The Houseguests: A Memoir of Canadian Courage and CIA Sorcery

About this book

The movie Argo was fake before it was real. This is the story of the original Argo and of the six Americans who escaped the 1979 capture of the American Embassy in Iran. The author one of the six explains why they were in Iran what went wrong and how they managed to escape the embassy compound. As chaos increasingly gripped Iran and its government fell the Americans survived tension-filled days before reaching sanctuary with the Canadians. Then came an emotional roller-coaster ride long days of boredom punctuated by nerve-wracking episodes against the background of concern for their hostage colleagues and fear Washington had forgotten them. Finally the excitement of Argo the arrival of CIA operative Tony Mendez and his daring scheme to exfiltrate the "houseguests " as they were called in secret communications between Tehran Ottawa and Washington. Lijek explains how the six reacted to the CIAs "best bad idea" and what it was like to exit the airport with false papers hoping the plan would work as advertised. He presents an overview of the years that followed during which they repeatedly lied to hide the CIAs participation. He ends with the controversy that erupted when the CIA announced its role and continues to this day as what had been the "Canadian Caper" became something else at least in the eyes of many.