# Tony Mendez

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Tony Mendez," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tony-mendez/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The CIA exfiltration specialist who got the American diplomats sheltering in the Canadian embassy out of revolutionary Tehran in 1979 by inventing a fake science-fiction film production, the operation dramatised in *Argo*. John Kiriakou calls him "a giant in the history of the CIA", says the same of his wife, and rates the operation among the greatest the agency has ever carried out.*

- **Role:** CIA exfiltration ('ex-fil') specialist
- **Best known for:** The 1979–80 exfiltration of US diplomats from Tehran
- **The cover:** A fake science-fiction film scouting locations in Iran
- **Kiriakou's assessment:** *"A giant in the history of the CIA"*
- **On the operation:** *"One of the greatest operations that the CIA has ever carried out in its history"*

**Tony Mendez** was the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) exfiltration specialist who removed the American diplomats sheltering in the Canadian embassy from Tehran after the 1979 revolution. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s assessment of him is unqualified: *"Tony Mendez is a giant in the history of the CIA. His wife is a giant in the history of the CIA, and this is one of the greatest operations that the CIA has ever carried out in its history."*[1]

## The bicycles

Kiriakou confirms the film *Argo*'s depiction of the planning meeting, including the proposal it ridicules. The original idea was to give the trapped diplomats maps and bicycles and send them to the Turkish border, *"a terrible idea, because as he pointed out it was wintertime, and nobody rides bicycles in the wintertime, especially when you're going north into the mountains where it's even colder and with more snow."*[1][2]

## The fake film

Mendez's own proposal, to manufacture a science-fiction production scouting locations in Iran in the middle of a revolution, Kiriakou concedes *"sounds like a nutty idea too, but it actually worked."* The standard it met was comparative rather than absolute: he says it was once described to him as *"the least likely to fail of all the crazy ideas."*[1][2]

## What the meeting shows about the CIA

Kiriakou uses the scene to describe how such decisions are actually made. *"These are the kinds of meetings where you can just say the craziest thing, and if people deem it to be even remotely possible, they'll give it real consideration."*[2]

He attaches the standing rule that the *Argo* plan only barely satisfies: *"usually the operations with the fewest moving parts are the ones that are most likely to succeed."*[3]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [Spy films and television on screen](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/spy-films-on-screen)

## Sources

1. Ex-CIA Officer John Kiriakou Breaks Down Spy Movies (2026-05-19), at 27:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRJzaHMj2IY&t=1658s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-19-gq-ex-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-breaks-down-spy/
2. Ex-CIA Officer John Kiriakou Breaks Down Spy Movies (2026-05-19), at 28:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRJzaHMj2IY&t=1690s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-19-gq-ex-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-breaks-down-spy/
3. Ex-CIA Officer John Kiriakou Breaks Down Spy Movies (2026-05-19), at 28:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRJzaHMj2IY&t=1721s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-19-gq-ex-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-breaks-down-spy/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tony-mendez/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt