Tony Mendez
1940 - 2019
It was only through the magic of podcasting that I learned of the death this past Saturday of Tony Mendez at the age of 78.
Who was Tony Mendez, you might ask, and the chances are that if you DID know who he was, it is only because of Hollywood. Mendez was the CIA Agent who, in 1980, entered the country of Iran posing as a Canadian film director, ostensibly to scout locations for an adventure film that he was planning on making. The real reason he was there was to "exfiltrate", to use CIA spy jargon, six American citizens who had taken refuge in the Canadian Embassy, while Iranian revolutionaries had taken 52 Americans hostage in the American Embassy.
The mission was a success, and a clandestine one as far as the US government and the CIA was concerned. At the time these six Americans were returned home, all credit was given to the Canadians. The story might never have become known had not the CIA, suffering from a series of public failures, chose to reveal some of its "success stories" on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary in 1997. The story of Mendez and his successful covert operation in Iran was one of the ones that became public.
If all this rings a bell to you, it is no doubt because of the 2012 Best Picture Oscar winner, "Argo", directed and starring Ben Affleck.
Affleck and Mendez
Since "Argo" was a movie and not a documentary, some dramatic license was taken in telling the story (most notably a chase on the airport tarmac in Tehran that didn't actually happen), but the fact is there WERE American citizens holed up in the Canadian Embassy in Iran, there WAS a secret and dangerous CIA operation to spirit them back to the United States, that operation WAS successful, and Tony Mendez was the guy who pulled it off.
I leave you with these final paragraphs from the New York Times' obituary for Tony Mendez:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former C.I.A. director, called him “an extraordinarily gifted intelligence officer.” Mr. Affleck said that Mr. Mendez “never sought the spotlight for his actions, he merely sought to serve his country.”
Some of the six State Department employees whom Mr. Mendez had escorted to safety, euphemistically called “houseguests,” said in emails to his wife that he was the bravest man they had ever known.
“Not a surprise that Tony slipped away quietly,” two of them, Mark Lijek and Cora Amburn-Lijek, wrote. “What else would you expect from the master of disguise?”
RIP Tony Mendez.
p.s. - Perhaps you should watch the movie "Argo" at some point in the next few days in Tony Mendez' honor. There really are heroes among us.
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