Mark Lijek is a retired Foreign Service officer known for his escape from Iran during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. He was one of six Americans hidden by staff of the Canadian Embassy, where they were collectively known as the houseguests. After nearly three months in hiding, the six were exfiltrated in a joint Canadian/CIA operation. The cover story, the brainchild of CIA disguise expert Antonio Mendez, cast the six as a location scouting team for a fictional movie named Argo: A Cosmic Conflagration. Lijek was the transportation coordinator.The CIA role in the Houseguests departure was kept secret until 1997. Lijek and the other Americans as well as the Canadians for seventeen years maintained the fiction the Canadians acted alone. While pleased Mendez is receiving credit for his heroism, Lijek became concerned dramatized versions could obscure the true story and is writing a memoir.Despite the inauspicious start to his career, Lijek remained in the Foreign Service and served in Hong Kong, Kathmandu, Warsaw and Frankfurt as well as at the Department of State in Washington, DC. He holds a bachelors degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from American University. He served as an officer in the US Army before joining State. He was born in Detroit in 1951 and raised mainly in Seattle. He is married to another former houseguest, Cora Amburn-Lijek. They have two grown children and live in Northwest Washington. Show less «