[LINK] Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, spy in Iran

[rfmcdonald]

When I was younger, I remember reading about Canadian ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor, who, during the Iranian Revolution, hid six Americans who would otherwise have been taken hostage at the American embassy and smuggled them out. It turns out he did other things, too.

While the former Canadian ambassador to Iran is already well known for keeping six American diplomats in hiding after the U.S. embassy was overrun by radical Iranian students, a new book reveals he was also Washington's "most valuable asset" at the time - a strange role for Canada's most senior diplomat in the country.

"Diplomacy can take odd turns," said 75-year-old Taylor in an interview Saturday. "I think this was a highly unusual situation."

"Our Man in Tehran," by Trent University historian Robert Wright, covers Taylor's 30 months in Iran, with two chapters detailing a request the ambassador provide "aggressive intelligence" for the U.S. in a deal between American president Jimmy Carter and then prime minister Joe Clark.

In a hush-hush operation, an agent flown in by the CIA, code-named "Bob," as well as Taylor's chief accomplice Jim Edward, worked with the former ambassador as he smuggled his reports from Tehran to Ottawa. Much of this was in preparation for a commando raid to free American hostages held at the ransacked U.S. embassy.

While Taylor admits there were numerous elements of espionage involved in his work during that tumultuous period, calling him a CIA spy may be pushing it.

"It's a convenient label," said Taylor with a chuckle. "I was never employed by the CIA, nor was I in direct contact with the CIA."

[. . .]

As a senior diplomat, Taylor's involvement in the clandestine intelligence-gathering operation put him and Canada's diplomatic relations in the country at considerable risk had they been discovered, said Whitaker.

In terms of foreign policy however, Whitaker said Taylor's actions were not really ones that generate serious questions that could have been the case if a similar operation had gone on in Iraq for example, a country where U.S. and Canadian policy has differed substantially.