Trinity Mount Ministries

Showing posts with label FBI Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI Stories. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

FBI Top Stories - Hostage Rescue Team: Training for Every Contingency




The Hostage Rescue Team
Part 3: Training for Every Contingency
02/19/13
The handful of special agents who make it through the Hostage Rescue Team’s selection process have only just begun their journey to become HRT operators. Each new generation of recruits must undergo eight months of intensive training before joining the team and deploying on missions.
“As an HRT operator, you are going to be on the cutting edge of what the Bureau does tactically, both in the United States and overseas,” said Special Agent John Piser, a former operator who now runs the team’s selection and training programs. “That requires a substantial commitment—and a significant amount of training.”
Recruits relocate to be near the HRT’s headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. There, they begin New Operator Training School—a full-time job and a total immersion into the world of tactics, firearms, and teamwork.
Over the course of 32 weeks, new operators learn specialized skills—fast-roping out of helicopters and SCUBA diving, for example—and few are more critical than close-quarter battle (CQB). “How quickly we can secure a house with a credible threat inside might mean the difference between a hostage living or dying,” Piser said.
As new operators advance in tactical expertise, training drills become more complex. Live-fire CQB exercises in the HRT’s “shooting house” mimic real-world missions. The shooting house is a large, maze-like series of rubber-coated walls—the rubber absorbs bullets and prevents ricocheting—that can be arranged into different room configurations so a variety of scenarios can be played out. As operators work together to effect a successful resolution, instructors view their movements from catwalks above.

“The HRT is federal law enforcement’s first-tier tactical team because of its advanced training and capabilities,” noted Special Agent Kevin Cornelius, a section chief and former operator who now commands the team. That’s the main difference between SWAT teams and the HRT. Whereas Bureau SWAT members train a few days each month—while maintaining their full-time jobs as investigators—HRT operators train full-time and have capabilities SWAT teams don’t possess, such as the ability to operate in extreme climates.
“When a crisis situation exceeds the capabilities of local and regional tactical teams,” Cornelius said, “then the HRT gets the call. Because of our extensive training, we are more prepared to address complex problems.”
After New Operator Training School, graduates join individual teams within the HRT. For the first year they continue to develop their basic assault skills—but they must also specialize as breachers, communicators, or medics. The fast-paced culture is “very satisfying,” Piser said, but it’s not without sacrifice. Operators are often away from their families for extended periods and can be called away with little notice.
“The time away from home is difficult,” said Sean Joyce, a former HRT member who is now the FBI’s deputy director, “but that’s something operators and families learn to cope with.” He added that the extensive, continuous training HRT operators go through that keeps them from their personal lives is absolutely essential—“because what you do in practice is what you’re going to do when the real game is on.”
Next: Night maneuvers—tracking a terrorist.






Join Trinity Mount Ministries on Twitter:

Friday, October 19, 2012

FBI - North to Alaska Part 2: An Explosive Situation in the Dead of Winter:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

North to Alaska
Part 2: An Explosive Situation in the Dead of Winter
10/18/2012
The call came in to the Anchorage Field Office early on a Sunday morning in January 2010. An explosion had taken place at a Fairbanks residence, and a 21-year-old man had been seriously injured.
After consulting with local authorities on the scene, our weapons of mass destruction (WMD) coordinator and other FBI personnel were not sure if the explosion was related to a drug manufacturing operation or linked to a terrorism threat. But everyone understood that our assistance was required, because the house contained a variety of hazardous, unstable materials.
Members of our Evidence Response Team (ERT), the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and others from the Anchorage office gathered their equipment and prepared to drive to Fairbanks—365 miles to the northin the middle of a violent winter storm.
“It was 58 degrees below zero, with high winds, blizzard conditions, and black ice on the highway,” said Special Agent Derek Espeland, the WMD coordinator who is also one of Anchorage’s two special agent bomb technicians.
Based on the description of materials in the house, agents initially thought the man was making methamphetamine—meth labs are an unfortunate reality in many rural communities. The victim, who walked to a nearby fire station despite the sub-zero temperature, was burned and bleeding. He claimed he was building a rocket when it blew up. Before he could be questioned further, he was flown to a burn unit in Seattle for treatment.
After a harrowing drive from Anchorage that took more than seven hours, FBI personnel arrived on scene along with bomb techs from the Air Force and local law enforcement. The meth lab theory was ruled out, “but then you almost had to conclude that the guy could be a terrorist,” Espeland said. “Everything we saw in the house we had seen being used by terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
As it turns out, the 21-year-old was neither a drug maker nor a terrorist. He was just fascinated with explosives and blowing things up. He had legally purchased all his ingredientsof course, our agents didn’t know that at the time. And because the house was a public safety threat, Espeland said, “we couldn’t just walk away.”
To neutralize the threat, it was decided to employ several render-safe techniques using specialized equipment. But that was easier said than done. Robots and other battery-powered equipment were inoperable in the nearly 60-below temperature because the batteries were frozen. Espeland’s evidence camera froze to his face when he tried to take a picture—inside the house. Vehicles had to be kept running for fear they would freeze if turned off, even with warming blankets and engine block heaters. An extension cord designed for extreme cold snapped and disintegrated.
“The cold was drier than anything I ever felt before,” said Vicky Grimes, an ERT member. “It almost took your breath away.”
A command post was established at the nearby fire station, and after a joint effort, the house was finally rendered safe. “Responding to this incident reinforced our understanding that we have to rely on our state and local partners for assistance, just as they rely on us,” said Special Agent Sandra Klein, Anchorage’s JTTF supervisor.
The 21-year-old recovered from his injuries, andsince he had committed no federal crimeswas not charged. “This was a public safety threat that could have been something far more serious,” Espeland said. “That’s why we responded, despite the conditions. That’s what we’re here for.”
Next: A domestic terrorist with a deadly plan.

