Spy Speaks on Life Experience

A alleged plot by two rogue CIA operatives to link 2004 presidential candidate John F. Kerry to al-Qaeda brought Larry J. Kolb, then a retired intelligence officer, back into the world of intrigue.

In the Kirkland Junior Common Room last night, Kolb detailed the subject of his second book, “America at Night,” which documents the operatives’ attempts to fabricate a business link between Kerry and international terror.

In his book, Kolb alleges that the operatives, Robert M. Sensi and Richard M. Hirschfeld, were both tied to former President George H.W. Bush. Sensi served in the CIA when Bush was vice president, while Hirschfeld was close to the Bush family, according to Kolb.

“I just couldn’t see it as a coincidence that this...had been organized by a pair of rogue CIA con-men who had ties to George Bush,” he said.

Kolb was publicly associated with the investigation when his name was released after he helped call off a financial merger that would have framed Kerry.

“My cover was blown. I was even more scared than I had originally been,” he said. He decided to write his second book “to protect myself. The more people that knew what happened, the safer I would be.”

With two books—and movie deals for both of them—under his belt, Kolb says he plans to continue his writing career. “A lot of famous people from the intelligence world have contacted me,” he said. “[They say] ‘You’re one of the few people who have been able to explain intelligence in a way that’s real.’”

He also offered wisdom to Harvard students from his time as a spy. “There is a secret war going beneath the surface in politics,” he said. “I think they should teach a class in covert political operations so that people could see what’s really going on.”

He encouraged students to pursue a career in intelligence but warned them of “the human toll extracted from everyone out there in that field.”