Oh, I lurves me a good adventure story, and holy smokes – if it’s a real-life one?
Man. They’re the best.
Ones like when H. Ross Perot made the move to get two of his EDS employees who’d been taken hostage in Tehran and imprisoned right after the fall of the Shah.
OMG, edge of your seat stuff right there, and it was for reals.
The unbelievable story of a Texas businessman who launched a freelance commando raid in Iran
In a dungeon in eastern Tehran, a pair of American business executives languish, their business suits disheveled, their skin sallow from lack of sunlight. They lean against the wall of their cell, picking at bits of bread as they listen to the cackles of madmen caged in some unseen part of the prison.
Outside their cell window, another sound is building: the angry cries of protesters approaching. Some of them are carrying rifles. The guards rush down the corridor and exchange gunfire with the angry mob. This is Qasr prison in Tehran. It’s 1979 and the country’s leader, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, has fled Iran, leaving behind a country in chaos.
William Gaylord and Paul Chiapparone, the two Americans, are tech executives from Texas, two guys just trying to do a job in a foreign country, who got gobbled up by the Shah’s secret police and stuffed into a dungeon. And they don’t know if the mob is there to free them … or to kill them.
Brilliant planning, brilliant execution, all on the back of big, bad all-American cojones.
…Not that the truth wasn’t plenty dramatic enough without embellishment. Though it’s now a forgotten chapter of America’s misadventures in the Middle East, the swashbuckling tale helped define our image of Iran and shape our foreign policy in the region, confirming a widespread view of U.S. President Jimmy Carter as hopelessly weak and Ronald Reagan as his muscular opposite. It also fed the narrative that American business could get things done that government couldn’t, feeding the move toward privatization.
…Unwilling to put up the “bail,” Perot went to the State Department for help. “A lot of them didn’t care,” he later said. “The State Department wasn’t really interested. Protecting American citizens is a role our government should perform. Private companies, private individuals shouldn’t be involved in this sort of thing. But if your government is not willing to protect American citizens, and if you have people in your company imprisoned in a country, you have an obligation to get them out of there.”
…According to Perot, who signal blasted the tale for years, Simons and his team of volunteers planned the operation for months. They built a fake prison and practiced the rescue over and over again. They drove and redrove the escape route from Tehran to Turkey until it became second nature. Ahead of the raid, Perot hitched a ride on an NBC plane into Iran. Posing as part of the camera crew, he dropped off a piece of equipment on their behalf and wandered into the city. Walking up to prison where they were then being held, Perot waltzed in the front door, signed the visitor’s log, and paid Gaylord and Chiapparone a visit.
According to Perot’s account, he walked into the prison using his own passport and accidentally ran into an old friend who was there on business, taking advantage of the connection to get a private meeting with his two executives. If true, the story would seem to undermine the idea that the executives were ever in danger or that a commando raid was necessary. After all, the Savak secret police were not known to grant their prisoners such amenities or to let random passerby sashay into the prison.
In any case, Perot got his meeting. His message was simple: Be ready to bug out.
It’s a wild mixture of myth and moxie, but it sure struck the right chord when the country needed it, however Hollywood the film version was.
Another rescue and successful extraction as thrilling and just as daring – perhaps even more so – went down this week, once again orchestrated by Americans.
And who they pulled out of Venezuela under the nose of Nicolas Maduro’s security forces has to have him shell-shocked.
Maria Corina Machado is a longtime Venezuelan rights activist, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and should be the president-elect of Venezuela.
…Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.
U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.
But she has been in hiding from the Maduro regime since January 9 of last year, when Maduro’s thugs detained her after she joined some of her supporters at a rally in Caracas.
Venezuela’s opposition says its leader María Corina Machado was briefly arrested and then freed after addressing a protest rally on the eve of President Nicolás Maduro’s disputed inauguration.
Machado, 57, was “violently intercepted” in eastern Caracas and the motorcycle convoy in which she was riding was shot at, the opposition said, adding that she was forced to record several videos while being held.
