Monday, November 19, 2012

THE ‘CANADIAN CAPER:’ THE REAL ‘ARGO’

UPDATE: Contradicting former Carmel Mayor Sue McCloud’s exfiltration post-escape account, Mark J. Lijek, former Foreign Service Officer and one of the “Canadian Caper six,” gives his insider’s account in his 2012 book entitled “The Houseguests: A Memoir of Canadian Courage and CIA Sorcery,” pages 205-220 (paperback edition).
To expand on the 2 November 2012 article in The Carmel Pine Cone entitled “McCloud's role in 'Argo' revealed,” a comprehensive account of the CIA’s role in the “Canadian Caper” is embedded by former CIA agenda and “exfiltration” specialist Antonio J. Mendez in “A Classic Case of Deception CIA Goes Hollywood.”
CIA Goes Hollywood

BACKGROUND: The “Canadian Caper” refers to the rescue effort, that is, the escape of Robert Anders (Consular Officer), Mark J. Lijek (Consular Officer), Cora A. Lijek (Consular Assistant), Henry L. Schatz (Agriculture Attaché), Joseph D. Stafford (Consular Officer) and Kathleen F. Stafford (Consular Assistant) from Tehran, Iran on January 28, 1980, by the Canadian Government and the Central Intelligence Agency.  

TIMELINE:
November 4, 1979: U.S. Embassy Tehran taken. Six Americans escape.

November 10, 1979: Canadians provide refuge for six “houseguests.”

Hostage negotiations stall. CIA plans extraction. Canada provides passports.

January 28, 1980: Argo implemented. The six escape. CIA role remains secret.

September, 1997: CIA declassifies Argo.

VIDEOS:
Canadian Caper: 6 Americans escape from Iran with the help from the CIA and the Canadian (1981)
Note:  This documentary, called "Escape from Iran: The Inside Story," was filmed by Les Harris before anyone knew about the CIA's involvement in the escape plan.  When the escapees are interviewed, they do not reveal the actual back story involving the film-production company.  

Fareed Zakaria GPS The real “Argo”

Lord of Light
Errol Morris Series First Person

Fmr. Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor -- "Our Man in Tehran" INTV

ENDNOTES: 

1.  The “Canadian Caper” six departed Tehran, Iran and arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on January 28, 1980. Sheldon Krys, then executive director of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, met them at the other side of Swiss immigration and customs. The six were taken to the residence of the US ambassador in Berne, Switzerland. Two days later, on January 30, 1980, they arrived in the United States at Dover Air Force Base, Dover, Delaware.

2. Due to the publication of a news article involving the “Canadian Caper” six and the Canadian Government by Jean Pelletier, the Washington correspondent of Montreal’s La Presse, on January 29, 1980, the six Americans returned home to the United States on January 30, 1980.

3.  “Iranian authorities had adopted a two-sheet embarkation/disembarkation form. This form was printed on carbonless paper and filled out by the traveler upon entry. The authorities retained a white sheet, and the traveler retained a yellow copy to present at the exit control point when departing. The clerk was supposed to match the two forms to verify that the traveler left before his visa expired.” Fortunately, according to the account by Antonio Mendez, “The Iranian official at the checkpoint could not have cared less. He stamped each of us out and collected the yellow forms.”

4.  Upon review of the passports, Canada’s Farsi-speaking Political Officer Roger Lucy noticed that American officials had marked the Canadian passports with the wrong Solar Hijri Calendar date thereby indicating the six Americans departing Iran prior to the six Americans arriving in Iran; Canadian officials corrected this error.  Otherwise, Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor said, “that would have been game over.

REFERENCES: 

“AGRO” HOW HOLLYWOOK DOES HISTORY, Mark Lijek, Foreign Service Journal - October, 2012

I Was Rescued From Iran It wasn’t like the movie.
By Mark Lijek Posted Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012 

The Houseguests: A Memoir of Canadian Courage and CIA Sorcery [Kindle Edition] Mark Lijek (Author) (September 2012)

“AGRO,” Carole D. Bos, J.D., October 2012

Ken Taylor and the Canadian Caper, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Modified October 2012


Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History [Kindle Edition] Antonio Mendez (Author), Matt Baglio (Author) (September, 2012)

Our Man in Tehran: The Truth Behind the Secret Mission to Save Six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Ambassador Who Worked with the CIA to Bring Them Home Robert Wright (Author) (January 2011)

The Canadian caper / Jean Pelletier & Claude Adams (1981)

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