Argo - Bicycle Escape Plan for Hostages
Robert Pender:
What we like for this now are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Shemiran district — a couple of rat lines through the mountains to the crossing at Tabriz. Cars are off the table because of the roadblocks.
Jon Bates:
We wait until the weather clears up then deliver the six bikes, provide them with maps to the Turkish border.
Adam Engell:
We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we’re prepared to send in somebody to teach them.
Tony Mendez:
Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade. It's 300 miles to the Turkish crossings. They'd need a support crew behind them with a tire pump.
Engell:
We've only been asked to sharpshoot this, State's handling the op.
Pender:
Who is...?
Jack O'Donnell: [[w:Shah Reza Pahlavi|Shah]
Tony's an exfil spesh. He got a lot of the ]'s people out after the fall.
Mendez:
Sir, if these people can read or add, pretty soon they're gonna figure out they're six short of a full deck. It's winter. You can't wait around until spring when it's nice enough to take a bike ride. The only way out of that city is the airport. You build new cover identities for them, you send in a Moses, he takes them out on a commercial flight.
Bates:
We've explored those options.
Engell:
They're never going to get past airport control. Komiteh own the place.
Bates:
They could pose as reporters. The government issued seventy-something visas for American journalists.
Mario Malinov:
Seventy-four. And the Revolutionary Guards keep them on 74 leashes.
Mendez: [[w:Peter Jennings|Peter Jennings'; ...]
If they're caught with fake journalist creds, it's ] head in a noose in an hour. Sir, exfils are like abortions. You don't want to need one, but when you do, you don't do it yourself.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.