1 The Desert Angel Before dawn…secret meeting, Hashemi. Hashemi was supposed…“the United States is next!” Hashemi, Ebtekar’s Takeover in Tehran (TT). Few of the hundred…siege to the place, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, The 444-Day Crisis in Tehran (T444DCT). A CIA analysis…“prerevolutionary situation,” Carter’s Keeping the Faith (KF), p. 438. When the embassy opened…no imperial designs. Taheri’s Nest of Spies (NS), p. 92. By the fall of 1979…like a fort, Howland, Golacinski, Laingen, Limbert, Metrinko.
2 Would the Marines Shoot? A big demonstration…larger crowd, Laingen, Limbert, Golacinski, Hashemi. For a discussion of the tendency to inflate the numbers of “martyrs” at anti-shah demonstrations, see Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution (UR). Referring to the most notorious of the “massacres,” Black Friday, Kurzman writes: “Estimates of casualties on this day … range from fewer than one hundred to many thousands. The post-revolutionary Martyr Foundation could identify only seventy-nine dead, while the coroner’s office counted eighty-two and Tehran’s main cemetery, Behesht-e-Zahra, registered only forty” (p. 75). Shortly before…cars and on foot, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT and T444DCT. The plan had been hatched…would die, Asgharzadeh, Hashemi, Mirdamadi, Abdi, Naimipoor, Khoeniha, T444DCT. When Asgharzadeh…Islamic Republic, Rajaeefar, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, Khoeniha, T444DCT. The mullah’s ideas…source of all evil, Golpour, Kashani, Khoeniha, Tajzadeh, Rahnema’s An Islamic Utopia (IU). In sessions…blindfold that many, Hashemi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT, T444DCT. The planners had…traitorous administration, Mirdamadi, Asgharzadeh, Ebtekar, TT. The students had also…a statement, Asgharzadeh, T444DCT. Days after the plan was hatched…knew nothing of takeover plan, Asgharzadeh, Khoeniha, Ebtekar TT; Khomeini quoted on p. 58. Now, as Hashemi moved…what would happen then? Hashemi, Asgharzedeh, Naimipoor, Ebtekar, TT.
3 The Morning Meeting Walking down the wide corridor…feel for the place, John and Parvaneh Limbert. The morning meeting…voting with their feet, Laingen. Khomeini had…“the nation,” The Iran Hostage Crisis, a Chronology of Daily Developments, p. 35. John Graves…his staffing, DOS/ICA cable, Tehran 11376, 10/28/79. Laingen had…case basis, Laingen’s Yellow Ribbon (YR), p. 9. The decision… catastrophic, Laingen cable ref: State 256811, 9/30/79. It was…had answered, Jordan’s Crisis (C), p. 32. The embassy…for decades, Laingen, Golacinski, Morefield, Scott, Schaefer. Kalp, a CIA officer…not everyone could rise above it, Kalp. Some of those…peacefully resolved, Golacinski. Limbert then…report of the trip, Laingen, Golacinski, Howland, Limbert, Tomseth. Michael Metrinko…across the front yard, Metrinko, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Limbert.
4 We Only Wish to Set-in Kevin Hermening…closed and locked, Hermening. Inured to months…thin, vertical strips, Ahern, Laingen. A few of the Iranians who seized the embassy continue to argue, twenty-five years later, that they uncovered an American plot to overthrow the revolution, but nothing in the voluminous “Den of Spies” documents they seized, pieced together, and published in more than forty volumes makes their case. The documents do offer a fascinating look at clandestine American activity in Iran going back to the mid-twentieth century and dramatically illustrate the failure of the spy agency to accurately understand the forces leading up to the revolution. Just six months before the shah was forced to flee the country, CIA deputy station chief Jack Miklos wrote from Tehran, where he had been stationed since 1974, “Iran has now reached the position of a stable and moderate middle-level power well disposed to the United States, which has been a goal of our policy since the end of World War II.” In appendices to her book Takeover in Tehran, which she judged too hot for American publishers to handle, Massoumeh Ebtekar had all of the seized documents from which to choose her bombshell revelations and, out of the mass of material, chose two cables. The first is a portion of a letter by John Graves, attempting to analyze the revolution, in which he concludes that it was primarily a revolt against privilege. Graves’s assessment is dubious, and Ebtekar would disagree, but there isn’t the slightest hint of spying in it. The second document records a CIA meeting with Abolhassan Bani-Sadr in Tehran after the revolution, in which Bani-Sadr is revealed to be working long hours—“until after midnight on a regular basis”—and somewhat less than eager to meet with Americans (he stood up the officer at their first scheduled meeting, and kept him waiting for hours for the second). The Iranian official confessed he was concerned about making arrangements to bring his family back to Iran and offered his guest—there is no indication that Bani-Sadr knew he worked for the CIA—some broad and entirely innocuous insights into how the emerging government was taking shape. Hardly the stuff of a coup d’etat. In his office…out of his office, Rosen’s The Destined Hour (DH). Inside the front door…take more time, Golacinski, Howland, Sickmann, Gallegos, Moeller, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Laingen, Tomseth.
5 Michael, I’m Really Sorry Inside the consulate…on the roof, Lopez, Morefield, Queen’s Inside and Out (IO), Ode. In his second-floor…felt set up, Metrinko. Golacinski was…situation needed, Golacinski, Gallegos, Lopez, Sickmann, Limbert, Persinger, Joan (Walsh) Howland, Belk, Hermening.
6 Hostage to Whom? For What? Golacinski, Lee, Lopez, Morefield, Cooke, Queen, Lijek.
7 Shoot Me, Don’t Burn Me! On the top floor…nobody else was, Kupke, Belk, Barnes. At the foot…“them away!” Gallegos, Moeller, Hermening. Looking down…“burn it down!” Hermening, Golacinski. After seeing…everyone else, Limbert.
8 Ann, Let Them In On the other side…open the door, Laingen, Scott, Schaefer, Swift. The stash…locked it, Kupke. One of the marines…were there, Belk, Scott, Kupke. Golacinski was hustled… “Allahuakbar!” Golacinski, Roeder, Sharer, Kennedy, Belk, German, Sickmann, Hall, Limbert. President Jimmy Carter… “great day for football!” Beckwith’s Delta Force (DF), Burruss, Jordan, C, Brzezinski’s Power and Principle (P&P).
9 I Told You So Farouz Rajaeefar…she hung up. Rajaeefar. Other excited occupiers…“the Imam’s Line,” Ebtekar, TT. A few miles…embassy returned, Laingen, Yazdi, Tomseth, Precht.
10 I’m Going to Cut Out This Eye First Inside the chancery…to the roof, Ahern, Barnes, Kupke, Hermening, Howland. The phone lines…he said, Howland, Koob, Royer, Englemann, Jones, Golacinski.
11 Gaptooth Kupke’s pockets…evident disbelief, Kupke. The description of Sheikh-ol-eslam is drawn from several of the hostages who came to know him well, among them Daugherty, Ahern, Kupke, Scott, Metrinko, and Limbert, as well as from photographs taken at that time. With men grabbing…walked away, Ahern memo to CIA director, from National Security Archive.
12 Go and Kick Them Out
