Correcting the Record: The CIA Tweets "Real" Argo Story

The Central Intelligence Agency doesn’t tweet that much, but on Friday it launched a fascinating stream about how the Iran hostage rescue depicted in the film “Argo” really went down.

The CIA joined Twitter this summer and it mostly highlights the intelligence agency’s history. This week, the agency has been focusing on the 35^th anniversary of the start of the Iran hostage crisis.

On Friday, the CIA held a day-long “real vs. reel” tweetstorm correcting some facts in the 2012 Academy Award-winning movie “Argo,” which was about how the CIA quietly rescued a handful of diplomats caught up in the crisis.

It wasn’t much of a storm, actually. More like a gentle shower that started with thanks to Ben Affleck for making the film. Highlights include the true, not movie, fact that the final communique approving the exfiltration mission read, “See ya later, exfiltrator.”

The differences between cinema and reality mostly centered around the movie’s amping up the drama of the trip to the airport, which director Ben Affleck totally copped to when the film came out.

Check out the CIA’s whole stream below:

CIA Tweets Real Argo

The whole thing was very good-natured. Affleck certainly didn’t seem to take offense with the CIA’s fact-check Friday, tweeting this:

https://twitter.com/BenAffleck/status/530859696610365440

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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