached the airplane safely. Now, the second group of terrorists loads up into another bus. En route to the airfield, Delta Force does a mobile assault on the bus. All terrorists are subdued and hostages rescued. The scenario ended up being so realistic, that during the assault on the last bus, some of the hostages exhibited the Stockholm Syndrome and opened fire on the Delta operators.
This was one of the earliest joint training exercises between Delta and the FBI, starting a partnership that would continue to this day, with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and Delta, who hold training exercises together.
Exercise Olympic Charlie
Prior to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, the United States counter-terrorism force staged a massive exercise in what was the largest peacetime security force in history of the Games. Present were BATF, FBI, Secret Service, local SWAT Teams, the Hostage Rescue Team, the US Army's Delta Force and even rumors of SEAL Team Six for maritime security. Even the Chemical/Biological Response Team were summoned for fear of terrorist attack. Olympic Charlie was a specific exercise dealing with the threat of chemical weapons attack, but I will also provide some information on the general security emplacements for that period of time.
Olympic Charlie simulated a gas attack in a subway, and was led by the FBI. Atlanta's subway service MARTA also has their own SWAT Team which according to a MARTA spokesman is trained in chemical response.
While this is all about Olympic Charlie in particular, a series of other exercises were run before the olympics. I am not sure if these are all a part of Olympic Charlie. Just before the Olympic Games, CNN ran a special on "Guarding the Games," which featured the look into the security organization behind the games. Amazingly, they ran a fairly long video clip of Delta Force operators in training, storming buildings, blowing in windows and performing evacuation of hostages under fire. It was quite amazing to see. Read more highlights of the documentary here.
It ran quite a long segment on an assault by the MARTA SWAT Team on one of their subways with FBI agents role-playing terrorists sympathetic to Timothy McVeigh. Another part was all about suicide bombers, and the story of one who turned away from it all. Next was a feature about chemical weapons, and how one man acquired a deadly sample of the black plague through the US mail. It was this sort of thing that officials feared the most. That is why the 1996 Games were going to be the safest ever, with multiple agencies standing by in case of attack. The security was run, as I said before, many agencies, including the CIA's counter-terrorism branch, and experts were called in. One counter-terrorism expert, Jeff Beatty, a former Delta Force, CIA and HRT operator, (and who incidentally helped develop the Delta Force computer game released in Oct. '98), worried that all these agencies running the show would lead to confusion.
Other scenarios trained for were a Royal couple kidnapped, a French diplomat held hostage, chemical attacks and even nuclear attack.
Even though all these preparations were held, someone did manage to set off a pipebomb in the Centennial Olympic Park during a concert, and although the blast was luckily nothing compared to the OKC bombing, did kill 2 people and injured hundreds more.