Logistics of Documents and Pocket Litter

For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad free listening, early access to series, first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books, join the declassified club The rest is classified. com Six Americans are hiding out as Canadian house guests in Tehran to get them out. The CIA will invent a Hollywood film studio that doesn't exist. Well, welcome to the restest is Classified. I'm Gordon Carrera. and I'm David McClcky. And we are in the midst of the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. The U.S. emmbassy has been taken over Hostages have been taken there, but six Americans have sliicked out a sidegate and have ended up sheltered inside the homes of two brave Canadian diplomats in Tehran We left last time with Tony Mendees of the CIA's Office of Technical Service planning the idea of how he might be able to them out inside Iran. So David, I guess we're back to the story of The CIA and the Canadians, just to remind people rescuing these six dip for that. This This is going go on for the entirety of thises, isn't it It is, yeah. He won't relent. He won't relent. So Plans Gordon, what's the plan here There's lots of plans And they' none of them are good. No I think it's fair to say there are lots of plans. I could have come up with better plans than some of these plans to get them out. Do you think so I don't know, Gordon Maybe. But there are a couple of ideas. and some of these are coming from the Canadians, I have to say, and some are coming from the State Department. The question is how you're going to get these people out? because the point is they B American diplomats. They've got to be someone else to get them out and there's got to be a route to get them out as well. Right. And It also is worth just before we lay out there the bad plans It is for saying that the challenge The exfiltration challenge here is significant because there's a group There's six people They're between the ages of twenty five and fifty four diplats They're not intelligence officers. They have no experience working alias documents and cover. They're not trained for this at all, period. So You have to think about the cover problem From the standpoint of the humans that you have sitting at these homes you know, Canadian diplomatic residences across Tehran. it is a significant one This episode is brought to you by HP. In intelligence work, it's rarely the obvious problem that causes failure. It's the overlook detail or the flaw nobody quite solved, the kind of vulnerability intelligence services look for. 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Pick up these Mfly So first plan pretend to be unemployed American school teachers come to Iran looking for work That's just I mean Most of the English schools in Tehran had closed months earlier, so why would you be coming to a revolutionary country. as an American school teacher looking for work. that does seem to me to be a bit of a stretch And you know also relies on you being America, where immediately they're going to go, Who are you really? I'm going to rule that one out, David. What about the next one Plant two from your new heroes, the Canadians haveave them pose as Canadian nutritionists inspected crops Iran in January is relatively stow bound Nobody's inspecting the crops in January and it probably wouldn't take long for somebody to ask this question. So that's out Th. use a cover as petroleum workers, but Iran's oil industry is on strike. Foreign workers are being expelled, not let in. so there'd be questions about how they had gotten into the country in the first place, planan four Ride bicycles to the Turkish border three hundred miles. it It went through the mountains. They're all I guess okay shape, but you know, they haven't been training for this. One of them is a chain smoker. And as Mendez and his team are looking at these options, they think These are the kind of things that lead to someone being captured or killed And there's a passage in his memboir. where Mendz explains why cover story matters so much because he says just as important as who the person might be is his or her ability to carry off a new persona and make it believable. So you want some investment in the part of the house guests in the D cover, something that they can work with and make their own Yeah, you want a kind of commitment to your cover identity rather than it just being one line that you're going to try and use if for a border guards you I guess that's the point that he's learning is you want people to become almost like actors invested in their part. I guess that's the thing that Tony Mendez is thinking about. And it's interesting, it's partly based we talked last time, he' ten out this agent rapttor earlier in in nineteen seventy nine And he's got this experience. And I think that's what's so significant about Mendees is he's done it. He understand what it what it's like when you are someone who is not trained to stand at a border checkpoint and answer questions about a false identity, how hard that can be and therefore, how you need to be able to carry it off. We're actually not yet at the point where Mendz has landed on an answer for the cover that they'll eventually use. CI has decided that the available options are probably not going to suffice. But one thing that they absolutely will need is documentation for the diplomats to leave And there are different options for this. We talked about how even alias American documentation would probably be a bad idea They could all go out on different nationalities you think about how do you make it credible if they're talking to a border guard or someone at immigration control This person matches this passport. And if you have someone who, let's say, the passport says they're German and they don't speak German And the immigration officer can speak a few words in German, you're done. So this is another that I mean Canadian angle here makes a lot of sense because they could it's a North American English could all look Canadian cover standpoint, no matter what your sort of overall story is and how you backstop it having Canadian passports in Alias is something you're going to want no matter which plan you use. So Mendes flies to Ottawa in late December with his deputy And he goes to meet a Canadian official that he calls Lon Del Gado US Ebassy Ota And the reason for the trip is to get Canadian passports. and Gordon, I sense you're going to jump in with some more commentary on Canadian high politics. Well, no, I just think it's really interesting because this is it's not an easy thing to do giveive someone not because these are not fake passports. these are real It's not a fake document. It's an alias passport. It's a real document. Yeahah, it's a real Canadian passport in which you are going to insert a fake identity. and that is different from a fake passport. So it requires the Canadian government being willing to issue a real passport to which fake identities of people who can oppose as Canadians you know to be inserted. And it's so interesting because this again requires