The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 53 I first learned of the CIA announcement when a reporter called to ask for my reaction. Stunned, I refused to comment until I could confirm that the agency had gone public. town had been briefly held by militants earlier that day and the residential com- pound barely escaped attack as well. Given that, and Britain’s generally high pro- file in Iran as the country’s former colonizer, the State Department concurred in the decision to put us back on the street. That Sheardown practically summoned us to take refuge so unhesitatingly made us feel less radioactive. When we arrived at his house, we were greeted by his lovely wife, Zena, and a stylish young man with large-framed glasses and curly hair, whom I assumed to be one of Sheardown’s assis- tants. Only when I asked whether the ambassador knew we were there did I learn that the curls belonged to Ambassador Taylor. He told us that we were welcome for the duration, and that he spoke for Prime Minister Joe Clark. This was a great relief. And, although the next 11 weeks had some exciting moments, from that point on I never really doubted that a way would be found to bring us home. The Shear- downs personally hosted us for most of that time, and offered a warm hospitality that more than overcame the fear and boredom of those difficult days. (Two of our group stayed at the Canadian ambassador’s residence.) In the first weeks of 1980, after we had been at the Shear- downs’ home for nearly two months, Bob Anders and I asked Amb. Taylor to send a message to Washington: It was time to consider us a separate problem from the hostages, since that crisis was no closer to resolution. The gist of our concern was conveyed, but it was probably unnecessary because Ottawa was already pressing Washington for a plan. They, like we, under- stood that each passing day increased the odds of some random event leading to our capture. Studio Six Opens for Business Fortunately, CIA operative Tony Mendez had already been thinking about how to get us out. Over the years, he had devel- oped many useful contacts in Hollywood. One of the best was John Chambers, a make-up artist who had designed Mr. Spock’s ears for “Star Trek,” as well as the humanoid monkeys in the original “Planet of the Apes” films. Chambers had pioneered make-up techniques that proved useful to the CIA’s disguise efforts, but this time his role was different. He and some associates helped Mendez set up a phony production company, appropriately named Studio Six. They rented office space, acquired the script that became “Argo: A Cosmic Conflagration,” and even placed a pre-production notice in the Hollywood Reporter. Mendez also offered two other escape scenarios, neither associated with Hollywood, but neither was as extensively fleshed out. When he traveled to Tehran and met with us, Mendez pre- sented all three options. But it was obvious that the Studio Six plan was his preference. Although the choice was not unani- mous, we agreed, partly on the assumption that Hollywood’s denizens live in the kind of unreal universe where a bloody revolution would not deter a plan to scout shooting locations. We were also impressed by the props, such as the script and storyboards, and the production company. Calls to the number on our Hollywood business cards would be answered. While we believed in the scenario, we were especially thrilled with the Canadian passports that contained our aliases. We did not learn until later that issuing these passports violated Cana- dian law and required an Order in Council, a procedure that had not been used since World War II. While I understand there was some bureaucratic resistance to this action, Taylor and Mendez rightly argued that we would be far more confident traveling as Canadians and therefore less likely to screw up. With the exception of a delay due to mechanical problems with the aircraft, we left Tehran on schedule. This is not to say that there was no drama, but in general the plan worked well. We landed in Europe, said good-bye to Tony, and moved on in the company of Sheldon Krys, then executive director of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. The plan was for us to go into hiding until the hostages were released, but the story of our escape broke almost immediately. So we returned home to a welcome we could never have imag- ined. The Project Gets “Wired” Soon after the 1997 CIA announcement of Tony Mendez’s role in our escape, media interest in the story again flagged. Nearly a decade later, however, in 2006, we were contacted by Joshuah Bearman, who was writing an article about the “Cana- dian Caper” for Wired . At the time I knew only a little about