Oct 19, 2012
- Mark Lijek, author of "The Houseguests," a book about his experience hiding with the Canadians in Iran. Mark's escape with his wife Cora and four colleagues from the US Embassy is dramatized in the current Ben Affleck movie, "Argo."
In November 1979, Iranian revolutionaries stormed and captured the US Embassy in Teheran.
Angered by the US Government decision to permit the former Shah of Iran to enter the US for cancer treatment, they held US diplomats hostage for more than a year.
Unknown to the revolutionaries, six American embassy staffers in another building on the grounds were able to escape, and made their way into hiding with the help of British, New Zealand, and Canadian diplomats. They ultimately spent more than three months living under the protection of the Canadian embassy, and ultimately left Iran using false Canadian passports.
It wasn't until 1997, when the CIA declassified its own
involvement in the "exfiltration" of the six Americans, that the
world learned about the CIA's elaborate cover story for the
diplomats. It involved creating a fake Hollywood film production,
and identities for the six Americans as Canadian filmmakers come to
Iran to scout for locations to use in the movie. The story was
first revealed by Joshua Bearman in Wired
magazine in 2007 ("How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue
Americans From Tehran"), and in
The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the
CIA
It's the topc of Ben Affleck's new blockbuster movie, "Argo." But the real story is just as good as the Hollywood thriller, if not better.
In episode #34 of the Middle Chamber Books and Music Podcast, we
interview Mark Lijek, one of the
six Americans exfiltrated by Tony Mendez. Mark has written his own
memoir of his time in hiding with the Canadians,
The Houseguests: A Memoir of Canadian Courage and CIA
Sorcery
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