So we’re right here outdoors the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran. Here we’ve got an apple with the CNN emblem. The Twin Towers interspersed with the greenback signal. The Statue of Liberty. This is among the most photographed partitions, in all probability in all of Tehran. Americans know this as the previous U.S. compound. But to Iranians, this is named the “U.S. Den of Espionage Museum.” And after all, what occurred right here is on the root of the hostility between the U.S. and Iran for over 4 a long time, a hostility that escalated not too long ago. In June, Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, leading to a brief however intense warfare that rattled the capital, killing a whole bunch. Foreign journalists face restricted entry in Iran, however throughout a current 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 college students had restricted outdoors contacts with the hostages. So far they’d refused to ahead letters to their captors.” “How are you able to name these hostages? These individuals are political smugglers.” “I introduced a collection of financial and political actions.” “We’re past the time for gestures. We need our folks to be let loose.” Six C.I.A. officers have been among the many hostages, the U.S. authorities later mentioned, accusing Iran of violating diplomatic conventions. Decades of tensions would observe. “So this was through 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 navy service. Like many in Iran, the place self-censorship is widespread, he requested us to not use his final identify. “Typically, how many individuals go to this museum yearly?” “It’s about 5,000, most of them from Asia. But hardly ever we’ve got guests from U.S. and U.Ok. too.” This 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 on the embassy, the Americans inside desperately tried to shred as many labeled paperwork as they might. “These are the well-known shredding machines in all probability identified to most Americans from the film Argo, proper?” “The college students tried to get better a few of these paperwork. It took six years to reassemble the shred papers collectively. And, after restoration, college students labeled all these paperwork as a e-book.” There’s a selected give attention to this a part of the museum, which is offered 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 offered 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. “This is all the fabric for tapping communications, monitoring communications.” “Yeah, I imply, I received to say, it’s extra elaborate than I might have imagined, proper? It offers you an perception into what espionage seemed virtually 5 a long time 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 Americans have been untrustworthy then and shouldn’t be trusted now. Many Iranians advised me they seen the museum as a relic of the distant previous, however they have been additionally on excessive alert for the reason that warfare in June, and fears that preventing with the United States might begin at any second. A reminder that this troubled historical past nonetheless rings loud immediately.
