TEHRAN, Jan 21 - The secret agent pulled six US spies from Iran after the Islamic Revolution and received one of US intel’s highest awards.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Tony Mendez, a CIA secret agent who pulled an exfiltration operation in Iran, upon which a 2012 Ben Affleck movie was based, died Saturday in an assisted-living facility outside Washington, according to a WGBH radio report.
The agent remained in the shadows for nearly two decades after the operation in Tehran, and only became known after Ben Affleck filmed his movie Argo in 2012.
In 1979, the US-backed Shah of Iran fled the country and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power. Iranian revolutionaries stormed the US embassy which was at that time te den of US spies, taking all US pseudo-diplomats inside hostage.
Six of these US spy diplomats not at the embassy at the time made it to the Canadian embassy and found shelter there.
In January 1980, Mendez was sent to Iran to "exfiltrate" the very six operatives. Exfiltration — the clandestine smuggling of people from countries where they are believed to be endangered — was Mendez's specialty.
He had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease. At the CIA, Mendez specialised in disguises, forgery and rescues.
Source: Sputnik News, BBC News
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