Global Counterstrike: International Counterterrorism - Essay Example

GSG9 (Name) (Institution) (Module) (Course) (Instructor’s Name) Date Introduction Terrorism has been a global source of concern. Terrorists have used suicide killings, bombings, and flight hijackings to instil fear in the west and her allies. This has forced western governments to form response elite teams to counter the terrorists. One of the groups involved in these operations is the German GSG9. This paper discusses the unit’s history, its organization, its mission, its equipment, and notable actions accomplished in anti-terrorism. History The Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or border police group 9 was formed in 1973. The GSG9 is the German version of the American National Counterterrorism Centre operated both by the CIA and the FBI. The formation of the GSG9 was triggered by the ineptitude of the German police in handling the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics that were orchestrated by the Black September group. In this event, some members of the Black September group, which was a Palestinian terrorist group, kidnapped eleven Israeli athletes and officials from the Olympic village during the 1972 Munich Olympics. An attempt by the German police to rescue the kidnapped athletes and officials led to the killing of all eleven hostages, five kidnappers, and one police officer. Three surviving kidnappers were detained but were released during another hostage event. A post analysis of the event showed that the German police lacked the necessary training and equipment to handle such an incident. As such, the GSG9 was formed to operate under the Federal Police to handle terrorism and rescue related situations. The GSG9 comprises of police officers only. This is because the German law prohibits the use of military officers against civilians. The formation of this group was highly opposed by politicians who feared the group might rekindle memories of the infamous Nazi Party Secret Service (Schutzstaffel). The group was formed as an additional unit to the existing Federal Border Guard Service which had eight units. The GSG9 thus gained its name from being the ninth unit of the Federal Border Guard Service. The group was renamed in 2005 and ‘GSG 9’ alone was retained as the official name. Its organization and success in a number of missions in and out of German have confirmed the group as one of the top elite counterterrorist groups in the world. Organization By working under the Federal Police of Germany, the unit falls under the Federal Ministry of the Interior. This means that the unit possesses regular police powers such as power to arrest. The group is based in Sankt Augustin-Hangelar near the city of Bonn where it shares a compound with the regular Border Police. All activities of the three main branches that constitute the GSG9 are run from these offices. The three main branches are the maritime, airborne and regular. Other support branches include the technical unit, the central services, documentation unit, operations staff and training unit. The technical units, as the name suggests, play facilitating roles in enabling the three main branches carry out their activities effectively (Terrorism watch and warning, 2013). The regular operations unit handles land-based terrorist aggression. This involves activities inside the country and outside. This sub-unit comprises of around 100 officers. Some of the main activities that the sub-unit is tasked to do are diffusing bombs, rescue of hostages, neutralizing targets and securing locations especially ahead of senior government officials visit to given locations. The maritime unit, as the name suggests, handles its operations at sea. It is the smallest of the three sub-units with only 50 officers. Its category of activities includes handling maritime hijacking incidences and piracy. The airborne unit is charged with handling airborne operations including parachuting helicopter landing during operations and regular checks. It comprises of 100 members. Membership to the GSG9 is carefully controlled by the senior officers of the unit. The unit only recruits volunteers from the police service who have over two years experience in the service. For members from the military who are willing to join, they must first quit the military first and then apply for recruitment into the unit. Civilians cannot be directly recruited. Candidates for recruitment into the unit are subjected to intensive physical and mental training. The training lasts for 22 weeks with thirteen weeks of basic training and nine weeks of specialized training. It is claimed that only one in every five candidates successfully passes the recruitment tests. Further training is carried out in the course of service with the support of other counterterrorism allied groups in the country and around the world. Given the sensitivity of their tasks, the identity of members of the GSG 9 remains a secret. The principal combat unit used comprises of five officers with highly specialized combat gear (Terrorism watch and warning, 2013). Mission The key mission of GSG9 is close-quarters defensive tactics training for its officers to enable better security against terrorism. The key trigger in the formation of the unit was a terrorism act on German soil. The formation of the unit was thus purely to enact and implement counterterrorism strategies in Germany and around