Hannah Anderson FBI Hostage Rescue Team Fights Crime At Home
Kidnapped teen Hannah Anderson is very grateful to be alive and back with her father in San Diego, she owes all her present situation to the real heroes that make up the FBI Hostage Rescue Team who saved her from James DiMaggio.
A piece in the publication The Week describes them as a domestic version of the elite Navy SEALs and Delta Force teams, which operate in dangerous war zones around the world.
A few weeks ago, while attempting to rescue a hostage, they were dropped by a Blackhawk helicopter in the mountains and trekked for many miles to reach the kidnapper and his victim.
When their services are required they can be faced with situations similar to those the SEALs face in Afghanistan, but here in the United States.
When they found them, they were shot at and fired back killing the perpetrator and saving the hostage, who was unharmed.
This is not the only instance in which the FBI Hostage Rescue Team has saved hostages. Recently they were the unsung heroes who rescued Hanna Anderson from her kidnapper in Idaho.
They are also responsible for rescuing 5-year-old Ethan in the kidnapping of the Alabama school bus as well as the capture of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Their efforts go mostly unnoticed. Yes, we hear that the hostages were freed and criminals captured, but we don’t usually know who is responsible for the happy conclusion to those incidents.
In contrast to their brothers in the Navy SEALs and Delta Force, another elite terrorism fighting unit, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team operates in American territory, saving American lives.
However, sometimes the team is deployed overseas to help in the war on terror including Iraq, as well as the arrest of pirate leader Mohammad Saaili Shibin in Somalia.
Two decades ago the FBI Hostage Rescue Team was heavily criticized for their involvement in the Waco and Ruby Ridge raids, who left several dead.
However, the team and their military counterparts are not exactly the same. Louis J. Freeh, former director of the FBI once stated, “The members of the HRT are not commandos.”
Before being allowed to serve in the HRT, they must first become an FBI agent and the rules of engagement are much more strict, compared to those fighting terrorists overseas. Every piece of ammunition fired must be accounted for.
The best defense we have at home is the FBI Hostage Rescue Team which is trained just like a commando fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Hannah Anderson knows this all too well.
Source: TheWeek.com