Venezuela’s information minister Freddy Nanez dismissed reports of Machado’s detention as a “media distraction”.
She missed the award ceremony Wednesday.
…Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.
“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Sosa said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”
But it turns out that her absence was due to the hazardous journey she’d embarked on, not because she was still trapped in Venezuela, where the regime had forbidden her to leave, thanks to a ten-year-long travel ban.
And it was a tale of disguise and high-seas adventure.
It took an American private rescue team 15 to 16 hours to get Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado out of her country and safely on her way to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize, and to be reunited with her family on Wednesday. The vast majority of that time was spent in rough seas, and the man who led the operation and met Machado on a boat told CBS News, “no one was enjoying that ride, especially Maria!”
“No one’s blood pressure was low, throughout any phase of this operation, including mine,” said Bryan Stern, a U.S. special forces veteran who heads the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation. “It was dangerous. It was scary. The sea conditions were ideal for us, but certainly not water that you would want to be on … the higher the waves, the harder it is for radar to see. That’s how it works.”
Such a revered and well-known face in Venezuela was hard to keep under wraps.
…Her high profile, combined with the Maduro regime taking “a very defensive posture because of the American military buildup,” meant huge risks for the operation, and Stern was reluctant to divulge much detail about the operation on land, “because we still have other work to do in Venezuela, and we don’t want to put sources and methods and people who worked on this at risk.”
But once Machado had been spirited off Venezuelan soil onto a boat, she was ferried to a rendezvous at sea, and Stern was there himself to welcome her onto his boat for a 13-14 hour journey to an undisclosed location where she caught her flight to Oslo.
He said around two dozen people were involved directly within his team, but many more played a role – from providing intelligence to translation and logistics – including some who may never even know that they helped.
Bryan Stern said it was a privilege to be asked.
…Stern said he received a call late last Friday and was put in touch with someone on Machado’s team — the first step in a journey that ended Wednesday with the Venezuelan opposition leader’s first public appearance in almost a year, just hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The preparations for the mission lasted several days, Stern said. Then, early this week, Machado made her way to a local fishing boat on the coast.
The boat set sail toward a rendezvous point at sea just after sunset. The sea was rough, with waves of five to 10 feet, Stern said, and the night was “very cold, it was very wet, it was very miserable.” But the rough conditions were part of a plan to ensure that other boats would not be in the area and to lower the likelihood of being identified by radar, he said.
Machado reached Stern’s boat, which headed toward the Caribbean island of Curaçao, from which she would board a plane headed to Norway.
“There are many things we had to go through, and so many people who risked their lives so that I could get to Oslo,” she said in a phone call with the head of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize, according to audio released this week. “And I am very grateful to them. And this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said, before adding: “I literally have to fly right now.”
Machado has said she will return to Venezuela, and according to the Wall Street Journal’s interview with Stern, he’s volunteered to help her go back.
But he hopes for her sake that she doesn’t.
…Getting María home to her children after two long years was the only outcome that mattered — and I’m so grateful we made that happen. We tried to get her back in time for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, but I guess I lived up to my reputation… always running a little late.
We wanted to make sure she was safe and that security and safety were preserved.
Timing aside, she is exactly where she belongs: safe from the Maduro regime, free of oppression and worse, and with her family. For the first time in two years, with a beautiful @NobelPrize as a symbol of her resolve.
What struck me most wasn’t just the danger or complexity of the mission — although very dangerous — but it was María herself. She’s a mother, a fighter, and a relentless defender of freedom and democracy. Watching her courage, grace, and unwavering resolve throughout this journey reminded me why we do what we do. What we as veterans fight for. She has been an inspirational hero of mine for many years and her fight resonates deeply with everything Grey Bull Rescue stands for.
…María, it was my honor to stand beside you… even though cold and wet. You are my hero!
What a story.
At HotAir, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.
But we can’t do it without your support.
Please help Ed, David, John, and me continue fighting back against government censorship by joining our terrific HotAir VIP community today. Use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
And thank you so much again for being here with us at HotAir.