a kind of slight of hand from the Canadians because the Prime mininister and the foreign minister know about this and about this plan. But to get this approved, they've got to go through a special what's called an order in council and have it waved through the cabinet effectively. And they do this. It's really funny. They do it through a side of hand where at the end of a meeting with the cabinet, they just go, oh yeah we' got that other thing to go, yeah, I think that's fine. No one's got any objections. Yep, let's go. And so that way, the prrime mininister and the foreign Secretary basically get this approved without having to tell the other people that they've just approved issuing a set of real stroke fake Canadian passports to these six Americans who they're going to try and smuggle out. So it's about still keeping it very secret within Ottawa and within the government, which they do very well And the Canadians do this without any any American pressure. They just they just do it. So by the time Mendees shows up, he's kind of thinking he might have to negotiate with the Canadians over these passports. And when he's meeting with this official he calls Lon Delgado After Mendees explains what he needs, Togado is like, I think we've already done that. So he he shows Mendees the piece of paper that's got this seal on it and and know, the order and councsel has already been passed through that clos session of Parliament. So They have the passports And I think Bendez is pretty surprised this. I think normally there's a bit more of a back and forth between intelligence services over these kind of documents. So that Americans have names alias names that they've and photos that they've got of the diplomats that they're going to use to make these real Canadian passports. they also get S more passports, backups, secondary passports for redundancy because And this gets to the nature of The detail oriented nature of the artist validators slash forgers and the document specialists inside the CIA's Office of Technical Service who are going to do this, where if that passport is being carried by one of the house guests out of Marabad Airport in Tehran That passport brand new It has to look Like there has to be a story behind and stamps and visas in that passport match their cover story for the persona that they have. And so you'd want backups in case you need to be flexible with the kind of documents and visas and stamps that you put inside it. So What Mendez doesn't have. So he's got documents or at least the beginnings of the documents He needs a cover story. who are these people? Who are they? If there's six people walking out of Iran or bicycling out on a three hundred mile mountain trail in the middle of winter Who are they? What are they doing in Iran? So Mendez comes back from this trip to Ottawa. He's got the passports and he is he's back in his studio. As remember, Mendees is a painter artist, an artist by by trading. And In his memoir, Mendees describes it as this moment of alpha where he's in this kind of right brain creative state and he's having a breakthrough And he's been turning over the cover problem. and Cver I think usually is designed to be boring. You don't want to attract attention It obviously needs to fit with the person, but You don't want immigration officers, you don't want people in the airport. You don't want anybody to kind of turn their head and focus on you or your subject Yeah, you'd normally wan to be boring. Boring is good. You want to be the insurance salesman. No offense to insurance salesman out there, but you know what I mean? or the that Sorry I feel pretty bad. Yeah, you should apologize. You should I was that was out of. That was me out of. It did it like that. You know what I mean. But the house guess They're not they're not really boring They're a big group. There's six of them it's going to be very hard for them. Bnd in And donon't have a sort of logical or kind of a shared background. that could be used to explain why they're all walking out of the airport together And so what do you do, Gordon with this group of people? Do you have lastast time we started off with you bashing a few of the ideas that had been ginned up. Where does Gordon Carrea's alpha, his creative flow take it I don't know. I mean you can't do the Gorevsky style boot of a car which of course, we've talked about in the past You know, the Matrocin on a boat I mean, the Straits of Hormmz, I guess in those days maybe were open. know and I' there about the good old days where you could just sail down the straits of Horm Mz without being bombed. So I guess I might have thought about that, but is more which is interesting because my head goes to smuggling them out you know on a boat or rather than just walking them out of an airport using the fact of a different identity and a cover story. But obviously that is the preferred option here. and Mendees has done it. And I think the answer on the smuggling side is And why that Wh he doesn't go down that road. Two reasons, maybe three The first one is I think it's logistically more complicated because you have to think about apartment arere they being smuggled out in? Is that a boat or? is that a car? It's six people. Do you need multiple vehicles? All of a sudden the logistics train to accomplish that becomes complicated. So that's one reason. I think the second reason is if you're caught You're dead. Yeah. And it's a mass know it's a massive flap. The third reason is that Mendez It maybe is a bit of recency bias here, but it makes sense. Mendis has just successfully walked someone. eight or so months earlier out of the airport the raaptor case. But I still find it bizarre that you don't go for a boring cover story. I get why the nutritionists and the teachers and the oil workers don't work sppoiler, as we know, he is going to turn to the craziest place you can imagine give them a cover story, which is if you like flamboyant rather than low key And I just find that a really surprising thing to do, I guess. But he goes to Hollywood. He does. he goes to Hollywood. I think not him be a Debbie Downer here, but One of the things that the film leans into very heavily is the flamboyancy, the insanity, the over the topness of the Hollywood side of this. I think the reason Mendez picks the Hollywood thing is because he knows that everybody knows a little something about Hollywood and about movies And so All six of them will in a very short period of time be able to get some veneer of a cover story together, whereas boring insurance salesman. Well being a nutritionist, you've got to learn about nutrition. There's going to be a technical mayaybe depth required there that wouldn't be as required on the Hollywood side. And there's the great line from John Goodman in the film where Bff B Aff the Mendez character says, can you train someone to pretend to be a director in John Goodman says you can train a Resus monkey to be a director. you know, it's just it's so good. So so Hollywood Hollywood Crs. are typically international. So, you know, group of Canadians coming in headed and out of around