from stable or secure were suppressed by more senior personnel within the CIA. He was captured a few days after the Shah's fall by an armed group of supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and escaped summary execution by appealing to a mullah, who agreed that the Koran did not sanction such punishment. Immediately following his return from Iran in the fall of 1979 he was assigned to the Pentagon's "Iran Rescue Mission Joint Task Force" as the senior intelligence advisor to the Task Force commander. Hart established and managed an extraordinary CIA-in-country support structure for the ill-fated Iran Rescue Mission in 1980, and accompanied the mission on deployment. Hart jump-started the CIA's efforts to equip the Afghan resistance with weapons and supplies to allow them to mount an effective campaign during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hart was a weapons collector with a "passion for weapons and paramilitary tactics," making him a natural choice for the Islamabad post. In 2010 Hart published a book called: Intelligence Thoughts: Afghanistan and Iran. In 2015 Hart published A Life for a Life: A Memoir: My Career in Espionage Working for the Central Intelligence Agency . See also Michael Pillsbury Notes References Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars : The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. New York: Penguin, 2004. 1940 births 2017 deaths American spies Colby College alumni Kent School alumni People of the Central Intelligence Agency People from St. Louis University of Arizona alumni Recipients of the Intelligence Star American expatriates in Pakistan