The team that executed the arrest of attempted bombing suspect Kevin Harpham in Addy, Wash. Wednesday was the FBI?s Hostage Rescue Team, its national-level counterterrorism unit.

FBI Agent Frank Harrill, the agent-in-charge of the Spokane field office, confirmed the HRT arrested Harpham as he was leaving his home near Addy Wednesday morning.

The HRT, established in 1983, is the FBI?s tactical unit that responds to urgent crisis situations both at home and abroad. Based in Quantico, Va., the HRT is organized into smaller tactical teams made up of assault elements and sniper / spotter teams.

Operators within the HRT are generally recruited from among the law enforcement or military community.

A highly selective process to find the most qualified candidates, from the military they generally select personnel who have a wide variety of combat arms experience, including those who have served in the Army?s Special Forces, 75th Ranger Regiment, Marines with a combat arms background, Navy SEALs and Air Force Combat Controllers, Pararescue and Tactical Air Control Party fields.

While the name of the organization is Hostage Rescue Team, the team performs a wide variety of high-risk missions.

Those missions include raids, manhunts, dignitary protection, protecting FBI agents overseas, assisting military special operations, helicopter operations and mobile assaults or, as was the case in Addy Wednesday, executing arrests and serving search warrants on a high-risk location.

Two high-profile deployments the HRT was involved in the early 1990s were the standoff at Randy Weaver?s property at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX. in 1993.

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