The Joint Support Group (JSG) is a covert

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

unit of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

Intelligence Corps. It was established in the early 2000s as

Operation Banner Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initia ...

concluded and following the

Stevens Inquiry The Stevens Inquiries were three official British government inquiries led by Sir John Stevens concerning collusion in Northern Ireland between loyalist paramilitaries and the state security forces. While Stevens declared in 1990 that collusio ...

into allegations of collusion between the former

Force Research Unit The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1980 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiti ...

and Protestant paramilitary groups in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. According to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', the JSG was later renamed the Defence Human Intelligence Unit (DHU).

Role

The Joint Support Group is tasked with obtaining human intelligence by recruiting and running sources and by interrogating captured enemy personnel. The JSG works closely with the Security Service, the

United Kingdom Special Forces United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) is a directorate comprising the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service, the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the Special Forces Support Group, 18 (UKSF) Signal Regiment and the Joint Special Forces A ...

and with friendly foreign nations.

Deployment in Iraq

The Joint Support Group was active during the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

in running Iraqi

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

s and worked closely with the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

and

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...

as part of Joint Special Operations Command Task Force Black by providing intelligence for counterterrorism operations. The killing of

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (; , "Father of Musab, of Zarqa"; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel Nazal al-Khalayleh (), was a Jordanian militant jihadist who ran a training camp in Afghanistan. He became known after going to Iraq a ...

in June 2006 and the release of

Norman Kember Norman Frank Kember (born 1931) is an emeritus professor of biophysics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and a Christian pacifist active in campaigning on issues of war and peace. As a Baptist, he is a long-standing member ...

were both reportedly enabled by intelligence obtained by JSG. JSG intelligence also supported

Operation Marlborough Operation Marlborough was the code name of a mission carried out by M Squadron Special Boat Service. The mission involved an SBS team from Task Force Black, in Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, on 23 July 2005 with support from the Special Air Service an ...

.Moran, Jon, ''From Northern Ireland to Afghanistan: British Military Intelligence Operations, Ethics and Human Rights'', Routledge, 2016 ,p.70,

Deployment in Afghanistan

JSG was deployed to the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

and reportedly provided intelligence for the capture of 65

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

commanders during the Helmand province campaign.

Structure

JSG consists of a headquarters element, a training wing, and four squadrons. Each squadron contains around 100 operatives.

Selection and training

The Joint Support Group recruits men and women of any rank from the

, the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, and the Naval Service up to the age of 42. Volunteers must pass a two-week pre-selection course followed by four months at the Joint Intelligence Training Group at

MOD Chicksands Ministry of Defence Chicksands, or more simply MOD Chicksands, is a tri-service British Armed Forces facility in Bedfordshire, approximately north of London. It is named after Chicksands Priory, a 12th-century Gilbertine monastery located within ...

. JSG personnel who are tasked with recruiting and running sources are called agent handlers and their recruitment, selection and deployment is known within the military as OP Samson. The selection and training of interrogators is known as OP Metis. Since the unit was formed, six personnel have been killed on operations.

References