Iran Parading Americans

**Aplomb** · July 18th, 2007, 13:33

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/88578.htm

Iran Unjustly Parades American Citizens

The United States is appalled at the mistreatment of Americans Haleh Esfandiari of the Wilson Center, Kian Tajbakhsh of the Open Society Institute, and Ali Shakeri of University of California at Irvineâ€™s Center for Citizens Peacebuilding, all currently imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison, and Parnaz Azima of Radio Farda, prevented by authorities from departing Iran.

We are outraged that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran would parade two of these American citizens on state-run television on July 16, showing Dr. Esfandiari and Mr. Tajbakhsh apparently reading statements made under duress.

These two individuals have labored for years to build bridges of understanding between our two countries; their efforts should be recognized as a benefit to both our nations.

We call upon Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei to treat these people with the respect they deserve, to put an end to any further broadcasts, and to release all Americans currently being held on groundless charges. We also call on Iranian authorities to provide the U.S. with information regarding the whereabouts of Robert Levinson.

2007/599

Released on July 17, 2007

**Aplomb** · July 18th, 2007, 13:38

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...toGh8&refer=us

U.S. `Outraged' at Iran for Parading American Citizens on TV
By Ed Johnson and Ladane Nasseri

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. State Department said it's ``outraged'' at the treatment of four American citizens detained in Iran, after two of them were shown on state television allegedly confessing to espionage charges.

Iran must ``put an end to any further broadcasts'' and release all Americans ``being held on groundless charges,'' department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday.

Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, both scholars, are accused of acting against national security by the Iranian government, which aired footage two days ago of them making ``confessions,'' state-run Fars News reported at the time. The full program, entitled ``In the Name of Democracy,'' will be broadcast later today, according to the report.

Iran accuses the Bush administration of sending agents to undermine the regime and demands the release of five Iranians detained in Iraq since January. The U.S., which has no diplomatic ties with Iran, has dismissed the accusation and says the two matters are unrelated.

The issue has further soured relations between the two governments, as the U.S. demands Iran scrap its nuclear program and stop fueling the insurgency in Iraq.

Esfandiari, 67, who is director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was arrested in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on May 8 while visiting her mother.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry has said she was trying to set the stage for a ``soft revolution'' in the country.

Soros Foundation
Tajbakhsh, 45, is a consultant on urban planning and works with billionaire investor George Soros's Open Society Institute. He was helping Iranian authorities on public health and earthquake relief projects when he was detained in May, the institute, which has denied the allegations against him, said in a statement two days ago.

Iran has previously accused the Soros Foundation of fomenting revolutions in other countries.

``After the collapse of Communism and the Soviet Union, the Soros Foundation was to target the world of Islam,'' Tajbakhsh said in the clip broadcast July 16.

Ali Shakeri, a U.S. mortgage banker who also works for a California-based conflict resolution group called the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, is being held, along with Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh, at Tehran's Evin prison.

Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Farda, had her passport confiscated in January and cannot leave the country. She hasn't been jailed.

``We are outraged that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran would parade two of these American citizens on state-run television,'' McCormack said, adding they were shown ``apparently reading statements made under duress.''

FBI Agent
He called on Iran to provide information on the whereabouts of former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, who went missing on March 8 from Iran's Kish Island.

The U.S. is pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran for ignoring United Nations deadlines to stop uranium enrichment.

The Bush administration has repeatedly accused Iran of arming, training and financing insurgents in neighboring Iraq and fueling sectarian violence between the country's Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Iran last month urged the U.S. to immediately release five Iranian consular officials arrested in January in the Iraqi city of Arbil, warning of unspecified consequences if it fails to do so. The U.S. military has said the five may belong to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit training insurgents.

The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in April 1980, after Islamic revolutionaries in Tehran raided the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 and held diplomats hostage.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net ; Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 17, 2007 22:58 EDT

**vector7** · December 9th, 2011, 21:11

'I Believe Iran Can Help Us,' Says Wife Of Captured FBI Agent

The wife of missing ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, Christine (second right), traveled to Tehran in 2007 with her son Daniel (right) and sister Susan (second left) in a vain attempt to learn more about her husband's disappearance.

December 09, 2011

The family of American Robert Levinson, the former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran more than four years ago, has publicly released a video, which they said they received a year ago. The tape shows Levinson, looking haggard, talking about his captivity, and asking the U.S. government for help. Levinson’s wife, Christine, told RFE/RL’s correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari that one year after sending the video, his captors have still made no demands.

RFE/RL: Why did you decide to release the video of your husband now, a year after it was emailed to you by his captors?

Christine Levinson: We tried to get in touch with the group holding Bob to find out what we needed to do to get Bob home and they never responded. And so, we have tried many times [and] now we feel this is a way -- between our family message and the video -- to hopefully have them get in touch with us so that we can get Bob home alive and quickly.

RFE/RL: So you have no idea what the people who are holding your husband want in exchange for his freedom?

Levinson: We have no information on how we can get him home.

RFE/RL: How did your husband seem to you in the video? Does he sound like himself?

Levinson: He seemed like he was fine, much thinner than when he left home, of course, and I was sad to see him looking so tired. However, I was happy to see that he is alive. As soon as he said the first word, I knew it was Bob.

RFE/RL: It seems he might not be in Iran anymore, which is where he disappeared from. Reports suggest that at some point he has been taken to either Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Levinson: I have no idea where he is, and that’s one of the problems. We don’t know what group is holding him or where he is. It’s a very difficult area of the world and we don’t have any information.

RFE/RL: In the video you made with your son, you make no mention of the Iranian government; instead you speak directly to his captors. Do you still believe that Iran can help you find your husband?

