While recounting ‘Argo’ rescue from Iran, CIA calls 1953 coup undemocratic

The Central Investigation Agency (CIA) has revealed new details about one of its most famous operations, and more. The spiriting out of six US diplomats who escaped from the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 has inspired a Hollywood movie as well. The film 'Argo' won Academy Award in 2012.

But CIA now officially describes the 1953 coup that it backed as undemocratic. The coup in Iran overthrew its prime minister and cemented the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The revelations, and admission, has come in CIA's podcast. The podcast, named 'The Langley Files' has till now released 15 episodes on the Android platform at least.

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The “CIA’s leadership is committed to being as open with the public as possible,” the agency said in a statement, as quoted by The Associated Press. “The agency’s podcast is part of that effort — and we knew that if we wanted to tell this incredible story, it was important to be transparent about the historical context surrounding these events, and CIA’s role in it.”

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Iran's mission to the United Nations was less positive in its remarks. According to AP, the mission described 1953 coup as marking “the inception of relentless American meddling in Iran’s internal affairs”. It also dismissed the US acknowledgments.

“The US admission never translated into compensatory action or a genuine commitment to refrain from future interference, nor did it change its subversive policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the mission said in a statement, according to AP.

The podcast has devoted two episodes to the 'Argo' operation that involved escape of six American diplomats from an extremely hostile Iran.

In the 2012 film 'Argo', Ben Affleck played the late CIA officer Antonio “Tony” Mendez. The podcast for the first time identified the second CIA officer who accompanied Mendez, naming him as agency linguist and exfiltration specialist Ed Johnson. He previously only had been known publicly by the pseudonym “Julio.”

“Working with the six — these are rookies,” Johnson recounts in an interview aired by the podcast. “They were people who were not trained to lie to authorities. They weren’t trained to be clandestine, elusive.”

But in the podcast aired about a month before Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel last Saturday, another brief exchange focuses on the 1953 coup in Iran.

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CIA spokesman and podcast host Walter Trosin cites claims of agency historians that majority of CIA's secret operations "bolstered" popularly elected governments.

“We should acknowledge, though, that this is, therefore, a really significant exception to that rule,” Trosin says of the 1953 coup.

CIA historian Brent Geary, appearing on the podcast, agrees.

“This is one of the exceptions to that,” Geary says.

(With inputs from agencies)

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