Wednesday, December 17: Tune It Or Die!
A REAL-LIFE PHONY GENUINE HOLLYWOOD SPY STORY
by Rob Lopresti
Melodie’s terrific recent column about visiting the CIA Spy Museum, and learning that they employ Hollywood make-up artists, reminded me of a fascinating article which brought up that very subject.
It had to do with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. As you may remember the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun by militant students on November 4, 1979 . 66 Americans were taken hostage and, while a few were released that month, 52 were held until the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981.
There was one bit of good news that came out during that awful year. Six State Department employees had slipped away from the embassy and hid in the Canadian embassy. They escaped from Iraq on January 28, 1980. It was a great day for Canada and for U.S. Canadian relations. But what remained secret for many years was that it was also a great day for the CIA.
The exfiltration man
The article I link to above is by Antonio J. Mendez. At the time of the Canadian caper he had “operational responsibility worldwide for disguise, false documentation, and forensic monitoring of questioned documents for counterterrorism or counterintelligence purposes.” So he was the guy who had to suggest a plan for sneaking the six U.S. citizens out of the Canadian embassy, and then out of the country.
Normally such “exfiltrations” are done as low-key as possible, but Mendez had one of those ideas that goes down either as “a stroke of genius” or “a hare-brained scheme,” depending on how it works out. “If possible, the cover should be sufficiently dull so that it does not pique undue interest. In this case, however, I believed we should try to devise a cover so exotic that no one would imagine it was being used for operational purposes.”
He flew to Hollywood with ten grand in cash and, with the help of a friendly make-up artiist, started a movie production company called Studio Six, renting the office that Michael Douglas had just used when producing The China Syndrome. Mendez then took out full page ads in Variety and Hollywood Reporter announcing that Studio Six was about to begin production on its first major film, Argo. The title was chosen for its mythological allusion, but it was suggested by a vulgar knock-knock joke.
They dug up a genuine science fiction script that could be plausibly planned for Middle East filming. “This script fit our purpose beautifully,” Mendez noted, “particularly because no uninitiated person could decipher its complicated story line.” One can’t help wondering about the hapless author and whether he/she knew the work was being used in this way.
His plan was to disguise the State Department Six as members of a pre-production team, in Iran to scout out locations for possible filming. They were all going to be claiming to be Canadians, so the Canadian Parliament had to grant permission for an exception to the law that forbid passports to foreigners. (I was fascinated to learn that the Canadian officials in charge refused to grant passports to the two CIA agents who would lead the Six out, because Parliament hadn’t included them in the exception. A government that insists on obeying its own laws? As Alberto Gonzalez said about the Geneva Convention, "quaint.")
As the production manager of the alleged film it was natural for Mendez to arrive in Tehran with resumes for each member of his team – in other words, the complete cover stories for the six escapees.
Follies of the phony film folk
Problems piled up in scary (or hilarious) fashion. The forgers put the wrong date on some of the passports, indicating that the carriers were travelers from the future. Mendez left his portfolio in the car when he went to the Iranian consulate for a visa. The CIA agents’ map of Tehran led them to the Swedish embassy instead of the Canadian one. And on the morning of the actual escape, our hero slept through his alarm. Keep in mind, this is an operation that worked. Imagine what the ones that failed are like.
After the Six approved the plan to rescue them Ottawa and Washington had to give the final OK. It came with the solemn announcement “See you later, exfiltrator.” (I feel obliged to say I’m not making any of this up.)
Happily, after all the preparation, everything at the airport went perfectly and the Six plus their CIA minders got out safely, followed a few hours later, by the staff of the Canadian embassy.
Soon Washington. was able to announce its first victory in the Iran mess and Canadian flags went up all over the U.S.A. as a symbol of gratitude.
But the CIA part wasn’t revealed until 1997, as part of the celebrations for the agency’s fiftieth anniversary.
One side note, which the writers will appreciate: “By the time Studio Six folded several weeks after the rescue, we had received 26 scripts, including some potential moneymakers. One was from Steven Spielberg.”
And another note. While researching this piece I learned that George Clooney is considering making a movie about the caper. Maybe he could get Studio Six to produce it….
I did a bad thing. I meant to tell James that the tinyurl in my text is a link to the poster that the CIA created for their non-existant movie. I forgot. But you can see the poster as it appeared in Variety at Tinyurl.com/514597
What came next for the author of the genuine script that was turned into this cover?
I have removed the tinyurl and imbedded the link on the word “Argo”. Should have caught that myself, Rob!
On behalf of every other computer klutz, what the heck is a tinyurl?
Dick-
Tinyurl is a way to make your life easier. Let us say you have an URL you need to send on to someone. (An URL is a website address. It usually begins http.)
Maybe the URL is 200 characters long. Maybe you have to hand type it in, or heaven forbid, recite in on the phone. (As a librarian, this happens to me all the time.)
Use your mouse and cursor to cover the whole URL. Hit Ctrl-C for copy. Replace the URL in the address box with tinyurl.com When the tinyurl.com page comes up put your cursor i the box and hit Ctrl-V. Click on Make TinyURL and it will give you a new URL that is tinyurl.com/ followed by six characters. If you prefer you can create a more memorable URL, which they call an alias. For example, I just created one for Criminal Brief: tinyurl.com/crimbr
It lasts forever (or until tinyurl goes out of business.
Thanks, Rob. When I work up the nerve I’ll try it.
In all the tinyurl stuff I missed Cary’s question. As far as we know the author of the script never found out that his/her work was being used/abused for the spy show. No author appears in the article, alas.
I was a College Kid in 79′-’80. I remember the rescue. I remember the song “Thank You Canada.” But (of course) I never heard this story! The movie will be interesting. The lines between comedy and tragedy are thin.
About using other people’s stuff – remember Dmitri Gat? He had several books published before someone realized they were John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books word-for-word aside from changing the name of the protagonist. Gat – that in itself should have aroused suspicion – said he thought it was OK to do that.