Iran: Missing FBI agent calls for help in video
Almost five years after disappearing in Iran, video and series of photographs emailed to his family show Robert Levinson pleading with US government to secure his release
Long after he vanished in Iran, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson reappeared in a video and a series of photographs sent to his family over the past year, transforming a mysterious disappearance into a hostage standoff with an unknown kidnapper, The Associated Press has learned.
In the video emailed to his family in November 2010, Levinson pleaded with the US government to meet the demands of his unidentified captors.
Related stories:
"I have been treated well. But I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for three and a half years," Levinson says. "And please help me get home."
The 54-second video showed Levinson looking haggard but unharmed, sitting in front of what appeared to be a concrete wall. He had lost considerable weight, particularly in his face, and his white shirt hung off him. There were no signs of recent mistreatment. But Levinson, who has a history of diabetes and high blood pressure, implored the US to help him quickly. .
"I am not in very good health," he says. "I am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine."
. Levinson had been retired from the FBI for years and was working as a private investigator when he traveled to Iran in March 2007. His family has said an investigation into cigarette smuggling brought him to Kish, a resort island where Americans need no visa to visit.
Still shot out of video
The prevailing US government theory had been that Levinson was arrested by Iranian intelligence officials to be interrogated and used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Washington. But as every lead fizzled and Iran repeatedly denied any involvement in his disappearance, many in the US government believed Levinson was probably dead.
The surprise arrival of the video and photographs quickly changed that view but did little to settle the question of his whereabouts. The video, in fact, contained tantalizing clues suggesting Levinson was not being held in Iran at all, but rather in Pakistan, hundreds of miles from where he disappeared. The photographs, which arrived a few months after the video, contained hints that Levinson might be in Afghanistan.
Photographs sent to family
The video prompted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to announce publicly in March that Levinson was alive and urged the Iranians to help find him.
Not long after Clinton's remarks, the Levinson family received a series of photos of Levinson dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit like the ones worn by detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In these photos, Levinson's hair and beard were much longer and he looked thinner.
In each photo, he wore a different sign hung around his neck. One read, "Why you can not help me."
The video was accompanied by a demand that the US release prisoners, but officials said the United States is not holding anyone matching the names on the list.
Over the past year, the hopefulness that initially followed the arrival of the video has faded. The meetings with the Iranians have not provided a breakthrough, and US officials said the government was no longer as optimistic about the future of those talks.
Relations with Iran, meanwhile, have worsened. The Justice Department recently accused Iranian intelligence agents of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Washington. Then a United Nations watchdog released a report warning of Iran's nuclear ambitions, prompting the United States and its Western allies to issue new sanctions against Iran's financial system.
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
