"No Easy Answer": Counterintelligence at Home and Abroad with former FBI Officials Bill Priestap and Holden Triplett

On this week’s episode of The Burn Bag, we talk  counterintelligence with Bill Priestap, former Head of Counterintelligence at the FBI, and Holden Triplett, former Director of Counterintelligence on the National Security Council. Priestap and Triplett give an overview on counterintelligence, highlighting how it has changed over the past 20 years, and what types of operations the FBI has worked to respond to. They discuss the FBI’s role in thwarting espionage along with outlining what coordination looks like between the FBI and other agencies, such as the CIA in addressing these foreign threats. Priestap and Triplett highlight how extensive efforts are by foreign adversaries to recruit Americans to spy on their own country, and what the general threat of this has and does look like. Both dive into some modern day challenges, giving us a look at corporate espionage, the controversy behind Confucius Institutes, and developments around cyber-espionage. We wrap the episode with a discussion how we can address domestic threats, as evident in the January 6th insurrection and similar threats.