Video Rekindles Mystery Surrounding Former F.B.I. Agent Missing in Iran (Robert Levinson)

[alp227]

Source: NYT

The mystery surrounding the disappearance nearly five years ago of a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in Iran was rekindled Friday with the expected release of a hostage videotape showing him alive.

In the video, the former agent, Robert A. Levinson, is shown sitting in a makeshift cell looking gaunt and wearing a threadbare shirt. Mr. Levinson, who worked as a private investigator after retiring from the F.B.I., disappeared in March 2007 while on Kish Island, a resort in the Persian Gulf.

In the tape, which was received by Mr. Levinson’s family last November, the former F.B.I. agent states that he has been held in captivity for three and a half years but does not identify his captors. The tape was the first sign he was still alive.

“I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me,” he said on the tape as Arabic-sounding music played on a soundtrack. “Please help me get home. Thirty-three years of service to the United States deserves something.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/world/middleeast/video-shows-robert-levinson-ex-fbi-agent-missing-in-iran.html

[Octafish]

1. Guy may've been looking into cigarette smuggling -- an international currency amongst crooks etc.

From a PI's website:



CIGARETTE SMUGGLING....Levinson disappeared during a trip to Kish Island in southern Iran. His wife said she had no idea what he was doing there, but noted that it was related to his job running a consulting firm. She told CNN that she believes Levinson met with Dawud "Salahuddin", an American fugitive who lives in Iran, shortly before Levinson's disappearance and that a man purporting to be Salahuddin called her "right when he disappeared."

http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2009/01/florida-private-investigator-robert.html

PS: The man deserves more than lip service for 33 years' service.