FBI's
New Siege Mentality - Legal Times - July 3, 1995
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.
