George Piro, Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Division of the FBI, was the guest speaker at PBA’s Warren Library Lassiter Rotunda on January 19th, 2022.
Piro was assigned to interrogate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He then spent seven months interrogating Hussein in Baghdad. Hussein went on to be convicted of crimes against humanity and was hanged three years later, while Piro went on to a highly decorated career with the FBI. Piro provided a brief history of the FBI, explaining how the bureau evolved and changed focus over the years as the nation faced different threats. Today, he said, the biggest threat comes from foreign state actors. “Countries like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are looking to not only steal our national secrets, but really our intellectual property, our technology, our innovation, and in some sense, trying to surpass us as the global superpower.”