Lecture 18 ARGO

In 1979, Iran has a revolution. It is lead by a hard lines cleric - Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomeini who topples the US government in Iran and re-
proposes Islamic law for Iran. The former ruler the Shah was a loyal US
supporter, and in Tehran there are embassies of the western countries like
America and Canada. Americas after this revolution are the most hated
people in Iran. Revolutionary guards are willing to kill nay American. The
staff inside the embassy is American and they have no way to escape.
Their fates are uncertain. They hope that the guards wont storm inside the
embassy because this would signify an attack against the US ending all
diplomatic ties with them. If these guards crossed over to the embassy,
the US could attack, freeze all Iranian assets in the international market or
they may not react at all. The marines and staff are inside, the marines
are armed but dare not use these weapons.

Revolutionary guards try to climb the American embassy wall, get down
and the marines dont fire. They keep going closer. They suddenly
discover that the marines arent firing. They enter the embassy and hold
all the Americans prisoner. The marines had managed to shred all official
documents which the Iranians get stitched back together.

A secret to this episode is that in addition to these 50 Americans, 6 more

had managed to escape into the Canadian embassy when the
revolutionary guard stormed the American embassy. These 6 were in the
consulate building which was further behind, hence they had the so called
advantage to secretly escape. The Canadians are not under attack. The
Iranians cant manage to recover the list of embassy officials, hence they
cannot confirm whether they have captured everybody. The government
in Tehran though yes, have a list of official names. There is a risk of these
6 being discovered if the revolutionary guard confirm with government,
but they never suspected anything hence they never asked.

These 6 seem safe, but their situation is actually worse. They can never
get out of the Canadian embassy as an American to leave the country.
They would be caught, and would lead to more suspicion and problems.
The head of the Canadian embassy is a man by the name Ken Taylor. He
gets a call from Tehran asking how many US embassy staff are you hiding.
It was very tricky but he kept denying the presence of any US embassy
staff to an extent that they believe him. It was a potentially explosive test.
If they suspect these 6, they may start killing the others.

The president at this point in the US is Jimmy Carter. They encouraged

Iran to hand these people back, but Iran doesnt show any interest.
America is in a fix. The US understands that they will have to get both sets
of people out separately, the 6 through secrecy and 50 through diplomacy.
Iran cant suspect more than 1 group of people because if they do they
may respond very hostilely.

The CIA agent Tony Mendez is called. He is a master of disguise and

forgery. His greatest mastery is making the forged signature appear as old
as it needs to be, by using alcohol on top of it for the ink to evaporate. He
understood the ink content, physical force used on pen etc. He is given a
side kick Hulio to help him in the operation. They are given the task to
get these 6 people out. They have limited time till when the guards arent
suspecting anything.

Mendez says since they cant escape via military action, they will need to
go via customs. They needed to get out as Canadians, because an
American would be shot dead. They could leave as Canadian citizens, not
as officials because Iran has a list of those.

However, if they are getting out, when did they get in, and why did they
come into a country in the grip of civil war. Tony Mendezs job was to fly
around the world constantly to get multiple visa stamps on his passport
for usage at any point of time. This would be needed now as they needed
to show these 6 getting in, hence their Iranian visa would have been
approved.

Mendez contacts the Canadian embassy for 8 passports. These passports

also have to be back dated, as they would have flown elsewhere in the
past also. Canada agrees and Mendez manages to source 8 passports.
Now he needed to come up with a reason as to why these people were
here in the first place. These 6 also had brand new identities which would
go through intense grilling by the revolutionary guards. The questioning
could get intense and brutal. Mendez did not even know whether these 6
could act.

He comes up with various ideas. They could be English school teachers,

but why did you go and where did you teach? Then he thinks of them as
genetic engineers, but then he realizes these people will have no idea
about the subject and wouldnt be able to master it. Hes on a flight, and
he picks up a childrens magazine and finds a story from Greek mythology
called Jason and the Argonaughts. This story gives him the excuse of
shooting a movie. Maybe these people were scouting for location,
outlandish locations, extreme deserts, light and shadow hence these
people were in Iran for the same. This could be the cover.

He contacts a friend in Hollywood, and gets to understand more details.

He understands that 6- 8 people go for scouting which is perfect. For this
cover, he needed a studio. A cast. Sponsors, scripts. Tony books studios,
completely furnishes it, hires a complete staff employees answering the
call at all times, the studio is called studio six. This studio will be shooting
a film called Argo. He has promotional posters printed and distributed. He
gets the founders of marvel comics, Stan lee and jack curby write and
draw the complete storyboard of Argo. People are answering the phone at
studio 6. It is all in place. All of America believes that a new movie
sometime next year called Argo is coming.

Then he begins preparing a dossier with a series of documents they will

have to carry as they leave as Canadian citizens. What kind of identity
would a genuine Canadian citizen keep? Not too many IDs , but other
random things like receipts, reminders in Canada, bills, etc. He prepares a
separate list of these seemingly random documents in their pockets. He
then created identities, and played in the same family, mothers name
fathers name and their birthdays and misses them around. This person is
already familiar with familial details. He works within the same family tree,
so that it is not totally random, and some practice can help to memorize
these. There is a complete folder of their friends, their lives their
marriages, how they met, their marriage, etc. He finishes everything in 1
week.

