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ProloguePhiladelphia, 2012
 Max’s Radar Affair,
the handwriting across the file said. I recognized my mother’s cursive —as well as her flair for drama. he story contained in this file had all the mar!ings of a classical affair. "ecret meetings. #naccounted$for hours. %ivided loyalties. &or thirty years, the file had lain dormant at the 'ottom of this 'o(—which had followed us )opelands from Iran to Pennsylvania, through four su'ur'an homes, to the dusty corner of the li'rary where it now resided. In a strange way, I 'elieve it was my father’s will that I found the file. *ast wee!, a land  prospector called with news of mineral rights that once 'elonged to my dad. +hey’re yours if you can prove ownership, she told my mother, who promptly dispatched me to the study to locate my father’s will. I was 'uried deep in the wilderness of 'o(ed diplomas, old address  'oo!s, photos, ta( files, and receipts, when from the 'ottom of a 'o( of relics, the past coughed up a different nugget.+-pen it, my mother said. Into our laps spilled several documents. he first was a newspaper clipping dated ovem'er 2/, 1/.
CIA Agent Smuggling RadarEquipment Caught
 November 27, 1979
34—he 3evolutionary 5uards here arrested a )I4 agent who was trying to smuggle eight console radar machines to the #nited "tates. 6a( )opeland, whose nationality was not identified yet, had 'oo!ed eight 'o(es of radar e7uipment 'elonging to the Iranian 4ir &orce at 6ehra'ad customs destined for the #nited "tates . . .4 succession of other documents fell from the file, their pages delicate and crisped 'y time. here was a formal re'uttal written 'y my father disputing the charges. 4n affidavit from "ecretary of "tate )yrus 8ance. 4 pac!ing list. 4 long letter from my mother to Iranian president 9anisadr—a review of which 'rought tears to her eyes. +:ou !now, of course, your father was a )I4 agent, she said. It was not the first time I’d heard her say this. I suppose a review of salient facts did suggest a career in intelligence; low$profile <o's in defense and high$tech industries. 9road !nowledge of Iran. 4nd he was caught up in an international incident that somehow never got any play 'eyond those couple paragraphs in the
Tehran Times
. 9ut a )I4 agent= I remem'ered him as an academic whose greatest hours were spent in the company of 'oo!s. 4 hunter. 4 mindful adventurer who could never 7uite get enough of mountain ranges, seascapes, and the oddities of different cultures. It ir!ed me, hearing her call %ad a spy.+ell me a'out %ad’s arrest, I said.+>hy must we tal! a'out the past when you !now it gives me a headache= she replied— never mind that the past was all around us, splayed out in an accordion of yellowed documents. +4nyway, haven’t you heard this story enough times=I !new the tale well enough, 'ut somehow it had never sat right. 6y father was too sincere to traffic in government secrets. is love for Iran was genuine. 9ut ever since the )I4 had organized a revolution in 1?@, Iranians have come to distrust the motivations of 4mericans. Aust a couple of years ago, three 4merican hi!ers had 'een accused of espionage after +inadvertently crossing into Iran. It was of course a perfectly ridiculous claim—every 'it as
 
a'surd as their choice of destination—'ut it prompted my mother into her latest act of volunteer diplomacy. "he drew up a letter to illary )linton offering personally to negotiate their freedom.+I sacrificed much more for your father, a real$life spy, so why shouldn’t I defend these innocents= she said.It didn’t cross her mind that at eighty, she might no longer have the connections needed to pull it off. 9ut even today, you cannot underestimate her. "adly, she did not hear 'ac! from "ecretary of "tate )linton. -r may'e she never got around to mailing the letter. 9ut that afternoon for the gazillionth time, she recounted the events leading to my father’s capture andresulting trial.hrough the years, with each retelling, I felt a deeper regret that I didn’t !now my father  'etter. 4ll children have unresolved 7uestions a'out their parents, of course, 'ut this was no trifling matter. >as he a spy= hen it struc! me; I had a file on my father. If he had 'een a )I4 agent, they’d have a file on him, too.hat wee!, in a 'id to put the past to rest once and for all—for myself and my mother andsister—I filed a &reedom of Information 4ct re7uest with the )I4. Passed into law 'y President )linton, the act allows previously classified documents that were more than twenty$five years old to 'e released. If my father were a )I4 agent, his file would certainly meet these guidelines. 4 dead agent doesn’t worry a'out his cover 'eing 'lown, right= I also filed in7uiries with the &9I, the %epartment of %efense, the "tate %epartment, and President )arter. 4 flurry of letters flew out into the world, each a 'id to open my father’s long$dormant past. I held out hope that someone, somewhere !new something—and, li!e the file I’d unearthed, that thing would fall gracefully into place.>hich <ust shows you how much I !now a'out the world of intelligence.>hile waiting for responses to come in, I 'egan writing this 'oo!. 6y mother’s story is easy to tell for she is an ardent, often glittering storyteller. 6y father’s was tric!ier—the dead tellno tales. e was a notoriously private man. he story of his capture, imprisonment, and trial I  pieced together from <ournals, notes, memories, and shards of conversation I recall from 7uieter moments. 9ut much of his interior life and motivations had 'een shrouded from me.>hile writing, a curious thing happened. 4t times I heard his voice in my head, which was lovely and disconcerting. I 'egan to feel closer to him.I have an 4merican father and an Iranian mother. I have the 'lood of the 5reat "atan and the 4(is of vil in my veins. he year 1/ launched the Iranian revolution and Islamic fundamentalism on an unready world, and in revisiting that year and its dramatic events, I saw how the fracture 'etween the two countries was written into my parents’ marriage—and played itself out in microcosm while Iran and 4merica did 'attle. -ur story was a prism. >hile all eyes were on the hostages, our crisis played out in <ail, in court, across international 'orders—and in  private.>as my dad a spy= >ere the charges leveled against him true= >ere my father alive today, he’d have pushed up his glasses and said in a voice that left little room for discussion, +)yrus, I don’t want to tal! a'out it. 9ut we )opelands had an adventure, a tale that goes 'ac! three decades to the fault lines 'etween Iran and 4merica. 4nd it needs to 'e told.Part I $ 4 unting (pedition"hahinehran, 1/
 
