Catholic business leaders gathered on Saturday, Jan. 31, at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara, California, where James Olson, retired CIA chief of counterintelligence, spoke at Legatus' The Summit.
Legatus, an organization for Catholic executives launched by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan in 1987 with chapters throughout North America, hosts The Summit annually.
Other speakers at this year's event included actor/filmmaker Neal McDonough, former HUD secretary Ben Carson, and former Google senior vice president for social Vic Gundotra.
Olson, who served overseas with the CIA in the Soviet Union and Austria as well as in Mexico, has been a regular presenter at Legatus events, discussing themes from his book "Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying," which explores the difficult moral questions intelligence officers face as well as the challenges of being a practicing Catholic while doing the work of a spy.
"There are moral dilemmas of spying," Olson told EWTN News in an interview, "but espionage can be consistent with the Catholic faith. You can be a good Catholic and a good spy at the same time."
Olson said the ordinary lifestyle of a spy involves "living a lie." He and his wife, Meredith, worked overseas as CIA operatives and protected their cover by constantly lying, even to their own children.
"We did so for safety, as being a CIA operative overseas can be very dangerous. Other than the military, we lose more people in the line of duty than any other government entity," he explained.
Olson met Meredith while working at the CIA. They trained together and then were sent abroad with Meredith operating in a support role to Olson's operation.
There were two basic covers while engaging in espionage, Olson said: posing as a U.S. government official working for another agency (e.g. the State Department), or in a nongovernmental, nonofficial cover (NOC) — such as a businessman, student, or researcher.
A NOC has greater ability to spy as he or she has less scrutiny but is also at greater risk. If someone posing as a governmental official is discovered he has diplomatic status and will be expelled from the country, a risk to his career. A NOC, conversely, has no diplomatic immunity and is subject to "the full force and fury of local laws."
Yet despite ethical concerns and risk, Olson said he believes the work the CIA performs is vital to the country, "as quality intelligence can help U.S. officials make commonsense policy decisions, which will be a force for stability and peace in the world."
He pointed to the example of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis during which the CIA was able to provide U.S. President John F. Kennedy accurate information on the Soviet Union's intentions, capabilities, and weaknesses and avert nuclear war. After 13 days of tension, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove nuclear missiles and the crisis ended.
"Military commanders in Cuba were under instructions to launch the missiles if the Americans attacked, and Kennedy was prepared to launch an invasion. It was really close; I credit intelligence with saving the day," Olson said.
He continued: "The CIA can play an important role in defusing tensions around the world by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence information to decision-makers."
Olson noted that contrary to the image that some had of the CIA, in his experience it was a "faith-filled" organization. "I've never known finer people than those who served in the CIA, including many devout Catholics. But love of God and country go together; they are not inconsistent," he said.
There is a seeming dichotomy for the observant Catholic working undercover, he admitted. "My wife and I did things that ordinarily we never would have done. We lied, cheated, stole, and manipulated. But we believe that it was for the greater good, and that we have a moral right to protect our country, and it requires intelligence to be able to do that."
During Olson's time in the CIA the country's chief adversary was the Soviet Union, "and we dedicated our lives to fighting totalitarian, oppressive, cruel, atheistic communism. We were on the right side."
He said he did have moral discussions with a few "cleared" priests who could be relied upon for their discretion. He claimed they were supportive of his methods of operation. Olson said one noted that St. Thomas Aquinas said that it could be morally permissible to kill in defense of one's country, "so it would follow that it would also be okay to lie, steal, and cheat in these circumstances as well."
Olson also pointed to the story of the prostitute Rahab in the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament who aided Israelite spies in escaping from the king of Jericho. In return, Rahab famously hung a scarlet cord from her window and she and her household were spared death when Joshua took the city.
While Olson found many CIA operatives to be of exemplary character, he concedes that he's known a few traitors as well. These include Aldrich ("Rick") Ames (1941–2026) and Robert Hanssen (1944–2023) — CIA officers who were recruited by the KGB, the secret police of the Soviet Union.
Olson noted that in the mid-1980s, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, many "courageous" Russians were working for the CIA "because of their hatred for communism" (although some did it for payment). Olson said the CIA was careful to protect their identities and did so through a variety of clandestine operations as "we felt a moral obligation to protect them and knew what their fate would be if they got caught [death]."
In 1985, many of these friendly Russians began dying, he said, "and it was like a death in the family." Many were betrayed by Ames, and some by Hanssen. While he had known Hanssen only casually, he knew Ames well and had worked with him. When he discovered Ames was a traitor, he said, "I was outraged. I had an anger you would not believe. I hated what he did. He's a contemptible person, and he did it for money. He had no redeeming qualities at all."
When he learned of Ames' betrayal, Olson recalled, "it was the worst moment in my CIA career."
While the world has changed in 40 years — Olson now sees China as America's greatest geopolitical rival today — he believes the work of the CIA continues to be "essential."
"The intelligence it provides is vital to protect the American people and our way of life. We have to make sure our leaders are well informed; we cannot rely on the goodwill of our adversaries," he said.
Olson stressed the importance of intelligence agencies in continuing to recruit people of good character, as well as the importance of providing intelligence agencies with clear guidelines with what is morally permissible: "We need to know how far we can go."
More than 600 attended this year's Legatus Summit. To see upcoming Legatus events, visit https://legatus.org/events.
