(Undated photo via Levinson family. Graphic by Lee Ferran / Code and Dagger)
Fourteen years after he disappeared in Iran, the case of the kidnapping and purported death of former FBI agent Robert Levinson “is not closed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today.
“We call on the Iranian government to provide credible answers to what happened to Bob Levinson and to immediately and safely release all U.S. citizens who are unjustly held captive in Iran,” Blinken said in a written statement. “The abhorrent act of unjust detentions for political gain must cease immediately.”
Levinson, a 20-year-plus veteran of the FBI, disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island in 2007, only to reappear in spare photos and videos released by his unidentified captors. Though the images recalled hostage videos produced by terrorist organizations, U.S. officials long suspected Iranian authorities were holding Levinson, or at least knew where he was. Iran denied the allegations.
In 2013 Levinson’s family revealed that after working for the FBI, Levinson took on freelance assignments from a CIA official, including spying on Iran’s nuclear program and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.
After tirelessly advocating for their patriarch’s release for years, in March 2020 the Levinson family said they suspected, based on a U.S. government assessment, that he had died in captivity.
“We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” the family said then — even though then-President Donald Trump said at the time that he did not accept that assessment.
Today Blinken said he had spoken to the Levinson family on Monday, and he mentioned the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, which “codifies our commitment to provide guidance and support for the families of U.S. hostages and wrongfully held detainees.” (The act was signed into law by Trump in December as part of a COVID relief bill.)
The website HelpBobLevinson.com has kept track of the time since his disappearance. As of this report, it’s been 5,114 days, 21 hours and 44 minutes.
In the family’s most recent statement posted on the site, from December 2020, they promised, “No matter how long it takes, we will find the individuals who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, and we will hold them accountable.”
Likewise, Blinken said today, “The United States will never forget Bob Levinson.”
[March 11, 2021 CORRECTION: A previous version of this report said the Levinson Act had died in a previous Congress, but it was then packaged within a COVID relief bill that was enacted.]
[Do you have a tip or question for Code and Dagger? Send it along at CodeAndDagger@protonmail.com. And if you like what you read and want to help keep the site running (kind of) smoothly, click here to learn how you can lend your support. ]