The passports arrive. They need to show when those 6 got to Iran. Mendez
and Hulio travel from Frankfurt and Paris respectively to Iran. They wanted
2 Visa stamps with 2 different ink contents for purposes of more effective
forgery. They book those 6 on a fight from Hong Kong. He duplicates these
Visas with the same alcohol technique. He duplicates other visas on their
passports as well to show that these film people were travelling people.

There was still one problem. Today entering countries is tough but leaving
countries is easy. In the cold war there was a fear of people leaving. Apart
from just the passport and visa, there was an embarkation and
disembarkation form which needed to be filled. One copy remained with
the airport officials and one you were allowed to carry with yourself, being
white and yellow respectively. These were matched when you were
leaving, but that could only happen if there were two forms. Mendez and
Julio had 2 forms, but the other 6 didnt. Also, even if you get passed this,
a particular official would have signed your copy of the form. Which
particular official was on duty this day, was very dicey. Which official can
confirm the sign of that day? Mendez makes sure that his flight and the
Hong Kong flight lands in Iran at the same time. They see which official is
on duty and forge his signature.

Once they land in Tehran they go to the Canadian embassy. They meet
Ken Taylor who takes these to the hostages. These people have given up
hope. They barely want to leave. Mendez then gets them on the alert, he
says the CIA. He tells them about the movie, scouting location plan. They
are all very excited. However, he tells them that they do not have a
disembarkation form. We have 3 days, and exit flights for everybody. 5 out
of the 6 agree, but the 1 cynical one keeps thinking of the worst scenarios.
Mendez enters and tells them, using two champagne bottles, and says
they will go past the Iranian officials. He makes it seem like he knows
what hes talking. He asks them to research and learn their new identities.
Hulio, (also spoke Pharsi) is asked to test how well prepared they are. He
pretends to be a revolutionary guard. He starts putting on the pressure.
Within 5 minutes all their identities are ripped apart. They try again. Hulio
comes in with a stick. As soon as they start answering he lightly starts
tapping their back with the stick, again their answers start falling apart.
The third time he gets a gun again their answers fall apart. Unfortunately
they have run out of time. He asks them to prepare through the night.
They leave for the airport next morning. They are not sure whether after
the revolution whether these guards still check for the form. Are they still
checking?

Tony Mendez smartly creates a line with himself 3 rd and Hulio at the end,
thereby evenly distributing the 2 with the full documents. The man at the
counter is very hostile. He asks for the yellow form. He asks for the
passport. The issue is that the photos in these passports are different, and
they had not shaved hence they have a lot of facial hair. One of them has
changed the shape of the moustache. Mendez makes a joke by saying I
told you that moustache will look stupid and ugly and they all laugh. The
man at the counter leaves saying Ill be back. 15 minutes later he comes
back. In those 15 minutes the guards march up and down up close to see
if these people are nervous. The official comes back with a caustic smile
and tea. He stamps and says have a nice flight. All 8 of them get through.

In the waiting area, there is an Iranian woman with a Hijab with her
husband, the guards pounce on her, molest her, beat them up, call them
traitors. It is all a farce to scare the westerners and see how they react.
There is an announcement of the Swiss flight they were supposed to leave
by is delayed by an hour. These people are panicky. One of them starts
reading a Pharsi newspaper. He can, but he isnt upposed to as per his
new identity. The revolutionaru guard comes up close to see what he is
doing. Mendez intervenes and starts making fun of the newspaper.
Another 1 of the 6 tries to read out what it really is. Mendez starts going
into coughing fits to dull out the words of the guy who is reading.

Mendez then tells them to seriously tighten up. He offers them a German
flight and then explains why that is a bad idea. He tells them to hang on,
and stay together. Mendez goes to check if the delay is real. He goes and
tells them that Id like to cancel the flight. They want to retain your
services, and they will tell you what the real scenario is. In 1 hour, the
final boarding call comes. The flight is there. One of the guards stops one
of them. He asks for the white and yellow form. The man is just going to
fumble, when Mendez pushes him. Mendez goes last and he has all the
forms. The officials are going to celebrate wildly, but Mendez asks them to
wait.

It takes 2 hours for the plane to leave Iranian airspace and then he pulls
out champagne. Mendez tells them that their OMEN was, the name of the
Swiss City was AAR-GAO. He said this name gave him the feeling that this
mission would be a success. As soon as they land, the officials are rushed
to safety by US authorities. He tells them to never write a book about this
as he does this almost 2 times a year. The story broke that Ken Taylor the
Canadian embassy official helped smuggle these American officials out.
He was a huge success and a hero for America. People believed him to be
Hero. His heroism lasted by 1980 1997. When Mendez retired from the
CIA and wrote the book ARGO And Ken Taylor then disclosed that he was
just covering because Mendez was in service.

The deception lasted 17 years, and Mendez has carried out 17 18 such
missions. This was very very dramatic intelligence mission.