wouldn't look strange All the groups potentially going to Iran in January of nineteen eighty a group of Hollywood eccentrics sccouting desert locations in the middle of a revolution. It seems like something Hollywood types might do. No offense to our friends Los Los Angeles. And so the cover is kind of fun. It also gives, again, the idea that These house guests might need to lean into the cover and make it their own. It makes it fun in a way that maybe being a petroleum engineer isn't, although we're just workoutages. We're bashing all kinds of occupations on the pod today, aren't we I know I'm sorry And Mendees has deep connections in Hollywood this happen. The relationship between the CIA and Hollywood is fascinating, isn't it? Because it's got deep roots. I mean, Mendees personally has contacts in Hollywood But also the CIA has long been working with it. I mean, I know that when you go back to the Second World War, you go back to propaganda films, you go back to, you know, this is pre, I guess, CIA OSS they were working on making propaganda films. pushing anti Nazi messages, early Cold War. There's that whole era of Hollywood as propaganda, which has got deep roots Further back But there's also an operational side as well, which is interesting. Yeah, this is the propaganda piece is its own.s it's honestly probably its own set of episodes because it's such a fascinating thing. I was struck and just in looking into this a bit that the Office of Strategic Service, the frunner to the agency had film units Shot footage of the concentration camps after they were liberated, it was actually used at Nuremberg, and twelve OSS officers died while filming combat to use those film for propaganda purposes. So there's a whole separate kind of thread there. But the propaganda connections are not produces the Argo operation. This is muchuch less about propaganda and much more about technical Pase Because from the early seventies onwards, the CIAs Office of Technical Service, which is Mendez's crew has started contracting with Hollywood makeup artists, special effects builders, prop designers even stage magicians to solve operational problems that Langley on its own. And one of the central contractors is this guy named John Chambers, who again, is played by John Goodman in the film Mendez calls Chambers Jerome Callaway throughout his memoir because when Mendez was writing Chambers had not yet passed Chambers sort of like Goodman in the film is a larger than life character in real life. He's got his hair slicked back with the thick sheen of pomade on it Mendees described him as looking more like a bouncer than a makeup artist. He wears white short sleeve shirts and black ties.s got a big pinky ring. He drives a big yellow pontiac Very Hollywood. Very Hollywood. and he and Mendez are thick as thieves. So Mendez first met Chambers in the early seventies. on the set of a spy theme TV show. and Chambers had won an honorary Academy Award in nineteen sixty nine for the makeup work on the original Planet of the Apes. Very good film. Very good fil while researching this, that the best makeup Oscar didn't exist until nineteen eighty one. So up until that point Honorary awards were given out on a case by case basis and because Planet of the Apes was such an amazing achievement in makeup, Chambers got the honorary award. He invented the foam latex prosthetic techniques that were being used in pretty much every sci fi film of the seventies. He developed mister Spock's prosthetic ears For Star Trek. Now that is a big, that's a big one for me. I mean, mister Spock. But yeah, so he's he's he's a big, he's he's a really interesting character. And he's got this established record of working with the CIA. You were You were about to skip by the other John Chambers fact.t you give me more. There's more. There is a claim that he also built the Big fooot suit for the f the famous Patterson Giblin footage. Sor that fake footage of a supposed bigigfoot, basically or real footage of the actual Bigfoot, depending on your persuasion. Okay Maybe we should do an episode of Bigfoot. Bfot. So Chambers. So Chambers may have faked Bigfoot and he'll also play a role in staging a CIA rescue operation. So's he's an interesting character back to Argo. So CIA disguises, this is how tight the connection become between the OTS crew and Hollywood is that CIA disguise officers are actually doing apprenticeships on Chambers film sets, and Chambers in some cases is rotating into trading exercises that the CIA is doing at the farm in Virginia where on at least one occasion, he role played a fictional border guuard He's he's enmeshed and he and Mendz really really like each other Chambers helps Mendees with all kinds of wild operations, including how to make prosthetics that make Case officers appear to have aged twenty years overnight, change their bone structure with dental appliances to have a different gait, to walk differently. Chambers has this great line about disguise, whereace is the hardest part of the face to disguise. is the ear. Nobody looks at ears, but they notice them when they're wrong. So this is a guy who I think, like Mendeesz is a craftsman No, these are two. two craftsmen who just to end up in the middle of a spy story. So by January of nineteen eighty Mendes' headed back to Ottawa for another trip And this is a part, I mean, Gordon' just a nod here to the Canadian cooperation because there's a whole pce to the preparation for this X fil that is deep connection between the CIA's Office of Technical Service and the Canadians over how to make these documents. appear accurate for the X film Because again, I think you know the film kind of glosses over the extent to which it is the Canadians who are generating the documents and the kind of a lot of the detail of the identities for these Canadians because they're going to need more than just a passport. they're going to need driving licensces pocket litter, the kind of things you keep in your pocket. The Canadians are intrigued buy Tony Mendes' contact Delgado is intrigued isn't he? by the idea of this slightly crazy plan of of doing a Hollywood out scouting crew going out to Iran as being the cover story. And it kind of makes again, it kind of makes sense because Canada does do some filming. I don't think as much as it does now, but it has got its own domestic film industry. so it is plausible So at this point, the plan is starting to come back together between the Canadians And Mendes I mean, to show how enmeshed The Canadians are in this. Menders actually pitches the Canadians first on the Hollywood idea. They've got to buy into it. I mean in that sense, it really is a joint operation, I think, isn't it? Rather That's what I think. when you read it, it is a joint operation, rather than just a CIA operation. But anyway, let's keep going with this because with my thoughts on Bigfoot, I will not will Nope. No comment, no comment. I actually don't I don't believe in Bigfoot. Do you have a bigfoot thing in the UK? Well, we we got Nessi, got the Lo Ness monster. That's probably the closest thing. No, don't I don't believe