Thursday, March 08, 2012
Bob Levinson (graphic: FBI)
Five years ago today, Bob Levinson, a retired FBI agent, flew from Dubai to Kish Island in Iran. He disappeared and has not been seen or heard from since. Now the FBI has offered $1 million to anyone who anyone who provides information that leads to Levinson’s safe return.
The government of Iran has denied involvement in his kidnapping and captivity, although at one point in 2007 it claimed he was “in the hands of Iranian security forces.”
It is unclear what Levinson was doing in Iran. The official version is that he was working as a private investigator looking into cigarette smuggling on behalf of corporations. Another version is that he was working on a book about Russian organized crime. According to a State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks, “Mr. LEVINSON checked in to the Hotel Maryam on Kish Island. Press reports and other reporting indicate Mr. LEVINSON met with Dawud Salahuddin (also known as David Belfield and Hassan Abdulrahman) at the Hotel Maryam. During their meeting Iranian security personnel entered the room and detained both LEVINSON and Salahuddin. Salahuddin was subsequently released, but Mr. LEVINSON did not return to his room and no one has seen him since.”
In November 2010, Levinson’s wife, Christine, received an email with an attached video message from her husband, and in March 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement saying that Levinson was alive and being held somewhere in southwest Asia.
Levinson will turn 64 on March 10. He has seven children and two grandchildren.
-David Wallechinsky
To Learn More:
Mystery: A Hostage Video, Family's Desperate Plea (by Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, Associated Press)
Ex-FBI Agent Who Disappeared in Iran is Alive, Clinton Says (by Joby Warrick, Washington Post)
Ex-FBI Agent Still Missing in Iran after almost 4 Years (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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