In 4merica, a peanut farmer rules the free world. ere a !ing is deposed from his  peacoc! throne, ending twenty$five hundred years of monarchy. 5od have mercy, the revolution has arrived. It’s 'een months since the "hah left—leaving the country in the hands of 'earded hooligans and a rotating roster of ministers, most of whom last 'arely longer than a carton of mil!. he prisons have 'een emptied and refilled. ach day 'rings more prohi'itions; ties,  perfume, nail polish, ma!eup. 4nd more e(ecutions; generals, "484B agents, )ommunists, drugoffenders, Burds, 9ahais, intellectuals, political dissidents and holdovers from the prior regime, their names written on their foreheads for identification—their 'lood running from vin’s prison grounds.>elcome to the Islamic 3epu'lic of Iran.&or the record, her name is "hahin 6ale!i )opeland. "he is an inveterate royalist and always will 'e. %id the "hah not launch a >hite 3evolution that gave women the vote, peasants the land they’d farmed, illiterates an education, industrial wor!ers the right to profits, Iran’s forests protection, and the farthest villages access to pu'lic healthcare= 9ut you don’t hear a'out any of that, for 'loodless revolutions rarely ma!e headlines. 9etter a red revolution to ta!e Iran  'ac! a century. ot only does she disavow herself of all this, "hahin notes with pleasure how the Islamic 3epu'lic was certified on 4pril 1, when the gulli'le are ta!en for a good laugh. er countrymen marched, fought, died, ransac!ed, 'urned, stared down the 'arrels of guns—and now cele'rated.
The revolution
 
has succeeded! ecome martrs in the "ath of ri#hteousness!
It’s as if they’d readthe )he 5uevara hand'oo! on revolution, mi(ed it with fundamentalist Islam, and were now drun! on their unmi(a'le principles. +9rother and +sister, they called each other.It was the 'est of times followed 'y the worst of times.6ornings as she passes the newsstand, "hahin glances at the headlines and photographs of e(ecuted men. "he wonders if it 'others her compatriots that 'lood flows freely and vengefully, or that ehran’s walls are defaced with ugly slogans calling for death. %eath is all around them. 9y daylight and moonlight, men patrol the streets li!e hounds in search of )ommunist, royalist, traitor, and dissident—carting them off to destinations un!nown. 4s "484B had done. "tories of a'duction are whispered over tea;
$ereftanesh%
4 single word, shorthand for capture and pro'a'le death;
&The #ot him%'
 ovem'er 2?, 1/; oday, as she sets the ta'le, "hahin realizes 6a( still has not arrived. #sually he is home 'y seven, whistling in the stairwell. It’s nine p.m. Be'a's and rice are on the ta'le, losing steam. +>here is %ad= the !ids want to !now.+e went hunting, "hahin says, the facility of her lie surprising her.+unting= Batayoun as!s.+unting. :es. :our father decided—spontaneously—to ta!e a trip up north, "hahin says, e(panding the lie and giving it room to 'reathe. +ow eat.In truth she has no idea where 6a( might 'e.er thoughts turn to the 4merican em'assy. 4 couple of wee!s ago, some ruffians seized the em'assy for the second time. "hahin remem'ers that dayC the gods had set the mood  perfectly. 4 misty gloom hung over ehran. 4 light rain fell. In the late afternoon, her sister 6ahin had called with news of the ta!eover. "hahin turned on the 8 to see a gleeful mo'  parading its 'lindfolded 4mericans, chanting death to )arter, death to imperialism. 9y now deathwas so invo!ed, so ingrained in the language that she thought she was immune to it. 9ut this=

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