Steve Neavling

Police are searching for a security guard who said he posed as an FBI agent and sped through San Francisco in a car with flashing lights and a blaring siren because he was rushing to pay his phone bill, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

On Monday, a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of 47-year-old Angel Wilfredo Castro after he failed to appear in court, the Examiner wrote.

Police became suspicious when they saw the car speeding and running a red light.

The Examiner reported that Castro was wearing a blue shirt with an FBI emblem, a blue baseball hat, black boots and a gun with a holster.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

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• FBI Hunts Down NASA Contractor Trying to Flee to China
• CBS FBI Drama, ‘Anatomy of Violence,’ Adds Amber Tamblyn to Cast
• Congress Continues to Question ATF, DOJ on Milwaukee Gun Sting

A San Francisco Department of Homeland Security Agent faces child pornography charges after police say he had an elaborate computer set-up with more than 85 images and videos of child porn, according to KGO-TV ABC 7.

The investigation of Agent Gilbert Lam began in 2011 and ended last week.

“It was quite elaborate,” Esposto told KGO of the computer set-up. “His resources and electronic expertise he had. I remember being at the house and he had a whole closet downstairs, like he had his own independent server, several computers, several hard drives, electronic storage devices.”

At the time of his arrest, Lam worked as a Homeland Security agent.

STORIES OF OTHER INTEREST

• Former Top Aide to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover Dies at 92
• FBI Confirms Grand Jury Investigation of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez
• Federal Judge to Decide Whether to Dismiss Lawsuit Seeking FBI Records on Occupy Movement
• Federal Prosecutor Criticizes ATF’s Flawed Sting in Milwaukee
• Illegal Immigrants Are Stepping Forward to Reshape Debate

David Johnson

David J. Johnson, who headed the FBI’s Salt Lake City division, is shifting gears a bit to the west and taking over the San Francisco office.

Johnson began his career with the FBI in 1991, and was first posted a Violent Crime Squad in the San Jose Resident Agency.

In 1994, he was assigned to the High Technology Squad, and worked on a case that became the first to be prosecuted under the economic espionage classification.

In 1997, Johnson was assigned to a Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization Squad. Two years later, he became a supervisory special agent of the Asian Organized Crime Squad in the San Jose Resident Agency. He led two multi-agency task forces that targeted human trafficking and police corruption and racketeering cases, the FBI said.

As the chief of the Crimes against Children Unit, he developed the Innocence Lost National Initiative, which identifies and rescues minors involved in prostitution and investigates the pimps involved in these crimes.

He was promoted to the assistant special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division, and in 2008 he led the task force created by the attorney general to conduct a criminal investigation into the destruction of interrogation videotapes by the CIA.

In 2009, he became chief of the Violent Crimes Section in the Criminal Investigative Division, responsible for managing programs that involve federal violations such as bank robberies, kidnappings, extortions, crimes against children, Indian country matters, fugitives, major theft, transportation crimes, and special jurisdiction matters.

In 2011, he was reassigned to be the chief of the newly created Latin America/Southwest Border Threat Section.

Johnson has a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Loren Cannon has replaced Johnson as the acting head of the Utah FBI.

 Mark Stephen Jimerson, a retired  FBI supervisory special agent, died last Thursday at his home in Mitchellville, Md., from a brain-related cancer. He was was 59.

In February 1985, Jimerson  was assigned to the FBI’s Tampa office, his first posting in the agency. While in Florida, he studied intensive Russian, according to information provided by the family.

He later went on to the FBI’s San Francisco office and began his career with foreign counter intelligence.

In the spring of 1995, he went to FBI Headquarters in Washington here he helped establish an FBI office in Moscow. He also served as a team leader and senior FBI agent for the first FBI delegation that provided law enforcement training in Russia, according to the family information.

He was also assigned to inter-agency taskforce investigating criminal activities involving Russian and Eastern European immigrants.

From 1997 to 2000, he served as the Assistant Legal Attaché, to the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia.

In 2000, he was promoted to Legal Attaché to Ukraine where he served within the U.S. Embassy as Chief of the Office of the Legal Attaché and as primary FBI representative in Ukraine.

In 2002, Jimerson and his family returned to their home in Maryland. He was promoted to Unit Chief of the Office of International Operations from 2005 to 2006, acted as an FBI Liaison Officer in the Office of International Affairs from 2002 to 2004 and again from 2006 to 2008, and lastly as Unit Chief in the Eurasian Unit of the Office of International Affairs, the family wrote in a release.

