Robert Levinson - Iranian Involvement

Iranian Involvement

A little over three weeks after Levinson was kidnapped, an article by Iranian state-run PressTV stated that he "has been in the hands of Iranian security forces since the early hours of March 9," and "authorities are well on the way to finishing the procedural arrangements that could see him freed in a matter of days." The same article explained that it was established Levinson's trip to Kish "was purely that of a private businessman looking to make contact with persons who could help him make representations to official Iranian bodies responsible for suppressing trade in pirated products which is a major concern of his company."

On January 8, 2013 the Associated Press reported that "the consensus now among some U.S. officials involved in the case is that despite years of denials, Iran's intelligence service was almost certainly behind the 54-second video and five photographs of Levinson that were emailed anonymously to his family. The tradecraft used to send those items was too good, indicating professional spies were behind them, the officials said ... While everything dealing with Iran is murky, their conclusion is based on the U.S. government's best intelligence analysis."

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