Film company helped escape—Mr Carter

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 13

Film company helped escape—Mr Carter

NZPA-AP Atlanta The former United States president, Jimmy Carter, says a small documentary film company, financed by the C.1.A., helped six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis early in 1980. “We had to get word to (the Americans) to have some communication her tween me and them, so we chose one of these little companies, one making motion pictures and documentary films," Mr Carter said. “They were the ones who really orchestrated the escape of the Americans in the (Canadian) Embassy,” he said. Mr Carter related the story during a meeting with editors and publishers of Cox Newspapers. His comments were reported in the combined editions .of the “Atlanta Journal” and the “Atlanta Constitution.” After Iranians stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979, six embassy employees hid at the Canadian Embassy. Officials, concerned about the safety of the 52 hostages being held in Tehran, said little at the time about how the six left Iran. “I spent an awful lot of time trying to figure how to get them out without revealing their presence,”

said Mr Carter, who has called the 444-day hostage crisis the most difficult period of his presidency. He said the film company, which he did not identify by name, was able to work undetected because the Iranian leader. Ayatollah Khomeini, wanted as much publicity as possible about his revolution. Mr Carter said intelligence agencies in the United States and in other nations routinely used companies one or two steps removed from the Government to perform certain functions. He said that one agent involved in the Americans’ escape had a close call with Iranian officials. The agent arrived in Tehran with a German passport under the name of Eric Schneider, according to Mr Carter. He said the customs official said, “I have seen thousands of German passports, and I have never before seen one with an initial, so something must be wrong.” The agent, however, did some fast thinking, and responded, “Is it all right if I tell you something confidential? ... My middle name is Hitler and I got special permission not to put that on my passport,” Mr Carter said. The agent was let throughr he said.