Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
Encyclopedia
The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, or JPRA, is charged with the coordinating and advancing capabilities for military, civil, and diplomatic efforts to obtain the release or recovery of captured, missing, or isolated United States (US) personnel from uncertain or hostile environments and denied areas. The agency, created in 1999 by the merging of the Joint Services SERE Agency and the Joint Combat Search and Rescue Agency, is a subordinate activity of the United States Joint Forces Command
and is currently headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The goals of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency include: Returning isolated US personnel to friendly control, denying enemies of the US a potential source of intelligence, preventing the exploitation of captured US personnel in propaganda programs, and maintaining the morale of US fighting forces and the "national will." According to the US Department of Defense
(DoD), the agency's "core" capabilities consist of providing personnel recovery guidance, developing, conducting, and supporting personnel recovery education and training, providing support to operations, exercises, and deploying forces, and ensuring that personnel recovery remains viable through the adaptation of lessons learned, research and development, and other validated inputs.
officials in the use of harsh interrogation tactics. The assistance was approved by DoD Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith. The tactics included cramped confinement, waterboarding
, manhandling, slaps to the face, and stress positions which were later used with captured alleged Al Qaeda fighters.
In a July 2002 memo sent to the Pentagon's chief lawyer by the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, or JPRA, the military agency that provided advice on harsh interrogation techniques for use against terrorism suspects, not only referred to the application of extreme duress as "torture" but warned that it would produce "unreliable information".
United States Joint Forces Command
United States Joint Forces Command was a former Unified Combatant Command of the United States Armed Forces. USJFCOM was a functional command that provided specific services to the military. The last commander was Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno...
and is currently headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The goals of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency include: Returning isolated US personnel to friendly control, denying enemies of the US a potential source of intelligence, preventing the exploitation of captured US personnel in propaganda programs, and maintaining the morale of US fighting forces and the "national will." According to the US Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD), the agency's "core" capabilities consist of providing personnel recovery guidance, developing, conducting, and supporting personnel recovery education and training, providing support to operations, exercises, and deploying forces, and ensuring that personnel recovery remains viable through the adaptation of lessons learned, research and development, and other validated inputs.
Assistance to CIA
In April, 2009 it was revealed that the JPRA had provided assistance to Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
officials in the use of harsh interrogation tactics. The assistance was approved by DoD Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith. The tactics included cramped confinement, waterboarding
Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
, manhandling, slaps to the face, and stress positions which were later used with captured alleged Al Qaeda fighters.
In a July 2002 memo sent to the Pentagon's chief lawyer by the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, or JPRA, the military agency that provided advice on harsh interrogation techniques for use against terrorism suspects, not only referred to the application of extreme duress as "torture" but warned that it would produce "unreliable information".