OT Iran 1979-1980

1980 Iran Rescue Details Revealed

..c The Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) - When six U.S. diplomats escaped from Iran during the 1980
hostage crisis, the Canadian ambassador who sheltered them received the bulk
of the praise. Now, a Canadian documentary reveals little-known details of
the
CIA's role in engineering the brash rescue operation.

Antonio Mendez, who since has retired from the CIA, tells the Canadian
Broadcasting Corp. of leading a bogus film crew to Tehran then flying out
with
the six diplomats disguised as crew members.

The documentary was to air Monday night.

The revelations shed new light on what for many Canadians was a remarkably
proud moment - when Ambassador Ken Taylor was hailed as a hero for
purportedly
masterminding the escape. Taylor told the CBC that Canada still deserves
credit, even though its role was smaller than many knew.

``It would have been nice if, after the Americans came back, the U.S. could
have said `thank you Canada and by the way, thank you State Department and
CIA,''' he said. ``But that's not the way the real world works.''

At the time, the United States wanted to keep the CIA role a secret out of
fear that the Iranians might retaliate by harming the 51 American hostages
held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

``It's one thing for them to be mad at the Canadians, but the true Satan is
the CIA,'' Mendez told the CBC. ``So it comes down to how mad do you want to
make them, and we didn't want to make them that mad.''

The six U.S. diplomats had managed to slip away when their embassy was
overrun
in 1979. They spent five days on the move, then took refuge at the Canadian
Embassy for the next three months.

Mendez said he began consulting with Canadian officials on how to organize a
rescue, and Canada gave permission for the six diplomats to be issued fake
Canadian passports. Then Mendez got creative.

``I came up with the idea of using a Hollywood cover ... a group of people
from Hollywood looking for a location site in Tehran, in the bazaar,'' he
told
the CBC.

He telephoned a contact in Hollywood, make-up artist John Chambers, and
picked
his brain about what was involved in scouting out film locations.

The next task was finding a movie script that would justify filming in Iran.
Chambers found a science fiction thriller that appeared to fit the bill.

``If anybody sat down to read this, they'd have to believe if we were crazy
enough to write this script, we'd be crazy enough to be looking for
locations
in a place like Iran,'' Mendez said.

The movie was named ``Argo,'' and fictitious ads about the production were
placed in Hollywood trade magazines to give it credibility.

Operatives also began creating Canadian identities for the six diplomats,
who
would masquerade as members of the film crew.

Three days before the planned rescue, Mendez, posing as an Irish film
director, arrived in Tehran with another CIA agent.

They met the six diplomats for dinner at a Canadian diplomatic residence.

``I answered the door when they came in and there were two guys standing in
trench coats,'' one of the Americans, Lee Schatz, told the CBC. ``All I
could
think of was trench coats - that is the way CIA guys would show up.''

The escape itself was almost anti-climatic. The impostor film crew breezed
through customs and security checks at Tehran airport and flew back to North
America.

Once back, Mendez disappeared. His role remained a secret to the public
until
a CIA awards ceremony last year at which he was honored for his career with
the agency, including his role in the Tehran operation.

Taylor, meanwhile, was in the position of having to accept accolades as the
prime mastermind of the rescue.

``He was doing his job.'' said Schatz. ``He knew his role was to make more
credit than he knew he was due.''

AP-NY-03-02-98 1618EST

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