This is the moment the CIA’s then chief of disguise donned a mask as she spoke to an unsuspecting President George H.W. Bush – before dramatically peeling it off to reveal her true identity to him.
Jonna Mendez, who spent 27 years working for the CIA, was in charge of creating advanced disguises – including masks – for agents to use on undercover missions.
Mendez opted to use one of the convincing masks she had created when she met with President Bush at the White House in the early 1990s.
Photos of that meeting show Mendez sitting across from Bush in the Oval Office as she briefed him on developments in the CIA’s new disguise program.
Jonna Mendez disguised herself as a colleague for a meeting with President George H.W. Bush at the White House in the early 1990s. She was briefing him on the advanced disguises her team at the CIA had developed
Mendez said Bush and the other officials in the room had no idea she was in disguise. She eventually ripped off her mask, which was complete with wavy dark hair, to reveal her true identity to the President.
Using the face of one of her female colleagues, Mendez said Bush and the other officials in the room had no idea she was in disguise.
She eventually ripped off her mask, which was complete with wavy dark hair, to reveal her true identity to the President.
Right before removing the mask, Mendez said she told Bush she was wearing one of the ‘newest, latest, greatest’ masks that she had just been describing to him.
Bush had previously been the director of the CIA before becoming the 41st President and was familiar with disguises.
‘I was sitting in my chair when I was talking to him. I said I’m actually wearing the disguise that we’re talking about and I’m going to take it off and show it to you,’ Mendez recalled of their meeting.
Using the face of one of her female colleagues, Mendez said Bush and the other officials in the room had no idea she was in disguise. The mask she used is pictured above
Photos of that meeting show Mendez sitting across from Bush in the Oval Office as she briefed him on developments in the CIA’s new disguise program and then later when she revealed her true identity to him (above)
Mendez (above in December 2018) was the chief of disguise when she eventually retired from the CIA in 1993. She is pictured above at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. where her disguises remain on display
‘He lit up like a Christmas tree. I had always thought George H.W. Bush was kind of very contained but he was really interested in this.
‘He said don’t take it off, nope, and he got up from the Resolute Desk, came around and he walked around me and he’s looking, looking, looking and then he went back to his desk and he said, okay, take it off.’
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mendez likened the moment to Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible.
‘I did the Tom Cruise peel before Tom Cruise did. I think they should call it the Jonna Mendez peel,’ she said.
The photos taken of their meeting were classified for years but at least one of them is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.
Mendez was the chief of disguise when she eventually retired from the CIA in 1993.
Mendez worked with the CIA for 27 years before retiring. She started out as a secretary before switching to the operational side and working undercover. She was a photo operations officer before moving over into disguises
Mendez then became a disguise officer and later disguise chief as she disguised both herself and others abroad and in Washington DC
She had spent 27 years working her way up in the agency after falling into spy work following her 1969 marriage to a CIA operative.
Mendez said her first husband, who she believed was a U.S. army officer, only revealed his true identity to her just three days before their wedding.
She joined her husband in Germany and started working as a CIA secretary.
Mendez would later switch to the operation side – no small feat in the 1970s when that was considered men’s work – and became a photo operations officer with the Office of Technical Service, which she described as being to the CIA what ‘Q’ is to MI6 in the James Bond movies.
‘We were like ‘Mission Impossible’ – if you wanted to bug someone, if you needed counterfeit documents, if you needed a disguise. Anything technical, you would come to see us.’
Mendez then became a disguise officer and later disguise chief as she disguised both herself and others abroad and in Washington DC.
After the end of her first marriage, she married Antonio ‘Tony’ Mendez, a fellow intelligence officer and the inspiration for the 2012 film ‘Argo’ and the character Ben Affleck played in the movie.