"Pressure over CIA contractor; Lawmakers, kin push to find him after Iran mission" by Lara Jakes | Associated Press, December 14, 2013
My local headlined the front page of their paper with this story yesterday; I suppose I need to give the Globe a day.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration faced intensified pressure Friday to find former CIA contractor Robert Levinson — both from lawmakers and the Levinson family — nearly seven years after he disappeared in Iran during what now has been revealed as an unofficial spy mission.
Well, he smelled like spy, and I was told former FBI.
Levinson’s family urged the government “to step up and take care of one of its own.” Members of Congress said they wanted to know more about the case, which led to three veteran analysts being forced out of the agency and seven others being disciplined.
Levinson vanished after a March 2007 meeting with an admitted killer on Kish Island, an Iranian resort. For years, the United States publicly described him as a private citizen who traveled to the tiny Persian Gulf island on business. But an Associated Press investigation revealed that Levinson was a contractor working for the CIA and was paid by a team of agency analysts who were acting without authority to run spy operations to gather intelligence.
In other words, we were given cover story crapola by this government for years, and now this limited hangout of a rogue operation is being dropped on us just as talks were to continue.
This agenda-pushing stuff is really getting too easy to read through.
If he is alive at age 65, Levinson has been captive longer than any other American known to be held overseas.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Levinson, who retired after 28 years at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, was not a US employee at the time of his disappearance.
Former CIA, DEA, and FBI, huh? I guess that would give him plenty of covers.
A contractor would not be considered a government employee, but the CIA paid Levinson’s family about $120,000, the value of the new contract the agency was preparing for him when he left for Iran, and the government gave the family a $2.5 million annuity, which provides tax-free income, multiple people briefed on the deal said. No one wanted a lawsuit that would air the secret details.
That's YOUR TAX MONEY in this time of austerity to keep things quiet!!
Carney declined to discuss the case in detail but said numerous US officials, including President Obama, have pressed Iran for help on finding and returning Levinson.
Related: US widens sanctions on Iranian companies
And they have the gall to be asking Iran for help?
I suppose Iran can be excused for not wanting to talk to us or Israel, and I can't say I blame them.
Related:
"Arab leaders appear eager to fortify trade ties with Iran that were strong before being eroded by international sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. But while Iran has found a receptive audience among smaller GCC states, its rivalry with oil-rich Saudi Arabia may prove a greater challenge to solve."
The third member of the Axis of Evil.
“Since Bob disappeared, the US government has vigorously pursued and continues to pursue all investigative leads, as we would with any American citizen missing or detained overseas,” Carney said Friday. “We continue to be focused on doing everything we can to bring Bob home safely to his family. This remains a top priority of the US government.”
Yeah, sure it does.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said the United States believes Levinson is alive and is being held by the Quds Force, which is the special operations wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
“He is in the custody of some pretty bad people,” Mike Rogers, intelligence chairman, Republican of Michigan, told Fox News.
So he knows where he is and who has him?
Iran and the United States seem closer now than in past years to an agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program and to warmer relations in general.
Yeah, and then this pops up in the Jewish AmeriKan war media.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has said publicly he has no information about Levinson’s whereabouts, but Representative Ted Deutch, Democrat of Florida, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who represents the district where Levinson’s family lives, said the United States ‘‘ought to be raising this with the Iranians at every opportunity.’’
Other lawmakers said they would seek more answers in Levinson’s case, and his family in Florida pleaded for the government to do more.
“After nearly seven years, our family should not be struggling to get through each day without this wonderful, caring man that we love so much,” the family said in a statement.
Soon after his disappearance, the FBI began asking about Levinson’s mission, and the CIA started a formal inquiry into whether anyone at the agency had sent Levinson to Iran or whether he was working for the CIA at the time. CIA analysts acknowledged he had done some work for them but said his contract was out of money. The CIA then told the FBI and Congress that the agency had no current relationship with Levinson, according to numerous US officials.
But in October 2007, e-mails uncovered between Levinson and CIA analyst Anne Jablonski revealed the agency had been involved with his mission to Iran. CIA managers said their own employees had lied to them, and assigned its internal security team to investigate. That inquiry determined that the agency was responsible for Levinson while he was in Iran.
We got a government full of liars, even at the CIA.
--more--"
Related:
Operation Mockingbird
I think so.
Not even inspections at Arak are enough to please U.S.'s Jewish masters.