in I don't believe in Bigfot I want to clarify I don't. So Mendez pitches the Canadians. Canadians kind of like the idea about the Hollywood cover And Mendees starts to work on a plan. And he actually inside Ottawa Station, writes up in L handand on a yellow legal pad, a sixteen page ops plan gets cabled to Langley And Mendez then flies back to Washington and has a meeting with higher ups inside the agency's Near East division, because again Mendes works in the Office of Tenical Service the Nar East Division has primacy for operations in Iraq So they need to be on board with this And there is a little bit of consternation about Mentez having run this through the Canadians first xcuse to be forgiven because the plan is, if not a good one, as the film says, it's the best bad plan that the CIA has. Now The Hollywood cover also could potentially solve more than just the house guas problem because We talked about this in the last episode. The Pentagon is deep into planning bigger rescue operation for the rest of the hostages who are being held at the embassy This will become known as Operation Eagle Claw operation, the plans are not firmed up yet by the time we're in January of nineteen eighty the operation won't take place until April And so the idea that there could be a pipeline of films scouts, a production companies sending people to Iran. interesting possibilities to get more people throughout the spring into Tehron and further that a film production might be welcomed by the Iranians because it could help promote tourism. And you know President Carter has just frozen a bunch of variety assets The Iranian regime is desperate for cash. know mayaybe a film shoot would help in that regard. So there's a thought that the Iranians might actually want to issue visas for film crews going in and out of Tehran Interesting though, Mendees says that even though Bureaucratically, it's starting there's some traction. The Canadians like the idea. the Nar East division likes the idea The Office of Technical Service, where he's working. they like the idea. He's starting to wonder if this is Baby Not such a good plan. He's expecting some pushback. He's not getting any has he overlooked something, but he seems to think in his gut that this is again, the best plan that they've got. Kight Mendees briefs his his boss on the operational plan and says that, you know, this is the team I want. This is that other facet of the film that is incorrect, which is that it's just Mendz U she'll have a deputy who works with him, There's a whole team of artists, validators and documents, people, and the Canadians, of course, Gordon, who are working working with him And on Thursday, the tenth of january, nineteen eighty, Mendees calls in his secretary and tells her to draw an advance of ten thousand dollars cash budget and finance, which is the maximum allowed without higher approval. Mendez said that anything more than that required, quote, the right hand of God. And he puts the ten thousand dollars cash inside a concealment briefcase and flies out to Hollywood So with Tony Mendez heading to Hollywood, where we all should be going. Let's take a break and we come back. We'll see how this Bizarre, remarkable, slightly crazy plan unfolds. See you after the break Hi, this is Garal Linica from Goldhangers, The restest is foootball. This episode is brought to you by Wise. 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Ask your doctor about trimphia Tap this ad to learn more about Trumvayia, including important safety information So welcome back, Tony Mendez with his Maybe preposterous. crazy plan involving Hollywood is heading out to California to try and see what he could do. And I mean, it's interesting, isn't it? he's come up with this plan, but he's also still got to get the Hollywood people on side. But perhaps Hollywood people like a crazy story Yeah. he's not going to get a lot of pushback on the idea spoiler alert from his friends in Hollywood. So So Mendees flies out stays at a small Hawaiian themed motel in Burbank, near John Chambers' home And the next morning shows up the chamers home at nine o'clock Jabers has someomeone with him at the house and Mendez had asked him to bring someone that he trusts The guy is Bob Sidell Alan Arkin plays a composite of Sideel in the film. Let Sidel will be the the third member of this trio constructing the cover out in LA. Sideell is forty two in nineteen seventy nine. He's also a veteran makeup artist, Chamers known him forever He is balding with a kind of neatly combed beard. He's got thick Gold frame glasses And he has made a career mostly at NBC working on variety shows. and what Sidell brings to the table is that he has got a gift for the logistics, the business of film production Now Sidel has no idea who Mendez is And he's just been invited over by Chambers for a cup of coffee. Because I guess Chambers, I mean, it sounds like Chambers has got to be pretty discreet about working with the CIA, although it does sound like he may have told some of his friends. I mean, who can resist you know letting slip over over a martini in Hollywood. that yeah, I'm doing some stuff for the CIA. But he's pretty discreet, isn't it about his work But Menders still gets a confidentiality agreement for them to sign. You've got to do that to impress on someone. This really a secret. Sure Mendez is also aided by the fact that I think M Americans are furious about what's going on in Iran. About the hostages Yeah, about the hostages' very visible. the publicly known hostages. Yeah, rather than our six. Yeah. And Sidel is one of them. It apparently launches into an angry Mendees asks if Sidel has been watching the news about Ibrad. and he says, yes and then launches into this kind of angry screet about how nothing's been done to bring the hostages back. and Mendes says, What if I was to tell you that Not all of the diplomats are being held at the embassy So Bendez lays out the, you know, the house guests and that explains that the job is is to get them out and thend pitches the Hollywood cover which is that these house guests will be a film crew scouting a location upcoming movie Side Een Chambers. Love the eight. They love the eight yeah. Ger They want to know what Mendz needs them for. And he Mendez spreads photos of the house guests across The table he's got photocopies of their Canadian passports. Mendes says, well, look, you know, one of them, Kora Lik Her alias name is Theereresa Harris. And Mendes says, well, you know, somebody might call and try to verify that Theeresa Harris is a real screenwriter So in other words, he needs he needs to cover backstuff He needans somebody to be able to answer the phone. And it sounds kind of simple But then when you start to peel all the different layers. becomes much more complicated. I dont think it's interesting remember he'srought the money He' bought ten thousand dollars cash in his concealment briefcase He actually has a support Metis has a support officer show up probably from LA station. and deal with the cash Because Mendees wants to make sure that all the accounting is right LA