How the CIA used a fake sci-fi flick to rescue Americans from Tehran.
By Paul Sarconi | 03.26.22 |
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| The CIA offices were in chaos when Tony Mendez arrived at his desk on the morning of November 5, 1979. Militants had just stormed the US embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking 52 Americans captive in what would come to be known as the Iran hostage crisis. Mendez initially planned to free those hostages. He spent 90 hours straight working on a ruse involving a dead body double for the Shah, but the White House rejected it. Then he received a secret memorandum that said six Americans had escaped the embassy before it was overrun. They were in hiding, and Mendez, who spent 14 years specializing in "identity transformation," was going to get them out. As Joshuah Bearman writes in a story that would later be adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Argo, Mendez's "strategy was straightforward: The Americans would take on false identities, walk right out through Mehrabad Airport, and board a plane." Mendez would need to sneak into the country, equip the Americans with their aliases, and help them make their great escape. But first, he needed to build a cover story—so he put $10,000 in a briefcase and flew to Los Angeles. | |
Originally published in April 2007. |
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