WASHINGTON — Trump administration officers have concluded that Robert A. Levinson, the retired F.B.I. agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007 on an u
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officers have concluded that Robert A. Levinson, the retired F.B.I. agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007 on an unauthorized mission for the C.I.A., died whereas in Iranian custody, his household introduced on Wednesday.
Newly revealed intelligence pointed to Mr. Levinson’s loss of life, high nationwide safety officers informed his family members inside White Home Scenario Room in latest weeks, based on an individual aware of the assembly. The officers supplied sturdy proof that Mr. Levinson had died someday up to now a number of years, the particular person stated, however didn’t element the proof.
“We lately obtained data from U.S. officers that has led each them and us to conclude that our great husband and father died whereas in Iranian custody,” Mr. Levinson’s household wrote in an announcement on Fb. “We don’t know when or how he died, solely that it was previous to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mr. Levinson was the longest-held hostage in American historical past, based on the F.B.I. His disappearance induced a serious scandal contained in the C.I.A. after lawmakers found what occurred, however it was stored quiet. Three longtime analysts have been pressured out, others disciplined and company guidelines rewritten.
However the C.I.A. and different authorities officers by no means publicly acknowledged that Mr. Levinson was working for the company at the same time as family and friends confirmed it. Had they by no means uncovered his work, the key might need died with Mr. Levinson.
The intelligence group’s evaluation that Mr. Levinson is not alive places to relaxation a query that has haunted his household for years. But it surely nonetheless stays unclear how and when Mr. Levinson died.
The Iranian authorities has by no means admitted abducting Mr. Levinson. This month, he would have turned 72.
The household thanked the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel; the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray; and Robert C. O’Brien, the nationwide safety adviser, in its assertion. They have been all within the White Home assembly when the household was informed, the particular person stated.
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