Iran behind abduction and death of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, alleges US

For the first time, the United States on December 14 formally blamed Iran for the “probable death” of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, who disappeared 13 years ago. In the final weeks of the Trump administration, the recent announcement was the most definitive assignment of blame to date. According to ABC News, Levinson had disappeared in Iran under mysterious circumstances more than a decade ago, and the US diplomats and investigators had long said that though he was taken by Iranian government agents. 

Senior US government officials said that two Iranians, whose whereabouts are not known, were responsible for Levinson’s end. However, they did not disclose whether the US intelligence or the FBI have ascertained the reasons for his mysterious March 9, 2007 disappearance on remote Kish Island, where he was working on a Turkey CIA contract for intelligence analysts at the agency. The US officials also said that the Iranian regime sanctioned the plot that led to Levinson’s abduction and lied for years about its involvement in his disappearance through disinformation campaigns aimed at covering up the government’s role. 

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On Monday, the US Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on the two Iranians identified as intelligence agents, Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai. They said that the two were involved in the abduction, detention and probable death of Levinson. The sanctions are largely symbolic as Iranian agents were unlikely to have bank accounts in the US, although the move will impede their international movements. 

The recent announcements come nine months after US officials revealed that they had concluded that Levinson may have passed some time ago. The announcement is also the latest in a series of tough actions the Trump administration has taken toward Iran as it works to cement an aggressive posture that may complicate any efforts by incoming President Joe Biden and his national security team. The Trump administration officials, however, said that they are acting now not for any political reasons but simply because they had finally accumulated enough information to formally hold Iran accountable. They also said that no agreement with Iran should be reached without a deal to free the remaining handful of US citizens imprisoned in the country. 

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Levinson’s disappearance

According to Associated Press, Levinson had vanished back in 2007 and for years, US officials would say only that Levinson was working independently on a private investigation. In 2010, Levinson’s family received video as well as proof-of-life photographs in which he appeared dishevelled with a long beard and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit like those given to daintiness at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Even then, Levinson’s whereabouts and fate were not known, and the Iran government had persistently denied having any information about him. 

It was last year that the Iranian government unexpectedly responded to the United Nations query by saying that Levinson was the subject of an open-case in Iranian Revolutionary Court. However, the development gave the family a burst of hope and Iran clarified the “open-case” was simply an investigation into his disappearance. 

(Image: AP) 

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