North to Alaska

Join Trinity Mount Ministries on Twitter:

Monday, October 15, 2012

FBI - New Cyber Safety Website for Teachers, Students:



Safe Online Surfing
New Cyber Safety Website for Teachers, Students
10/15/12
With school back in session, one topic that’s on many class curriculums around the nation is cyber safety. After all, it’s a hyper-connected world—with texting, social networking, e-mail, online gaming, chat, music downloading, web surfing, and other forms of wired and wireless communication now a regular part of children’s lives.
The FBI has a new program that can help. Today, as part of its longstanding crime prevention and public outreach efforts, the FBI is announcing a free web-based initiative designed to help teachers educate students about cyber safety.

SOS site

SOS Topics
After entering the FBI-SOS website, students “travel” to their grade-specific island, which includes either seven or eight learning portals to visit. These areas address topics such as the protection of personal information, password strength, cell phone safety, social networking, and online gaming safety. The videos also include real-life stories of kids who have faced cyber bullies and online predators. Visit SOS.

It’s called the FBI-SOS (Safe Online Surfing) Internet Challenge—and it was developed with the assistance of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and with the input of teachers and schools.
FBI-SOS is available through a newly revamped website at https://sos.fbi.gov. The site features six grade-specific “islands”—for third- through eighth-grade students—highlighting various aspects of cyber security through games, videos, and other interactive features. Each island has either seven or eight areas to explore—with a specific cyber safety lesson—and its own central character and visual theme. For example, fourth grade features Ice Island, complete with falling snow and penguins.
To encourage participation and enhance learning, FBI-SOS includes both testing for students and competition among schools. Each grade level has its own exam, which can only be taken after teachers have signed up their respective classes and all activities on the island have been completed by each student. And once all the exams for a class are graded (done electronically by the FBI), schools appear on a leader board in three categories based on the number of total participants. During each rating period, top scoring schools in each category nationwide are awarded an FBI-SOS trophy and, when possible, receive a visit from a local FBI agent. All public, private, and home schools are eligible to participate.
For teachers and schools, FBI-SOS provides virtually everything they need to teach good cyber citizenship:
  • A free, ready-made curriculum that meets state and federal Internet safety mandates (see sidebar for topics covered);
  • Age-appropriate content for each of the six grade levels;
  • A printable teacher’s guide that spells out how teachers can sign up their classes and use the site; and
  • Detailed rules and instructions for students.