Mendes, Chambers and Cidel, the buddy handle, they start working Mendez is going to need a production company And he's decided to name the production company Studio six. after the sixth house guest in Te Rod. And the first priority is office space. So Sidel says, okay, that's easy. Hollywood production companies are constantly forbing and dissolving and the rental market is built for short term leases The mob in fact, the mafia out routinely launders money in this era through Hollywood by opening and closing production companies sometimes weekly. There's be no shortage of office space and it's not abnorable in nineteen eighty for someone to just start a production company. Sounds like Soho these days or round. if you go around there, how many kind of TV production companies? I'm not saying they're all funded by the mob just legally, just to clarify Is that are they are they cousins of the candy? the sweet shops off Oxford Street that are money laundering fronts. No, I think these are real production companies, but people who have not engaged with TV and film production imagine that they're all really massive companies. But often they are one producer and an assistant of maybe you know one other person involved in development. Sometimes there can be two, three And that's how big a lot of the production companies are who are actually, you know kind of coming up with the development of ideas. and then they work with bigger companies and studios to make it work. So you're right, it is entirely plausible that this company exists. And it takes about an hour to find office space. So there's a location called Sunset Gower Studios. It's independent, but it's on the old Columbia Pictures L. and they've got space opening up the next day Gon And specifically, these were offices that had recently been vacated by Michael Douglas, who had just finished producing the China syyndrome. So they've got three offices and a reception room Mendees says, great, if it was good enough for Michael Douglas It's good enough for us On Saturday morning, Mendez Chambers and Sideell drive down for a look at the office. Receptionist slides the word stududio six productions onto a placard slips it into a slot of the front door. There you go. G got your office space. The rest of the day They scrouch up furniture, typewriters, call in favors to get the phone lines connected. and they install, this is important, right? that the number doesn't look. strange and that it's listed So they install several working phone lines, including and they make sure that a few are listed in kind of key directories. Sidel will man the office and the phones for the duration of the operation because you You need a real person to answer the phone if someone in in Iran calls to check out what's going on at studio six. Snneidedell's wife, Andy is brought in to act as the production secretary Um And Sideell basically tells her what they're up to and that she's going to be working starting Monday in the offices of Studio six So by Sunday, now keep but Mendees has been in Hollywood for like forty eight hours at this point. And these's already got the company. They've got the production company. they have an office, they have phones They They did a movie, Gordon. You need a movie You need a movie What sort of film would you choose Well, I have to say, I would have been tempted maybe by a Western But they go for, I think my real choice, which is I do like a bit of sci fi Star Wars has just come out. nineteen seventy seven which is the kind of A surprise hit is a kind of sci fi western really set on tatooine with those great desert sequences, which were filmed, I think in Gunisia, weren't they and has been a huge hit for George Lucas. So you can see why sci fi is in the air. You've had the Frank Herbert books dune as well, which have been a big hit nowow big in cinema. But again, have this kind of exotic sci fi desert feel, that would be my choice and it is their choice because I think it's absolutely the right one. I think you might be there might be some kind of analytic bias going on here would youoosing choosing sci fi in the desert. Well, the same's true with with theun the Dune films, the recent films, which are largely the desert scenes shot in in Jordan. near near Wady Rum. So this connection of sort of Desert, Middle East location and sci fi s there's some grounding there from a film standpoint, and chambers tells Mendesz He actually has come across a script. pitched months earlier And it is a script based on Roger Zelazny's nineteen sixty seven Hugo winning science fiction novel, Lord of Light. Now the Hugoos are the premier annual literary awards for sci fi and fantasy. So the novels DO in the science fiction world world at a producer named Barry Geller the rights and put together a serious attempt to actually get this novel adapted for the screen Kirby who is a Marvel comics legend. He was the co creator Illillustrator of Captain America and the Fantastic fourour Had he been hired to do the concept art for this adaptation of Lord of Light Barry Geller, the producer who bought the rights had even envisioned a theme park based on the film In Aurora, Colorado, which is going to be called science Fiction Land. He's getting a little bit ahead of himself thinking of thehead ofself I always, you know Gordon, when I'm starting a novel, I always start with the theme park. what What's the theme park? Damascusation themeark Damascus station, the theme park. I start with a theme park and then the story just kind of just kind of gets built around it and there's there's there's concept arc of what the Park would look like and Berry Geller when he was asked why it wasn't built said gives a whole bunch of reasons that he's basically like it was going to cost a half billion dollars. It was just good it it was insane. It had like, levitating trains on magnets and stuff. You can find them the art online. it's quite it's quite amazing. The screenplay park had unfortunately, all of the financing for this had collapsed when Geller's business partner was indicted for embezzlement. The screenenplay, the concept drawings by Jack Kirby have it basically been sitting on the shelf and chambers. has copies of this at his at his home And he he hands the stuff to to Mendez And it's pretty I would I would we got to create a link to this in the show notes because because I say of it is a whileild I'm looking at something called pavilions of Joy Right now, which is kind of like It's semi Samurai. a slightly perhaps scantily clad woman stroke robot other things with guns. I mean it's like Yeah, it's it's unique Kind of, I don't know, it looks alm more like Japanese inspired, the Middle East inspired to me. But anyway, it'll do It's aeog it's sl it's geographically ambiguous, I would I would say. And the the slightly scantily clad woman, when I went deep in my researches on this.pe it. I discovered no these are so the big shape, the big kind of in this paviliions of Joy Picture, those are ten thousand foot statues. Oh, I see. o And then beneath that is is the sort of city Oh now now it makes sense. now it makes