Hostage Rescue Team
|
Hostage Rescue Team |
|
|---|---|
 Shoulder badge |
|
| Lineup | 1983 |
| Country |
 United States
|
| authority | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| Branch of service | Special unit |
| Type | Hostage Liberation & Counter Terrorism |
| Strength | 100 |
| Insinuation | Critical Incident Response Group |
| Location | Marine Corps Base Quantico , Quantico , Virginia |
| motto | Servare Vitas (to save lives) |
| commander | |
| Current commander | Kevin Cornelius |
The Hostage Rescue Team ( HRT ; German hostage rescue group ) is a special unit of the US federal investigation agency FBI , which is geared towards the fight against terrorism .
Organization and mandate
The unit was founded in 1983 under the impression of the hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games as a full-time SWAT in order to establish a nationwide anti-terrorist unit and to respond to possibly similar acts of terrorism at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . Because of the " Posse Comitatus Act ", a US law that prohibits the use of the military in Germany, the Delta Force , the special anti-terrorist unit of the US Army, could no longer be used in the USA after the intervention of the Justice Department , which is why a corresponding civilian one Component had to be created.
The FBI unit received significant support in its anti-terrorist training and hostage rescue training from members of the Delta Force , with which it regularly holds joint exercises both in the HRT training area near the FBI training academy at Quantico and in Fort Bragg, NC .
Originally consisting of 50 volunteers, the troop has now been increased to around 100 active members.
In 1994 HRT was placed under the newly established Critical Incident Response Group , the FBI's central crisis intervention department.
The tasks mainly include the fight against terrorism and hostage liberation in the domestic US, but also abroad. Technically, this unit is most closely comparable to the German GSG9 or the Austrian EKO Cobra . In the event of an alarm , the HRT can be relocated nationwide within four hours.
The close ties between the Hostage Rescue Team and special military units are criticized. Not only do joint trainings with z. B. the Delta Force instead. Rather, agents of the HRT regularly take part in missions under the leadership of the United States Joint Special Operations Command abroad, u. a. in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia .
The HRT motto is Servare Vitas ( to save lives ).
Calls
The HRT had stakes in Ruby Ridge ( Idaho ) and Waco ( Texas ).
HRT members stormed the property of a 65-year-old pensioner on February 4, 2013 after he had robbed a school bus, killed the bus driver, taken a child hostage and holed up in his private bunker. The hostage-taker was shot. See Midland City hostage-taking .
Since its inception, the HRT has had more than 850 missions.
literature
- Christopher Whitcomb Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (2001) ISBN 0-316-60103-9
- Danny Coulson: No Heroes: inside the FBI's secret counter-terror force (1999) ISBN 0-671-02061-7
- Thomas H. Ackerman: FBI Careers: The Ultimate Guide To Landing A Job As One Of America's Finest (2004) ISBN 1-56370-890-6
Web links
- HRT at specwarnet.com (English)
- Via the "Tactical Support Branch", the FBI department to which the HRT belongs ( Memento of April 17, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article on the FBI website on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the HRT . Retrieved February 7, 2013, in English.
- ^ Tactical Operations. Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed on September 3, 2014 (English, It has undertaken traditional law enforcement roles in response to large natural disasters, dignitary protection missions and has deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries (...)).
- ^ Inside the FBI's secret relationship with the military's special operations , The Washington Post, April 10, 2014; Accessed April 7, 2017
- ^ Tactical Operations. Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed September 3, 2014 .