U.S. Believes Iran Is Holding Ex-FBI Agent Hostage
U.S. Believes Iran Is Holding Ex-FBI Agent Hostage
The U.S. believes that the Iranian government or its proxies are holding a retired FBI agent hostage.
Robert Levinson, a 64-year-old private investigator and FBI veteran, went missing off of the Iranian island of Kish in 2007. U.S. officials previously believed that terrorists had kidnapped him, and publicly welcomed the “assistance” of the Iranian government in getting Levinson home. But the Associated Press’ Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo report that U.S. intelligence officials have come to believe that Iran is behind Levinson’s five-year captivity.
The photo above showing a gaunt, emaciated and heavily bearded Levinson was provided to the AP by Levinson’s family. He wears an orange jumpsuit, mimicking the garb of the first wave of Guantanamo detainees, and holds a sign reading “I Am Here in Guantanamo Do You Know Where It Is?” According to the Levinson family’s website, the 6’4″ Levinson weighed 225 pounds when he went missing on what the website describes as a “business trip” to Kish Island.
Levinson’s family received this and other photographs of him in 2011, around the time his wife and son received a proof-of-life video of a scared Levinson. Levinson looked more robust on camera then, suggesting a variance in time between the photos and the video. The former FBI agent says on camera that he was “running out of diabetes medicine” and pled to Washington for aid: “Thirty-three years of service to the United States deserves something.”