perfect sense. I mean should we try and summarize the of Lord of Light. I think if so es because I I know No, I so so what's what's really great f us down This this is where yeah, exactly fade fade D Bck is that I tried, I tried really, really hard to summarize the plot in a coherent way. And let me I will attempt it and I will try to do this punchually. okay. So Lord of lightight is set on a planet colonized by some remnants of earth who these people have found themselves on a strange planet surrounded by hostile indigenous races and had to kind of carve out a place for themselves or perish to increase their chances of survival Cw has used chemical treatments and electronics to mutate their binds and create enhanced self images or aspects quote strethed their bodies and intensified their wills and extended the power of their desires into attributesit A, which fell with a force like magic upon those against whom they were turned. But it does sound like the kinds of things some people in Silicon Valley are trying to do to themselves these days in terms of life hacking. It's ahead of its time. Its s, you've not finished. I thought you'd finish. But please, please give us more of the plot of Lord of L because I'm really enjoying it. The crew has also developed a technology. to transfer a person's soul electronically to a new body. Again, very Silicon Valley. Yeah, yes, yeah, exactly. Well this is what I mean, so we're ragging on this screenplay. I mean, this the novel won the Hugo. I mean, this novel was a big deal in the sci fi world of the nineteen sixties This reincarnation by mind transansfer has created a race of potential immortals and allowed the former crew members to institute something like the Hindu caste system with themselves at the top. Eventually, the crew use their now amazing powers to subjugate or destroy the native non human races, whom they characterize as demons, while setting themselves up as gods in the eyes of the many generations of colonists. progeny Wow. I'm skipping. Over some please do. Okay the protagonist, the protagonist Sam has developed the ability to manipulate electromagnetic forces. He's a renegade crewman who has rejected Godhood Gordon taking for himself essentially the role of Buddha And Sam believes that this technology should be available to the masses and that reincarnation should not be controlled by the elite. It is basically Hinduism versus Buddhism in space. But it also I kind of I'm actually having mocked it. I kind of think it's quite good because it's a bit like Sam, our protagonist. He is like fighting the Silicon Valley overlords who are trying to use AI to hack their own lives and upload the ss and create a caste system where they're at the top and dominating the rest of us. And Sam is like the every man You know, I'd like to think of him more like me really, kindind of heroic. Yeah, you have many s Sam you have many Sam like qualities. Yeah. I'm gonna suggest if the option is still out there for Lord of Light, you know, maybe maybe we could set up a little film production company. I think it might have some relevance. In some of the interviews he's given since the Argo operation was declassified, Barry Geller, the producer who had the rights was kind of pissed that they didn't buy it from it because they just they essentially just kind of took it. I mean so there's actually some some IP theft at the center of the story. Okay. well, we'd option it properly, whoever owns the rights because I think I think well think I think there's a way of doing it anyway. That's right. Back to Tony Bend back to Tony Bended. because I can see why he loves this because it's so nuts. And so crazy If you're trying to explain it to some Iranian border guard or cultural official, I mean, like they're going to go, yeah, kind of whatever. Okay, good stuff. You crazy Hollywood guys. If only they'd had the helpful summary that I wrote, they could have explained it coherently. Yeah, thank you for that. So there's the maybe the impenetrability of the plot, which is an asset because it's hard to explain. There's also the setting. and we talked about the desert, you know, kind of sci fi connection, the screenplay It' set on a desert planet. Ran has deserts, the architecture in some of these drawings, domes, arches, kind of intricate geometry kind of be a Hollywood designer's idea of some place in the Middle East. There's even there's a bizarre rendered in one of these drawings that kind of looks Grand Bazaar, the famous covered bazaar in Teran So it's sort of it makes sense why if you have this, you have this this concept art, you have this script in hand Maybe to maybe Iran makes sense if you're trying to scout locations. Now The title, Lord of Light They think it's too on the nose This's a country that's in the grip of religious revolution. they might also be changing the title for IP concerns later down the road. I'm just kind of guessing like maybe they're if we If we change the title into how this gets out Barry Geller won't sue us for having stolen his script And They go back and forth on some alternatives and chambers Jess Argo. Now Argo had been an office joke for a number of years. It was actually a knock knock joke chambers used when he was working with the OTS team with Mendez's team And it went this way, Gordon, it was knock knock. Mhm. who's that Argo Uh I'll go who? Argo yourself. Bleep gun Becky, please Yeah because I want to listen to this with my with my children. But that was so they would They would use that knock knock joke when they were working together to kind of blow off steam and Chambers suggests arrgo they have a name for this film So the film, the operation is. arrgo, the film is Argo Mendees grabs a yellow legal pad, sketches the studio six logo himself. It's a big red number six made out of film strips. Sideell and Chambers, as part of the cover, recommend they place an ad in the trades So a variety of the Hollywood Reporter print that this project is happening Then it it can look like it's happening. There can be sort of, you know, pllausible. Yeah. It's plausible create a full page black background ad with a planet exploding in the center and asteroids spelling out the title The tagline they come up with, which I think is great is Argo cosmic conflagration. Yeah, which was It would be a good subtitle for the rest is classified as well. on Monday morning Chambers, Mendees, Sidell, they walked the ad down to the Hollywood Reporter in Variety to place it. It's going to run on Wednesday, the sixteenth of January. teext inside the ad List the director who's One of the The personass alias personas Ameran diplomat. A producer Same thing and a screenwriter credited is T Thesa Harris, who in fact is Kora Lah who is one of the house guests in Tehran, The phones, this is crazy. The phones at stududio six start rigging immediately because real Hollywood agents and screenwriters see the ad. they want ad Yeah likeike who's directing the be? know how do we get, how do we get involved Interestingly, after the operation is over and the office has been shut down, twenty six unsolicited