Levinson: I believe that Iran can help us find him. In September, when he was here for the UN General Assembly, [Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad] said that he was willing to help find Bob, and so I'm hoping that he will continue to have his government do that.

RFE/RL: You and your family have gone through some very difficult times since your husband went missing some four years ago. Did the video give you some hope?

Levinson: Yes, very much so. I continue to believe he’s alive and will be able to come home safely soon. Anyone who can help us or wants to see the video in its entirety can get in touch with us at www.helpboblevinson.com.

**vector7** · December 9th, 2011, 21:15

Companion Thread:

Iran capture of US spy drone 'would be significant blow to military'

Ex-FBI agent appears in hostage video, years after vanishing in Iran

Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo

Washington— The Associated Press

Published Friday, Dec. 09, 2011 9:09AM EST Last updated Friday, Dec. 09, 2011 9:11AM EST

In this undated photo provided by Christine Levinson, Robert Levinson is shown. The US has proof that ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson is alive, four years after vanishing in Iran
AP Photo/Courtesy of Christine Levinson

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, Mr. Levinson pleaded with the U.S. government to meet the demands of his unidentified captors.

More related to this story

“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,” Mr. 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 Mr. Levinson, who has a history of diabetes and high blood pressure, implored the U.S. to help him quickly.

“I am not in very good health,” he says. “I am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine.”

The AP saw the video and obtained a government transcript of Mr. Levinson's statement soon after it arrived last year but did not immediately report it because the U.S. government said doing so would complicate diplomatic efforts to bring Mr. Levinson home.

Now, those efforts appear to have stalled, U.S. relations with Iran have worsened and Mr. Levinson's wife, Christine, of Coral Springs, Florida, is expected to release the video herself in a desperate attempt to make contact with whoever is holding her 63-year-old husband.

That represents a sharp change in strategy in a case that for years the United States treated as a diplomatic issue rather than a hostage situation. Christine Levinson has issued many public statements over the years, but she typically directed them to her missing husband or to the government of Iran.

In the nearly five years that Mr. Levinson has been missing, the U.S. government has never had solid intelligence about what happened to him.

Levinson had been retired from the FBI for years and was working as a private investigator when he travelled to the 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.

The prevailing U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

Despite the lengthy investigation, several U.S. officials said, Washington still has no idea who is holding Levinson, where he is or who holds the key to bringing him home. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions.

A father of seven, Mr. Levinson addressed his remarks to “my beautiful, my loving, my loyal wife, Christine,” as well as his children and his grandson. He apparently did not know he also has a granddaughter, who was born in 2008. Family and friends confirmed that it was Mr. Levinson in the video, and authorities also compared his face with computer-generated images that estimate aging.

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. Though the legacy of the 1979 hostage standoff with Iran looms over all relations between the two countries, Clinton did not refer to Levinson as a hostage in March and she softened the U.S. rhetoric toward Tehran.

The video also helped initiate a series of discreet discussions between U.S. and Iranian officials, conversations that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in September were producing good results.

Not long after Clinton's remarks, the Levinson family received a series of photos of Mr. Levinson dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit like the ones worn by detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In these photos, Mr. 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.”

Investigators determined that the video was routed through an Internet address in Pakistan, suggesting that Mr. Levinson might be held there. Also, Pashtun wedding music played faintly in the background, officials said. The Pashtun people live primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan, just over Iran's eastern border.

The photos, however, traced back to a different Internet address, this one in Afghanistan.

Authorities don't know whether those clues mean Mr. Levinson was being held in Balochistan — a rugged, arid region that spans parts of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan — or perhaps in the lawless tribal region along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These areas are home to terrorists, militant groups and criminal organizations.

None of these groups has a clear motive for picking up Mr. Levinson. But an American hostage, particularly one who used to work for the U.S. government, would be considered a valuable commodity to any of them.

Some U.S. officials believe the Iranian government routed the video through Pakistan as a way to blame Levinson's disappearance on someone else — most likely the anti-Iran terrorist group Jundallah. But as with every other possibility, the U.S. has no proof.

The video was accompanied by a demand that the U.S. release prisoners, but officials said the United States is not holding anyone matching the names on the list. It's possible some of them may have been held by the Pakistani government at one point, but officials say the demand doesn't offer any indication of who might be holding Levinson and there's been no more communication about it.

U.S. authorities have repeatedly analyzed the video and the apparently scripted remarks Mr. Levinson made, looking for clues.

For instance, Mr. Levinson said a “group” had held him for three and a half years, a word choice that could suggest a criminal organization or terrorist group, rather than a government. And he said he had been held “here” for that time, suggesting he had not been moved.

Mr. Levinson's dire warning about his diabetes medication is perplexing. He vanished years ago. Whoever is holding him must have had access to diabetes medicine at one point. Was he running out of medication because he was moved somewhere else? Or was it simply intended to add even more urgency for the U.S.?

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 U.S. 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.

Most recently, a high-tech, stealth CIA drone was captured by Iranian officials while on a surveillance mission over Iran. The embarrassing mishap put sophisticated technology in Iranian hands and provided public evidence of the kind of spying that's been long suspected.

The one bright spot in Washington's relationship with Tehran was the release of two American hikers from an Iranian prison in September. The U.S. worked behind the scenes to secure that release but officials said Levinson was not part of those discussions.

The Levinson family has not updated its website since June, when Christine Levinson wrote an open letter to her husband.

“I am willing to do whatever is necessary to bring you home,” she wrote. “At the same time I'm at a loss as to how I can do that.”