Quick Reaction Team (QRT)
The Quick Reaction
Team (QRT) was born out of a larger group called the
Technical Surveillance Counter-Measures (TSCM) Program.
TSCM's seventy agents were responsible for worldwide
security inspections of US Army installations to make
sure that classified material was being handled properly,
and that the base was not penetrated by foreign spy
services. The agents checked the bases either by visually
inspecting it, sweeping the area for electronic listening
devices and other detection devices.
Edward F. Malpass,
a former Special Forces soldier in Vietnam, was ordered
to set-up and staff the QRT. He picked the finest
TSCM agents for the job who were well trained in all
forms of surveillance. The QRT was authorized to support
missions all over the globe, whenever and wherever
a US counter-intelligence operation needed emergency
assistance.
The QRT did
pull off some successful operations, and other ones
that weren't so successful. Two QRT agents attempted
to sneak into Manuel Noriega's house to plant electronic
eavesdropping bugs. Disaster struck when the two were
found by guard dogs, and had to abort the mission.
Sometime later, a QRT agent successfully planted a
bug in an apartment where Noriega was known to spend
his time, but it failed to provide any crucial information.
A more successful operation was Operation Center Stage,
in which conversations of visiting Soviet officials
were recorded as they traveled around the United States.
The QRT managed to 'bug' the hotel rooms where the
Soviets were staying and gained some valuable intelligence
material. After Center Stage, the QRT participated
in Operation Lanky Miss in Germany.
Information
provided courtesy Peter Tomich
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