screenplays will have arrived in the mail at the stududio six address. I feel really sorry for those people who had sent their screenplay thinking I might have a chance of it's just ended up in the kind of rubbish bin of the CIA I mean, this has all happened incredibly quickly. I mean, Tony Mendes basically spends a weekend. Doesn't it? If have four days, something like that, a long weekend in their le sets up the whole thing, sets up the company, comes up with the idea of gets the adverts place and they're off. I find that extraordinary how quickly the whole package together, you know, including the screenplay, the drawings, the logo, the press placement, you know, a name, everything is suddenly together within that really short period But of course You need so much more You've got to cover, you've got the backstopping in Hollywood This is the kind of Non sexy part of this, I suppose You need a lot of documents. Yeah. just not just the passports that you have from the Canadians you need a load of documents. I mean What documents would you need, Cordon? Well, as well as the passport, you either need a driving license or something else. You might need a credit card or a bank card. You also just need the the stuff that you would carry around plausibly, which is I don't know, a library card or you if you're a screenwriter, you might have something from the sccreenwriterss guuild, I guess your union membership. it's all those kind of things you'd need little bits and pieces which which are more than the one document. It's the pocket litter, isn't it? The pocket litter of creates a plausible identity and particularly for these group of people who are supposed to be particular professions, you need all of that All of that is As I understand, it being developed in Canada. It's mainly being created by the Canadians using real Canadian. documentation rather than by the Americans, isn't that right So leading question, Gordon. I think yes, Canadian identities, Canadian pocket litter Canadian driver's licenses, right? All of this stuff is Canadian documentation. Again, the Canadians, not the CIA, are going to be the ones to deliver it through the diplomatic pouch, which I guess is an established way you can smuggle things into the country that they're not. seen or checked because those are the bags are carefully sealed. Well, they're not checked. But you have to be pretty confident of that if you're smuggling in fake identities because if they were checked and you could see that, you know, fake identity documents coming in, then you'd be looking for those people when they come out. So you've got to be very confident it's not being checked, haven't you I always find diplomatic pouches fascinating but but because they're not pouches. You know, a pouch makes it sound like it's a kind of large wallet or something like that. They're big bags, aren't they? Big bags. And in this case In this case, it's a Canadian diplomatic pouches mean it's literally a guy who takes a bag into the embassy hand carries it. And hand carries it the whole way. A Canadian citizen. so it's not an Iranian National is not handling at any point in its journey. So it's not going it's not it's not X rayed, intercepted, searched, nothing like that So all of that, you're right. It's being produced in this joint operation between the Canadians and the CIA in Ottawa. and then sent by diplomatic Pouch to Tehran Disguise kits. Now disguise full on. transformational disguises don't. play a role in this operation. So there's no prosthetics or anything like that that Mendez did consider it None of them had any experience with prosthetics And he felt like, you know, again, if you're going through the airport and your ear falls off, it doesn't look good. People pay attention. mache goes like that. Yeah, exactly So But they do have they do have a version of kind of light lighter disguise. So they send, you know, stylic gel makeup kind of mod glasses with thicker rims, eyeliner, you know, typed instructions for each person on how they could modify their appearance because At this point agency, I think, is working under the presumption that the Iranians know that there are missing Americans, maybe not exactly who is missing yet, but that there are missing Americans and they might have photographs of these people. And so you want to modify your appearance. slightly. They also send U you know, for example, I mean, if there' are a film crew You would need, you know, cameras, right? So they send prop kits. Cinematographer's viewfinder, a schedule of the phony film shoot because Argo is commencing principal photography in March of nineteen eighty. And so there's going to be a schedule for how the film would be madeade Studio six business cards, a copy of the screenplay The Jack Kirby concept are, those sketches You also need plane tickets. Mendez wants to do this on Swissir. There's a Tehran to Zurich flight It's exactly the route that he used to exfiltrate Raptor early in the year. to Switzerland obviously a neutral country The Swiss Air desesk at Merabad International Airport historically had light scrutiny. This is one of the other things that I think Bendez talks about pretty extensively in his book that you don't see in the film. is The CIA and potentially the Canadians. having sent in kind of peopleeople who had a legitimate reason to go in and out of Maribad as kind of probes to figure out exactly it sort of how it works. What documents do you need? How are they checked? Yeah, really important very up to date nitty gritty detail is really, really important. The Canadian ammbassador, to Taylor's wife had been booking and rebooking tickets across multiple dates. so that whenever the green light for the operation came They would have they would have seats on a flight on that day. The film shows the Brian Cranston character Affleck's boss in charge of the tickets but the real tickets had been purchased in Tehran by the Canadian ambassador's wife. The secondary documents you talked about, Gordon, Canadian driver' licenses, apparently very difficult to maintain because again, you want that to be a real driver's license. Mendez had just had one of his guys spending over a week in Ottawa working out with the Canadians, how you get the how you get the driver's licenses You need health cards. You need business cards, obviously, in each house guests name, right. that you mentioned the guild union cards, you need those. Receipts, ticket stubs, dry cleaning slips, like you need to look like you are coming from Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, LA, and that in your wallet in your belongings is the actual life of a person because you think like you don't travel with a bag that's totally empty of this stuff. Yeah. So once you've got all of that together, we're heading towards the end of January now, aren't we where effectively youve This. P And then you've still got to get it signed off, haven't you from the top And I think the other bit that's so interesting is the idea that It's going to be T people. at least, who are going to go into Iran to do it. So this goes back to this really