He retired on June 6, 2008.

Jimmerson was born on Aug.  7, 1953 in Madison, Ill., the son of Louise Jimerson and the late Chance Jimerson. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Wendy Jimerson; his daughter, Stephania Mahdi; son, Mark E. Jimerson; granddaughter, Yasmeen Mahdi; mother, Louise Jimerson; brothers, Alvin (Zella)Valentine and Victor (JoAnn) Valentine of Madison, Illinois, Willard (Sandra) Valentine of Portland, Oregon, and Terrence Jimerson of Madison Illinois; sisters, Autumn Ann Mitchell of Redondo Beach, CA and Shirlee Sue (Larry) Coleman of Flower Mound, TX; and a host of loving nephews, nieces, family and friends.

Jimerson was the youngest of seven children. He was very active in his youth and participated in plays, choir activities, and track and field, the family said.

In high school he showed promise in his Russian language classes and was encouraged by a Bulgarian priest, teaching at his high school, to continue his studies.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and graduated with Honors from the Defense Language Institute, serving his country as a Russian Linguist.

He was assigned to the 856th Army Security Agency and was stationed in Germany where he was a Russian Voice Interceptor, the family said.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Studies from Monterey Institute of International Studies.

The ACLU says FBI documents show that the San Francisco FBI gathered intelligence on American Muslim religious organizations on their “constitutionally protected beliefs and activities, without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

The ACLU said in a story posted on its website that the FBI gathered the info from 2004 through at least 2008 through its “mosque outreach” program.

The FBI documents “also show that the FBI categorized information about American Muslims’ First Amendment-protected and other entirely innocuous activities, as well as mosque locations, as ‘positive intelligence’ and disseminated it to agencies outside the FBI.”

The ACLU said the result was that the FBI cast a cloud of suspicion over innocent groups and individuals.

Robert Mueller III / file fbi photo By Allan Lengel

Terrorism remains the FBI’s top priority,” Mueller told a crowd in San Francisco at the RSA Cyber Security Conference, according to the text of his speech. “But in the not too distant future, we anticipate that the cyber threat will pose the number one threat to our country.”

Mueller talked about how increasingly “cyber savvy” terrorist have become, citing as example, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has produced a full-color, English-language online magazine.

“They are not only sharing ideas, they are soliciting information and inviting recruits to join al Qaeda. ”

“Al Shabaab—the al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia—has its own Twitter account. Al Shabaab uses it to taunt its enemies—in English—and to encourage terrorist activity, ” he said. “Extremists are not merely making use of the Internet for propaganda and recruitment. They are also using cyber space to conduct operations.”

“The individuals who planned the attempted Times Square bombing in May 2010 used public web cameras for reconnaissance. They used file-sharing sites to share sensitive operational details. They deployed remote conferencing software to communicate. They used a proxy server to avoid being tracked by an IP address. And they claimed responsibility for the attempted attack—on YouTube.”

To read the complete speech click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• FBI Seeks Boston Fugitive in Calif (Orange County Breeze)
• Property Fraud Booms (Investors.com)
• Sheriff Joe Says Obama Birth Certificate a Forgery (Reuters)
• Gun Traffickers Arrested in Calif. After Selling to Undercover  ATF Agents (Brandenton Herald)
• Jury Deliberates in Case of Ex-Bronco Charged in Sexual Assault (AP)
• Dispute Continues Over Release of Ted Stevens Case Findings (Main Justice)

By Allan Lengel

It’s fair to surmise that the FBI has a surplus of GPS devices that are just going to be sitting around.

The Wall Street Journal reports that FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann said at a conference Friday that a Supreme Court ruling requiring a court order before placing a GPS on someone’s car has prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS devices that were in use.

Weissmann made his comments at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century.”

The Journal reports that the devices were often placed underneath cars to track movements.

By Danny Fenster

The relationship between the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department is coming under some scrutiny by civil rights advocates and local legislators, reports the San Francisco Examiner.

Supervisor Jane Kim introduced an ordinance Tuesday to prohibit police that work with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force from collecting information about locals without a “reasonable suspicion of criminal activity,” according to the Examiner. The law, Kim said, is necessary in preventing racial profiling and protect citizens’ rights.

Greg Suhr, the city’s police chief, said the law was unnecessary, adding that the concerns had been addressed already by department orders implemented last year.

To read more click here.