Retired diplomat Ken Taylor has acknowledged that he fed information to U.S. officials during the Iranian hostage crisis -- information that was ultimately used to plan a failed commando raid to free the American hostages.

The story is revealed in a new book by Trent University historian Robert Wright, which was released this month.

“Our Man in Tehran” covers the 30 months Taylor spent in the Iranian capital, while he served as the Canadian ambassador to Iran.

Two chapters of Wright’s book are devoted to the “aggressive intelligence” sought by then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter, so Washington could plan a commando raid to free the U.S. hostages.

It all began Nov. 4, 1979, when a group of Iranians scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took control of it.

Six Americans escaped that day: Lee Schatz, the agricultural attache; Robert Anders, the head of the consular section; as well as two consular attaches and their wives: Joe and Kathleen Stafford, and Mark and Cora Lijek.

The Americans who were caught up in the Iranian hostage crisis stayed put for nearly 14 months.

The story of how Canadians helped those six Americans hide and escape Tehran has long been public knowledge, after the so-called “Canadian Caper” was first discovered by a La Presse reporter and later made into a TV movie starring Gordon Pinsent.

But Canada’s involvement in the planning of Operation Eagle Claw -- the failed military raid in April 1980 -- had not been publicly revealed before the publication of Wright’s book.

Bound to secrecy, the 75-year-old Taylor did not provide any input for Wright's book about the intelligence he gathered in Tehran -- those details were gathered through Wright's own research. 

Since the story become public, however, Taylor has acknowledged the work he did for Washington.

He spoke to CTV’s Canada AM on Tuesday morning, explaining the context of the work he agreed to do for Washington starting in November 1979.

“I was doing a lot of work, along with some of my colleagues in Tehran and in Ottawa, for Washington -- that is the Pentagon, the CIA, the State Department -- through Canadian channels,” Taylor said during an interview in Toronto on Tuesday morning.

“Here lives were at risk, diplomatic immunity had been violated and diplomatic protocol served particularly well Canada and Iran, a country of that size. So here was something that we felt we had to respond to.”

The work that the Canadians did for Washington was indicative of the strong ties between the two North American neighbours, both of which were examining a variety of solutions.

“Canada worked closely with other countries in Iran on a diplomatic solution, but also very closely with the U.S. to seek some resolution,” Taylor said.

That included the possibility of launching a commando raid, an option that was “far better than open warfare,” Taylor said.

Taylor, along with his Canadian colleague Jim Edward and a CIA agent who went by the code-name Bob, “put together material through the Canadian channels, though the U.S. ambassador to Washington, which essentially provided a fair amount of background for the eventual…raid.”

The word from Ottawa was to help out the Americans, Taylor said.

“Between President Carter and Prime Minister Clark, there was an agreement that certainly Canada, typically, given its relationship with the U.S., would do everything we could,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he did not have knowledge of the exact chain of political events in Ottawa that led to the decision to take a role in what was happening in Iran.

Taylor acknowledges how unusual the situation was, considering the position that he was in as an ambassador.

“Here you were under an embassy cover, providing information, which may lead to a commando raid. But this is a risk Canada was prepared to take,” he said.

“Sure, there may be some ramifications in the future, but we took those fully into account and I think if you brought the same players together again … we’d do it again.”

With files from The Canadian Press