CEDAR CITY — Best-selling author and former CIA operative Jason Hanson wants people to know that working for the CIA is not quite like a Jason Bourne movie.
“A lot of people think the CIA and spies are running around shooting guns out of helicopters and crazy stuff,” Hanson, the author of the new book “Survive Like a Spy,” told the Deseret News. “It really is blending in an environment or making sure you're not being followed … or walking around the streets making sure nobody's trying to snatch you — stuff the everyday person can use.”
Born and raised in Virginia, Hanson graduated from Radford University and took up work in the local police force, according to his website. After accepting work in the CIA in 2003, Hanson went on to work in counterintelligence, surveillance and protecting agency personnel.
Over the next decade or so while working at the agency, Hanson built relationships with other men and women in the field and honed his protection expertise. “Survive Like a Spy” aims to provide this advice to regular citizens so that they can better protect themselves.
Now living in Cedar City with his wife and two children, Hanson owns and operates a company named Spy Ranch — which he was able to establish thanks to a successful showing in 2014 on the ABC’s reality TV show “Shark Tank.”
Hanson approached being on the show much as he would working a case in his days with the CIA.
“When I figured out I was going on ‘Shark Tank,’ I did the deep research, meaning I read every book they had ever written," he said. "I watched every interview they had ever given. I watched every episode of ‘Shark Tank’ to know how they answered and what questions they asked and so I probably knew them better than they knew themselves.”
Hanson's idea — a two-day spy school designed to get regular citizens up and running with CIA tactics, including lie detection, escaping bonds, evasive driving and gun training — won over the sharks, and he secured Daymond John, CEO of the popular apparel company FUBU, as an investor.
Cedar City may seem an unlikely location for a spy ranch, but it was one of the few locations where Hanson could afford the 320 acres to set up shop — and it is also a midway location for his and his wife's families on both coasts.
For those unable to go to Cedar City, Hanson hopes his book will provide a good substitute. The book teaches readers how to stay risk-averse in foreign countries, how to deal with threatening individuals and what people can do to keep information secure. And many of the stories detailed in “Survive Like a Spy” have come from friends who, after leaving the CIA, now work for Hanson.
“You get to hear (the stories of) these incredible CIA operations and then I kind of break it down and say, ‘Here's how you can apply this in your own life to stay safe,’” said Hanson.
Because of the sensitive nature of many of those stories, Hanson spent about six months going back and forth with the CIA, asking what he was allowed to include and what he had to take out. In the end, though, only three pages were redacted. The agency did anonymize the figures and dates, but Hanson retained his top priority: highlighting messages of personal safety in each story.
“I want to be entertaining, but the main goal, the No. 1 thing that I hope people take away is that 'Whoa … we can do this,’" Hanson said. "It is practical, and you don't have to be a spy, you don't have to be a ninja, you don't have to be a martial artist. Everyday Americans can do this stuff and I already have proof … with the people whose lives have been saved by information shared in this book."