WASHINGTON The Obama administration faced intensified pressure Friday to find former CIA contractor Robert Levinson both from lawmakers and the Levinson family nearly seven years after he disappeared in Iran during what now has been revealed as an unofficial spy mission.Levinsons family urged the government to step up and take care of one of its own. Members of Congress said they wanted to know more about the case, which led to three veteran analysts being forced out of the agency and seven others being disciplined.
Levinson vanished after a March 2007 meeting with an admitted killer on Kish Island, an Iranian resort. For years, the United States publicly described him as a private citizen who traveled to the tiny Persian Gulf island on business. But an Associated Press investigation revealed that Levinson was a contractor working for the CIA and was paid by a team of agency analysts who were acting without authority to run spy operations to gather intelligence.
If he is alive at age 65, Levinson has been captive longer than any other American known to be held overseas.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Levinson, who retired after 28 years at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, was not a US employee at the time of his disappearance.
A contractor would not be considered a government employee, but the CIA paid Levinsons family about $120,000, the value of the new contract the agency was preparing for him when he left for Iran, and the government gave the family a $2.5 million annuity, which provides tax-free income, multiple people briefed on the deal said. No one wanted a lawsuit that would air the secret details.
Carney declined to discuss the case in detail but said numerous US officials, including President Obama, have pressed Iran for help on finding and returning Levinson.
Since Bob disappeared, the US government has vigorously pursued and continues to pursue all investigative leads, as we would with any American citizen missing or detained overseas, Carney said Friday. We continue to be focused on doing everything we can to bring Bob home safely to his family. This remains a top priority of the US government.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said the United States believes Levinson is alive and is being held by the Quds Force, which is the special operations wing of Irans Revolutionary Guard.
He is in the custody of some pretty bad people, Mike Rogers, intelligence chairman, Republican of Michigan, told Fox News.
Iran and the United States seem closer now than in past years to an agreement over Tehrans nuclear program and to warmer relations in general. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has said publicly he has no information about Levinsons whereabouts, but Representative Ted Deutch, Democrat of Florida, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who represents the district where Levinsons family lives, said the United States ought to be raising this with the Iranians at every opportunity.
Other lawmakers said they would seek more answers in Levinsons case, and his family in Florida pleaded for the government to do more.
After nearly seven years, our family should not be struggling to get through each day without this wonderful, caring man that we love so much, the family said in a statement.
Soon after his disappearance, the FBI began asking about Levinsons mission, and the CIA started a formal inquiry into whether anyone at the agency had sent Levinson to Iran or whether he was working for the CIA at the time. CIA analysts acknowledged he had done some work for them but said his contract was out of money. The CIA then told the FBI and Congress that the agency had no current relationship with Levinson, according to numerous US officials.
But in October 2007, e-mails uncovered between Levinson and CIA analyst Anne Jablonski revealed the agency had been involved with his mission to Iran. CIA managers said their own employees had lied to them, and assigned its internal security team to investigate. That inquiry determined that the agency was responsible for Levinson while he was in Iran.
ByThe Boston Globe
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