Cindy Adams
opinion
Published March 6, 2024 at 7:45 PM ET
The Post’s Cindy Adams and Ilan Shah’s spouse Farah Diba.
when concern finds me
Although my expertise doesn’t replicate the horrors of Israeli hostages immediately, it was the catalyst for my very own terrifying occasions. And why am I on the New York Post?
Shah knew. I used to be with His Majesty when he got here right here. When I visited Iran, I used to be acquired at Saadabad Palace.
Now, so far as I bear in mind, it seems like this:
Tehran, August 1978. Her Royal Highness Princess Ashraf, Shah Reza Pahlavi’s twin sister, invited me to a quiet nation lodge in Isfahan.
While there, sudden messages, insanity, couriers, telexes, hysteria, cellphone calls come. Rebellion. Riot. A movie show was set on hearth. Hundreds have been killed. The automobile was destroyed. Crowd surging. Khomeini’s title was shouted. Rebellion.
escape room
Someone stuffed me. In the nighttime, he’s taken alone right into a black automobile. At one level our automobile shook. It swayed backward and forward.
The assigned royal driver didn’t converse English. I do not know what is going on on and it is scary. I used to be instructed that I used to be in peril and that the airplane to rescue me couldn’t land in Isfahan. Orders got to take me out of there.
My belongings have been crushed in Tehran. I used to be kicked out of the lodge, instructed that Pan Am was ready, and actually thrown onto the airplane.
after that. In 1979, it occurred. coup d’etat. A painful hostage drama. Diplomats’ lives are in danger. The terror, the horror, when Islamic militias took hostages from the American embassy.
Ben Affleck’s 2012 Oscar-winning Argo was an unique movie model of one of many best dramas in American historical past, and later grew to become referred to as the “Canadian Caper.”
Stories made straightforward. Six of the American diplomats took refuge within the embassy of my nice and long-time pal, the late Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor.
And he remained trapped there for 3 months. If you wish to see the theatrical model of essentially the most daring rescue in American historical past, watch the film.
Later that 12 months, a collapsed and sickly Shah arrived right here by personal jet. He is admitted to a New York hospital below a false title, however everybody is aware of him. No one was allowed to see him. Guards encompass the block. Reporters, cameras, and crowds outdoors.
The cellphone rings. His sister, Princess Ashraf (who had a townhouse on Beekman Place) referred to as me. she says: “His Majesty needs to see you. He needs you to return to the hospital.”
At the time, I used to be writing for {a magazine}. I wasn’t on this newspaper. Her husband’s “Strictly for Laughs” joke column had already develop into a staple of the Post.
Well-placed sources
That evening, I used to be scheduled to have dinner with Roger Wood, a Briton who was the founding editor of the New York Post, which Rupert Murdoch had lately acquired. When I requested why I used to be canceling, I used to be shocked on the opposite finish of the cellphone.
I spent 2 hours with Shah. alone. Just the 2 of us. No one else allowed it.
He was sitting on the sting of the mattress in white pajamas and a gown, slippers dangling from his ft. In his suite he has two rooms.
One wall was an enormous paper mural. A photograph of an indignant gorilla with its claws raised and tooth bared. The phrases under are: “Don’t fear. Things will get higher.”
On December 3, 1979, this entrance web page article within the New York Post – his solely interview – was accompanied by a photograph of me alongside Her Majesty the Empress Farah Dibba.
The entrance web page learn, “The Post’s Cindy Adams speaks with Shah.” My story has been reprinted on Earth.
And is the fee alone for such a world unique merchandise? Roger Wood, the editor of the paper I did not but work for, despatched me a bunch of flowers held along with rubber bands, as attractive and beautiful as a handful of soup greens.
In 1981, I formally joined the New York Post.
Where else may one thing like that occur? Only New York, kids, solely New York.
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