The White House Denies Citizen Captured in Iran Is a Spy

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent that disappeared in Iran in 2007, was working as a spy for the CIA, according to The Washington Post.

The White House denied reports that Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, was working as a spy for the CIA, according to what The Washington Post revealed. “Bob Levinson was not a U.S. government employee when he went missing in Iran,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. According to what The Washington Post reported last Friday — without naming its sources — the American wasn’t just a businessman but was working for the CIA when he went to Iraq in 2007.

Carney added that he wasn’t going to provide any additional information since the investigation was still on-going, and also said that this kind of report from the media has only put Levinson’s safety at risk. Furthermore, he confirmed that U.S. President Barack Obama talked about Levinson with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani over the phone.

Obama asked again that he be released. Carney stated that the last sign that Levinson was still alive came back in 2011, when the White House received clues that Levinson was being held in Southwest Asia. At that time, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also asked that he be returned.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that the United States has been continuously looking for information about Levinson in Iran. From Israel, Kerry stated that he raised the issue in his meetings with Israeli leaders “on a continuous basis” and that they “will continue to try to seek his release and return to the United States.”

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden avoided commenting on any type of link between the missing citizen and the government, but made it clear that the White House remains committed to finding him and bringing him home safely to the U.S. According to the Post, Levinson traveled to Iran in March 2007 to investigate the Iranian corruption and nuclear program.

At that time, Levinson was in communication with the CIA about a renewal of the contract he had with the agency for seven years. After his disappearance, CIA officials told Congress that Levinson did not go to Iran as a CIA representative. The Post said that the CIA reported to Congress regarding Levinson in closed meetings and stated that he did not currently have a relationship with the agency.

However, emails and other documents that emerged after Levinson had been captured suggested that he went to Iran under the direction of CIA experts who were not allowed to conduct operations overseas. Ex-security officials told the newspaper that the CIA finally admitted to being responsible for Levinson while he was in Iran and paid $2.5 million to his wife. The agency also paid his family an additional $120,000 — the cost of renewing Levinson’s contract. Investigators are not sure if Levinson is still alive.

If he is alive, he would be 65. It has been three years since his family last received any indication that he is alive by means of a video and photographs. In the video, he said that he had been captured for three and a half years. “I am not in good health,” he added. U.S. intelligence officials believe that Levinson was probably subjected to harsh interrogations and therefore told his captors that he worked for the CIA.

Levinson’s family said in a statement, which was cited in the Washington Post, that the U.S. government failed when it needed to make his rescue a priority. “It’s time that the U.S. government step up and take care one of its own. After nearly seven years, our family shouldn’t still be struggling to get through the day without this wonderful, caring man that we love so much,” the statement included. In November, Levinson became the longest-held U.S. hostage in history, topping the 2,454 days that Terry Anderson spent captured in Libya in the ‘70s.