the world. The unit is thus charged with working with other counterterrorism units from around the world in addressing the global threat of terrorism (Special operations, 2013). Equipments The unit is equipped with some of the best technologies in warfare and intelligence gathering. According to the unit’s charter, money is never an issue in budgeting for training and equipment. The German government pledges to invest heavily in the unit to increase its security against terrorism unit. The importance of such a unit has been emphasized by the recent terrorism activities around the world such as the London Subway Bombings and the Bali Bombings (Terrorism watch and warning, 2013). The unit members are equipped with high end technology equipments and combat gear. Members of the unit are issued with two sets of combat gear. One suited for the daytime operations and another for the night time operations. The airborne operations unit is served with its own aviation unit called the Bundesgrenzschutz Grenzschutz-Fliegergruppe. In terms of firepower, the unit has some of the most sophisticated weapons in the world. This includes sniper guns, machine guns, and smaller highly specialized hand guns. Accuracy in training is highly emphasized during duty and on training. In fact, it is reported that one million rounds of ammunition are fired annually by the 250 members in training annually (Terrorism 101 2013). Notable actions The unit has been involved in a number of missions around the world. Some of these operations are in the public domain while others remain secret. One of the most notable ones involved the rescue of hostages in a hijacked plane, Lufthansa flight 181. This terror act involved four Palestinian nationals who had hijacked this particular flight holding hostage 86 passengers and crew members. The terrorists were demanding the release of Red Army Faction members held by German authorities. The flight which was to fly from Palma de Mallorca for Frankfurt was hijacked on 13th October 1977. Four terrorists took command of the flight and ordered the captain to change the flight’s course for Larnaca in Cyprus. Due to shortage of fuel, the flight landed in Rome for refuelling. After being denied landing permission in a number of countries, the flight was forced to make several stopovers in number of airports for refuelling. As a last resort, the flight landed in Mogadishu in Somalia. In this particular mission, the GSG9, in showing its expertise in handling hostage situations compared to the German federal police, managed to rescue all the 86 hostages, kill three of the hijackers, and arrest one. Only 30 members of the GSG9 were involved in the rescue mission (McNab, 2011). In 2009, the GSG9 was responsible for averting a planned bomb attack in German soil. The attack was planned by the Sauerland Group. Three men were arrested in this covert operation which had taken over nine months of investigations involveing the GSG9 and the German intelligence agencies. The men were arrested in the Oberschledorn district of Medebach where they had allegedly stored over 700 kg of explosive materials. The planned bomb would have been more powerful than the ones used in Madrid and London. Two the three men arrested were German nationals who had converted to Islam and attended Islamic camps operated by Muslims jihadists. The attackers had planned to bomb an entertainment spot frequented by Americans in Frankfurt. Although the specific details to this mission remain scanty, the GSG9 was involved in making the arrests and in analyzing the bomb materials collected from the site. Such counter terrorism measures are most encouraged as they avert disaster and loss of human life (Terrorism 101 2013). Another mission carried out by the unit involved the rescue of a German freight ship, MV Hansa Stavanger, captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia in 2009. The mission had seen the transportation of over 200 members of the unit to Kenya from where they would launch an attack on the ship. The mission was to be carried out jointly with the German navy and the US navy. However, the mission was abandoned in fear that the rescue mission could trigger suicide attacks by the pirates who were holding the ship (Special operations, 2013). Conclusion The threat of terrorism is increasing by the day despite efforts to curb terrorism. It is therefore important that groups such as GSG9 should increase their intelligence capacity more as well as maintaining their combat abilities. While the cost of training and maintaining such elite units might be high, the cost of terrorist activities is higher. With its noted success in counterterrorism, GSG9 is surely making Germany and the world as whole a safer place from terrorism. References Katz, S. (2005). Global Couterstrike: International Counterterrorism. Frankfurt: Twenty-First Century Books McNab, C. (2011). Storming Flight 181 - GSG-9 and the Mogadishu Hijack 1977 Special operations (2013). Germany Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9). Retrieved from http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Germany/GSG9.htm Terrosism watch and warning. (2013). GSG9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9). Retrieved from http://www.terrorism.com/gsg9/ Terrorism 101 (2013). GSG-9 Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9). Retrieved from http://www.terrorism101.org/counter/Germany.html Read More