Former “spy hunter” Robert Booth discussed the threat espionage poses to national security from the State Department’s perspective, along with economic versus military and diplomatic espionage. 

Watch the talk Leaks, Spies, and Lies

On Monday, March 25, former Special Agent Robert Booth discussed counterintelligence and counterespionage at the Presidential Orientation Theater in the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Texas A&M University’s campus.

This event, hosted by the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, was free and open to the public.

Booth, a former “spy hunter,”  discussed the meaning of counterintelligence and counterespionage, including economic espionage versus military and diplomatic espionage. He also assessed the threats spies pose to national security from the State Department’s perspective. The talk was based on his own experiences from two State Department espionage cases involving Felix Bloch and Kendall Myers and their impact on U.S. national security.

Booth was the former Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Counterintelligence. For 28 years, he worked in the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and in the Office of Counterintelligence as a special agent.

Booth also authored State Department Counterintelligence: Leaks, Spies, and Lies, in which he wrote about his experiences as an insider in three counterespionage cases and numerous unauthorized disclosure investigations. One experience involves a U. S. citizen serving as a spy for Fidel Castro.

Watch the talk Leaks, Spies, and Lies