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For Immediate Release
April 10, 2008
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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Robert Blecksmith Named Assistant Director of the FBI’s
Critical Incident Response Group
Director Robert S. Mueller, III has named Robert A. Blecksmith as the Assistant Director for the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG). In August 2007, Mr. Blecksmith was designated CIRG’s first Deputy Assistant Director and replaces former Assistant Director Michael J. Wolf, who retired in December 2007.
Mr. Blecksmith entered on duty as a special agent with the FBI on February 3, 1985. Upon completion of training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, he was assigned to the Dallas Division and served for seven years investigating violent crime and counterterrorism matters. He was also a member of the Dallas SWAT Team. Mr. Blecksmith was assigned to an interagency task force targeting a Domestic Terrorism group that was attacking minorities and religious establishments in northern Texas. The investigation culminated in a week-long trial and 17 convictions, including the group’s five leaders whose federal prison sentences ranged from three to nine years.
In June 1992, Mr. Blecksmith was promoted to the Dallas Division’s first Supervisory Senior Resident Agent position in Lubbock, Texas, where he was responsible for 20 FBI personnel in four resident agencies. Mr. Blecksmith then transferred to FBI Headquarters in June 1996 to the newly created Domestic Terrorism/Weapons of Mass Destruction (DT/WMD) Section within the National Security Division. Over the next four years, Mr. Blecksmith served as a Supervisor, Unit Chief and Assistant Section Chief within the section providing counterterrorism program management and developing DT and WMD strategic policies.
In January 2001, Mr. Blecksmith was promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, where he had oversight responsibility for all administrative matters. During that time, Mr. Blecksmith was dispatched to the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, as the FBI’s senior representative and On-Scene Commander to establish the interagency Joint Operations Center and coordinate the FBI’s rescue, recovery, and evidence collection process.
In August 2003, Mr. Blecksmith was promoted to Section Chief of the DT/WMD Section in the Counterterrorism Division. In August 2004, he was detailed to the Director’s Office and tasked with developing the final execution requirements for the FBI’s WMD Render Safe Mission (RSM). Mr. Blecksmith transferred in June 2005 as Section Chief of CIRG, where he managed the FBI’s WMD RSM, the Special Agent Bomb Tech Program, the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School in Huntsville, Alabama, and the FBI’s Aviation and Agent Surveillance Programs.
Born in southern California and raised in the Sierra foothills of northern California, Mr. Blecksmith was a 1980 graduate of California State University at Sacramento. Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Blecksmith served four years as a Deputy Sheriff with the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada County, California. Mr. Blecksmith is married to Teresa Blecksmith and they have four adult daughters, Sarah, Anne, Elizabeth and Rebecca.
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