interesting point It's not just seending these documents into Iran and then saying to the team, get out on you get out yourself but that Mendes is going to go into Iran to walk them out because he's got the experience to know how to help them build the cover. and to talk through the cover and to talk through the security at the airport to be able to do it properly. So that I think is one of the fascinating details of the operation. And he's not going alone, is he? He's not and this guy's totally written out of the out of the film by late January Mendez and his partner are in Frankfurt, Germany doing final preparations. Now his partner is a guy he calls Julio Julio is actually a guy named Ed Johnson who is a CIA linguist who had worked with Mendez on previous operations. And he's also got a lot of documents, expertise He is originally from the Midwest, but he' studied at the Sarbon in Paris. He speaks German, Spanish, Persian and French fairly valuable and very good with documents and in Europe Both guys we're going to go in Ed slash Julio and Tony They're going to go get legal visas to Iran under their alias identities. Yeah. And we should say that actually Julio, his name is now public and it's since been revealed, hasn't it? Because the shout out to the CIA's own podcast. Eone's got a podcast, David, even the agenents. So Lgly files. Shout out to Walt who presents it, who I know is they actually talk to the guy or they hear from him on the podcast and name him for the first time, Julio as Ed Johson a CIA linguist who'd worked with Mendez That's just come out in the last few years that the true identity of this person who'd previously, as you said, been kind of written out of the story to some extent. And but he is going to be going in on the ground with Tony. So both guys get these legal visas to Iran under their alias identities. againain, you don't You don't want to forge those if you if you can help it. And so Mendez on the morning of the twenty third of January dries from Frankfurt to Bon with a disguise officer to obtain his own Iranian visa Now, Mendez is going to use an alias of Kevin Costa Harkins who is allegedly the studio six production manager in charge of Argo. It is an alias that he has used before. He's already got these documents. he's got the sort of Ididentity of Kevin Costa Harkins, although now he'll be a production manager working on Argo Harkins, Thalias has an apartment off Girideli Square in San Francisco. No lovely Mendees doesn't say, but I think I'm reading between the lines a little bit here, but I think in reading The memoir I think it's an Irish That is my guess because I guess less likely to be I mean, the Irish identity is one that's probably going to arouse less hostility than a lot of other European or Western identities if you take it, you know, not in NATO. But it's interesting, isn't it? that people will still be quite careful about admitting what what nationality they might have used falselyreat to go places because it can still cause a diplomatic row. I mean, it's caused it when we've seen other countries use British identity, we've seen Israelis Mossad use it on operations and it tend to lead to a bit of upset Probably Irish, but we don't know For sure. And he uses a little bit of disguise, doesn't he to get in disg Yeah Green Turtaleneck, twweed blazer, clothing he'll wear throughout the operation He's got the Argo portfolio, the screenplay that sketatchches with him in case any Iranian consular officer pushes back. The clerk, when he's getting the visa asks why are you doing this in Germany rather than at H, but Mendees basically says that, o my idiom boss sent this Tex about a meeting in Tehran. I'm already on the road. And twenty minutes later, he's got a one month Iranian visa stamped into the Kevin Costa Harkins And presumably, although we don't hear about it in the Beboir Ed Johnson known as Julio Do does the same thing to get a legal visa to go into Iran. Now Mendes and Julio file a final fllash cable for approval on the twenty third of january nineteen eighty. Stansfld Turner, who's the director of the CI at the time replies very quickly, your mission is approved Good luck And per that plan Mendees is going to depart first And then Ed will follow him And the idea here is you don't want both guys to be together. You want to space it out. so you're arriving separately, but the weather conspires against them Mendez' flight is canceled. And so he and Ed are going to be on on the same flight and you know Mendees, I think this is very interesting because Turner, the head of the CIA has approved the mission. as they're getting ready to go They get word that the president, President Carter is actually going to weigh in and they should hold off as Carter makes a final decision. I mean, in the film, this becomes a big thing, but actually the idea that this rises up to a kind of presidential decision, I guess it's because of the risks involved particularly when You've got a hostage crisis with the known about hostages who are being held at the embassy receiving huge attention I guess the political risks are quite real for President Carter because if he authorizes an operation to get these people who actually the Iranians don't maybe don't even know about and it goes wrong And you then have Tony Mendez and Ed getting captured or, you know, these hostages being captured. That's politically disastrous, isn't it We do know how des sensitive these are these hostage situations are for politicians and, you know, particularly for Jimmy Carter. So there I guess there is that risk that he's going to do it. but credit to Jimmy Carter He backs them. He goes for it, doesn't he? He approves it. And the cable comes in. The President of the United States approves your mission Good luck. And Mendees is, I think, struck that he has the personal message from the president, but he's out the door. It goes to Frankfurt Airport. 's going to be on Luutans flight to Zurich and from there to Tay Ron, now he's sitting in the transit lounge in Zurich and Bendes is going through this kind of last minute gut check trying to feel out if there's any reason He should abort the operation And Ken he's doing this almost last minute risk assessment. And he writes that he has some momentary uncertainty Because again, he's just been in Iran helping Xvil rature months earlier. So and the embassy has been overrun. So in the back of his mind, he's wondering Are the Iranians going to know that it's me and might they be waiting to nam me you know, he thinks it's a very unlikely the moment of uncertainty passes and he He writes, this was a good ops plan and we were ready. and he will have Three days to take six American diplomats out of a country that is going wild with Revolution. So there we've Tony Medz having his gut check, believing the plan is good, but heading really into enemy territory with not just the lives of those six hostages at risk, but also his own as he and Ed head out there. Let's stop and next time we'll see how this be crazy plan unfolds. Just a reminder, of course, if you want to hear those episodes now