Inside Iran’s Museum of American Espionage

So we’re right here outdoors the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran. Right here we’ve got an apple with the CNN brand. The Twin Towers interspersed with the greenback signal. The Statue of Liberty. This is likely one of the most photographed partitions, in all probability in all of Tehran. Individuals know this as the previous U.S. compound. However to Iranians, this is named the “U.S. Den of Espionage Museum.” And naturally, what occurred right here is on the root of the hostility between the U.S. and Iran for over 4 many years, a hostility that escalated lately. In June, Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, leading to a brief however intense struggle that rattled the capital, killing a whole lot. Overseas journalists face restricted entry in Iran, however throughout a latest journey, officers allowed us to go to the previous embassy, the place a lot of the present animosity traces again to. On November 4, 1979, Iranian college students stormed the embassy, fearing the U.S. deliberate to revive the Shah, or king, who had been deposed months earlier. They held 52 hostages for a complete of 444 days. [Voiceover] “The scholars had restricted outdoors contacts with the hostages. Thus far they’d refused to ahead letters to their captors.” “How will you name these hostages? These persons are political smugglers.” “I introduced a collection of financial and political actions.” “We’re past the time for gestures. We wish our folks to be let loose.” Six C.I.A. officers have been among the many hostages, the U.S. authorities later stated, accusing Iran of violating diplomatic conventions. A long time of tensions would observe. “So this was in the course of the hostage disaster?” “After the hostage disaster.” “After the scholars got here in.” Twenty-one-year-old Amir is working right here as a information as a part of his obligatory army service. Like many in Iran, the place self-censorship is widespread, he requested us to not use his final title. “Sometimes, how many individuals go to this museum yearly?” “It’s about 5,000, most of them from Asia. However hardly ever we’ve got guests from U.S. and U.Ok. too.” That is the previous U.S. ambassador’s workplace. It’s been fastidiously preserved to look largely prefer it did earlier than the hostage disaster. When it turned sure that the scholars have been taking up the embassy, the Individuals inside desperately tried to shred as many categorized paperwork as they may. “These are the well-known shredding machines in all probability identified to most Individuals from the film Argo, proper?” “The scholars tried to get well a few of these paperwork. It took six years to reassemble the shred papers collectively. And, after restoration, college students categorized all these paperwork as a ebook.” There’s a specific give attention to this a part of the museum, which is introduced because the C.I.A. station. It’s stuffed with spy tools. There’s encryption gadgets, there’s an eavesdropping machine. There’s a safe room simply behind me. And for the regime right here that’s introduced as proof that this constructing wasn’t simply used for diplomacy, however was additionally used to surveil Iranians and, as they see it, to meddle of their affairs. “That is all the fabric for tapping communications, monitoring communications.” “Yeah, I imply, I obtained to say, it’s extra elaborate than I’d have imagined, proper? It provides you an perception into what espionage regarded virtually 5 many years in the past.” The message on the museum was clear for its guests, together with the handful of overseas journalists, like us, who had been allowed in. The Individuals have been untrustworthy then and shouldn’t be trusted now. Many Iranians instructed me they considered the museum as a relic of the distant previous, however they have been additionally on excessive alert because the struggle in June, and fears that combating with the USA might begin at any second. A reminder that this troubled historical past nonetheless rings loud at present.