The Central Intelligence Agency this week revealed the identity of the second officer to participate in the 1979 Iran hostage rescue operation that was portrayed in the 2012 movie "Argo."
The CIA sent two officers to Tehran in 1980 as part of an operation to rescue half a dozen American diplomats who were trapped in the US Embassy for over one year by a group of militant students who had taken over the embassy.
The rescue involved the use of a fake scouting assignment for a science fiction movie as a cover story to sneak Tony Mendez, a CIA officer well-versed in disguise and forgery, and Ed Johnson, a linguist, into the country.
The agency declassified the operation in 1997, but Johnson's identity wasn't revealed for the first time until this week in the season finale of the CIA's recent podcast, "The Langley Files."
Mendez, who died in 2019, wrote a book about the operation that served as the inspiration for the 2012 film "Argo," in which he was portrayed by writer-director Ben Affleck. Johnson, who was mentioned in the book by the pseudonym "Julio," reportedly preferred to keep his identity hidden from the public.
"He was someone who spent his whole life doing things quietly and in the shadows, without any expectation of praise or public recognition," Walter Trosin, CIA spokesperson and the podcast's co-host, told The New York Times. "And he was very much happy to keep it that way. But it was his family that encouraged him, later in life, to tell his side of the story because they felt there would be value to the world in hearing it."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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