Child ID App
The Safe Online Surfing (SOS) website is the second tool the FBI has launched over the past year to help protect kids. The other—the FBI Child ID app—provides an easy way for parents to use their smartphones to store pictures and information on their kids in case they go missing.
Learn More

Can anyone visit the website? Absolutely. Kids of all ages—and even adults—can explore the site, play the games, watch the videos, and learn all about cyber safety. However, the exam can only be taken by third- to eighth-grade students whose classes have been registered by their teachers.
An important note: the FBI is not collecting student names, ages, or other identifying information through the website. Students are identified only by number when taking the exams; their teachers alone know which number matches which student. And teachers only need to provide their name, school, and e-mail address when signing up. The e-mail address is needed to verify the teacher’s identity for registration purposes.
“FBI-SOS is a fun, free, and effective way to teach kids how to use the Internet safely and responsibly,” says Scott McMillion, head of the unit that manages the program in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “We encourage teachers to check out the site and sign up their classes during the school year.”
Visit the site at https://sos.fbi.gov.
Join Trinity Mount Ministries on Twitter:

Friday, October 12, 2012

FBI Stories - North to Alaska:



North to Alaska
Part 1: Smallest FBI Office Takes on Big Job
10/12/2012
The FBI recently investigated a white powder letter incident in Alaska with the help of a partner law enforcement agency. “It took our partners two days to get to the place where the white powder letter was,” said Mary Frances Rook, special agent in charge of our Anchorage Field Office, “because they had to take a ferry and a plane and an all-terrain vehicle to get to the school where the letter had been sent.”
Welcome to the Anchorage Divisionthe FBI’s smallest field officewhose agents are responsible for covering the most territory of any office in the Bureau. That’s an area of more than 600,000 square miles, twice the size of Texas and packed with natural beauty and hard-to-reach places.

Anchorage

An Opportunity for New Agents
Of the FBI’s 56 field offices, Anchorage has the fewest personnel—but that turns out to be an opportunity for new agents assigned there fresh out of the FBI Academy.
“It’s a huge benefit for a first-office agent to come to a place like Anchorage because you get to do so many things,” said Special Agent in Charge Mary Frances Rook. “You aren’t pigeonholed here. Some of our biggest cases have been made by first-office agents. That’s not an experience you are going to find in a larger office because those cases usually go to the more senior agents,” she explained. “Here everybody has the opportunity to develop a case and run with it and be successful.”
Rick Sutherland, a former North Carolina police officer, joined the FBI in 2009 and his first office was Fairbanks, in our three-man resident agency. Shortly after his arrival, he was assigned a domestic terrorism case that recently ended with the subject’s lengthy trial and conviction. “Getting this case and this kind of experience so early in my FBI career was a great opportunity,” Sutherland said, “and it might not have happened had I been sent to a large office.”

Although the Anchorage Division investigates the same types of violent crime, public corruption, and national security matters as FBI offices in the Lower 48, “there is so much that is different here,” said Rook—and she’s not just referring to the bears and moose occasionally spotted on downtown Anchorage streets.
“If you’re in Anchorage, there are roads to Fairbanks and to the Kenai Peninsula, but other than that there are no roads,” Rook said. Getting to remote villages and towns requires a plane or a boat. Combine the geographical difficulties with extreme weather and one begins to understand how the 49th state can pose considerable challenges for the agents and support staff in Anchorage and our satellite locations in Fairbanks and Juneau.
Few FBI offices require snowmobiles to respond to crime scenes, but Anchorage keeps two on hand. The harsh Alaskan winters, where temperatures can plummet to more than 50 degrees below zero and the sun rises above the horizon for only a few hours each day, can make being outdoors seem almost otherworldly.
“It can be a challenging place to work,” Rook acknowledged. “But the flip side is that everybody knows it. So everybody works together. We work great with each other and with our local and federal law enforcement partners. Everybody’s got each other’s back, because you just can’t survive up here alone.”
Not surprisingly, it takes a certain kind of person to work for the FBI in Alaska. “The most successful Bureau people here are the ones who come with an idea that this is going to be a great adventure,” said Rook, whose assignment in Anchorage began in January 2011.
Special Agent Catherine Ruiz, who transferred to Anchorage with her husband last year from Chicago, agreed. “Every few days you will be driving home and you look up at the snowcapped mountains and say, ‘Wow, this is a beautiful place.’ ”
Bureau personnel who come to Alaska tend to be multi-talented as well. “We don’t have a lot of resources,” Rook said, “so everyone has to do a little bit of everything.” One of the office’s three pilots, for example, is also the polygraph examiner and a full-time counterintelligence agent. “That’s not unusual,” Rook noted.
“I originally thought I would come to Alaska for a few years,” said Special Agent Eric Gonzalez. That was 15 years ago. Gonzalez liked the place and the people—and so did his family. He added, “Most of the Bureau folks I know who worked here and left wished they would have stayed.”
Join Trinity Mount Ministries on Twitter: