Secrets and Stories of a Former CIA Agent

By Torie Price
Opinion Page Edtior
IG: torielprice

Former Central Intelligence Agency operator and professor at Texas A&M University’s The Bush School of Government and Public Services, Jim Olson, spoke at the Sept. 16 Dillon Lecture Series.

His career in the CIA, spanning over 30 years, was not a goal of his as a schoolboy. Olson was pursuing his law degree with the goal of becoming a small-town lawyer in his home state of Iowa. During his final semester at the University of Iowa, Olson’s entire life changed when he received an ominous call from what turned out to be a CIA recruiter.

“Service to our country and the art of espionage quickly got into my blood, and I quickly realized that this is what I want to do with my life,” Olson said.

“I had found my dedication in my life to our country. I had found my commitment in my life to ensure that this great country of ours had the very best intelligence in the world.”

Over the next three decades, Olson served his country by gaining foreign intelligence and performing counterintelligence, the art of spying on spies.

Olson and his wife, Meredith, “one of the first women to go through (CIA) training and to serve as a full-fledged CIA operations officer in her own right.”

They built a life together in each country that they served in. Working the covert jobs, raising their three children, and infiltrating the deepest secrets that the country that they lived in had to offer.

“The implications of that lifestyle, family life, marriage, and children are obvious,” Olson said.

The need for support from a spouse that has a “(deep commitment) to our country and the division of the CIA as you do” is imperative.

Throughout his career, Olson saw intelligence revolutionized. As technology advances, so does the ability of the CIA to better perform their duties to the American people. Although the ways in which the CIA gains intelligence have been restructured, the mission has remained constant: to protect the American people.

As a government agency, the CIA changes with the leaders of the free world. They take their marching orders directly from the President of the United States.

“Some (presidents) have used us properly, others not so much,” Olson said.

The level of work that the CIA produces can be both aided and hindered by governmental oversight. The main obstacle, Olson says, is political interference. The CIA should not be used as a tool to further any one political party but to improve the lives of Americans as a whole.

“(Meredith and I) have no regrets,” Olson said.

Throughout the danger of losing his life, the fear of being caught and thrown in prison, and the threats against his family, Olson and his wife stayed committed to serving our country to the best of their ability.

Olson was handpicked by former President George W. Bush to help form the Bush School of Government and Public Services. Olson and his family again sacrificed their safety for the sake of our country by coming out of cover, something that many CIA agents decide against as the safety risk is high. Olson has spent more than two decades forming the curriculum, teaching trade secrets, and inspiring future generations of the CIA.

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