bout de papier, Vol. 31, No. 2 (2021), p. 38
BY ANTONIO J. MENDEZ
AND JONNA MENDEZ
NEW YORK, PUBLICAFFAIRS,
2019, 238 PP. (HARDBACK)
ISBN 978-1-5417-6219-0, 248 pp
CANADIANS WILL REMEMBER TONY MENDEZ as the CIA operative who assisted in the exfiltration of the “American guests” in Teheran in 1980. This book is about his background as the CIA’s master of disguise, inventing ways to meet Russians in Moscow at the height of Cold War spying. Because these “meets” were risky, dangerous, frustrating or often impossible, the book relates how operatives confronting the impossible made them happen through magic and technology.
The answers were the “Moscow Rules,” the special operational protocols for collecting HUMINT in Moscow. Because foreigners in Russia stood out among the general population, the key for Americans operating in this environment was to disappear, “going black.” These rules were created by an imaginative group who exploited the operational methods of the opposition by deceiving the KGB with sophisticated, imperceptible slights of hand.
In the early days, a CIA officer would masquerade as another embassy staffer who did not draw KGB attention. From this tactic grew the practice that CIA officers posted to Moscow were measured precisely, hair samples taken, skin tones recorded, and clothing and shoe sizes noted. Facial impressions were made, wardrobes prepared, and wigs and prosthetics made. Disguises could be provided as necessary.
Speed and specially-constructed disguises were the key to changing appearances. In the space of 45 seconds, using “disguise-on-the-run,” Tony Mendez was able to transform himself from a conventional businessman in a black raincoat with an attaché case to a little old grey-haired woman in a dirty pink raincoat and a kerchief over her grey hair, pushing a shopping cart, in which the former attaché case was now a paper bag visibly filled with bread and other goods.
With the assistance of Hollywood magicians, Mendez constructed a Jack-in-the-Box. The idea was to “replace” a CIA officer in a vehicle by a “twin” after the officer, in a moment when KGB followers could not see the vehicle (turning a corner), jumped out of the slowing car, with the “twin” popping up to ensure that the right number of heads remained visible. The idea was born as m over a couple of beers (perhaps more than that) between Mendez and a colleague in a Southeast Asian city known as a regional sex capital.
Anatomically correct plastic sex of Cl dolls were bought, to be refurbished ffic¢ as more conventional “twins” of — _— CIA officers.
This is a fast-paced book, an excellent read. The examination of the Technical Services support activities for spying in Moscow during the 1980s adds a fascinating dimension to what we know of spy cases already in the public domain.
Tony Mendez died in 2019, shortly before the book was published. It is a testament to CIA officers who were the heroes of American espionage in the Soviet Union. It’s also an important contribution to a little understood technical niche in the world of intelligence gathering in “denied areas.”
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 31, No. 2 (2021), p. 38. Read the rest of this issue →
