Category: News

https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/senate-foreign-relations-committee-approves-robert-levinson-hostage-recovery-and-hostage-taking-accountability-act

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, issued the following statements after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved their bipartisan bill to bolster U.S. government resources to bring back Americans held hostage or unlawfully detained abroad. The Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act fortifies existing programs to address hostage-taking and equips the U.S. government with new tools to perform rescues, punish captors, and provide critical information and support to hostages and their families.

The bill is named in honor of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who is presumed to have died in Iranian custody this year. Lasting more than twelve years, Levinson’s unlawful detention by the Iranian regime is recognized as the longest-held hostage in American history.

“I am very proud to be able to deliver on my promise to the Levinson family on approving this important legislation in honor of Bob Levinson. Today, the United States is one step closer to holding the Iranian regime and other bad actors accountable for perpetrating unconscionable human rights abuses and inflicting gratuitous cruelties on individuals like Bob Levinson,” Menendez said. “As we continue to push this bill forward towards its enactment into law, we must remain guided by the Levinson family’s determination and persistence in their quest for justice. The United States must do everything possible to secure the resources necessary to safeguard American lives abroad and prevent others from enduring similar tragedies in the future.”

“Following the tragic news earlier this year regarding death former FBI Agent Bob Levinson, who was the longest held hostage in American history, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations pays tribute to his life by passing this important bipartisan bill to help ensure American hostages will be brought back home,” Rubio said. “This bipartisan effort will strengthen the tools within the Executive Branch to facilitate the return of American hostages held overseas.”

Joining Senator Menendez and Senator Rubio in cosponsoring the bill are Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

“The barbarity of the Iranian regime was graphically illustrated in the case of Robert Levinson,” Leahy said. “Countless appeals for his release were ignored, and in the end the Iranians achieved nothing by subjecting him to appalling cruelty all those years. When American citizens and nationals are arrested and imprisoned, our embassies should determine if there is reason to believe that they are being held as hostages or otherwise wrongly detained. This bill specifies criteria for making such determinations and would ensure that those Americans receive every available diplomatic or other assistance to protect their rights and obtain their release. There should be no higher priority for U.S. diplomacy than freeing American hostages.”

“We must do everything we can to prevent the unlawful detention and hostage-taking of American citizens,” Coons said. “This bipartisan bill honors the life of Bob Levinson, who was wrongfully detained in Iran for over a decade, by strengthening our ability to bring these individual Americans home and hold their captors accountable.”

“Any time an American citizen is held unjustly, it demands the attention and full weight of the United States government to secure their freedom,” Shaheen said. “This legislation reaffirms our country’s commitment to bring Americans home safely and bolsters diplomatic powers for the President and administration to use to compel their release. This legislation honors Robert Levinson, who died in Iranian custody after being held hostage for 13 years, and every American who is or has been wrongfully detained. I’m pleased by the bipartisan support from the committee to move this bill forward and I’ll continue to work across the aisle to see this legislation through Congress.”

A copy of the bill can be found HERE.

Today, with aching hearts, we are sharing devastating news about Robert Levinson, the head of our family.

We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody.  We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is impossible to describe our pain. Our family will spend the rest of our lives without the most amazing man we have ever known, a new reality that is inconceivable to us.  His grandchildren will never meet him. They will only know him through the stories we tell them.

If not for the cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime, Robert Levinson would be alive and home with us today. It has been 13 years waiting for answers.  Thirteen years since we last saw him or had any contact with him. How those responsible in Iran could do this to a human being, while repeatedly lying to the world all this time, is incomprehensible to us. They kidnapped a foreign citizen and denied him any basic human rights, and his blood is on their hands.

Bob Levinson should have spent his last moments surrounded by his family and all the love we feel for him. Instead, he died alone, in captivity thousands of miles away, in unbelievable suffering.  His body has not yet been returned to us for a proper burial.  We don’t even know when, or even if, his body would be returned to us. This is the very definition of cruelty.

Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done. We will spend the rest of our lives making sure of this, and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away. We expect American officials, as well as officials around the world, to continue to press Iran to seek Bob’s return, and to ensure those Iranian officials involved are held accountable.

To you – the thousands of people who knew and loved Bob Levinson or who have supported our family during this terrible ordeal – we know you mourn with us.  We can never thank you enough for your love, and for always being there in ways big and small.  Because of COVID-19, we will be holding a memorial service in the future when it is safe to do so. We will let you know when and where.

We extend our deep appreciation to President Trump and the members of his Administration –  National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, C.I.A. Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher Wray – and their staff, who have done all they could to make our family whole again. We are so grateful for their efforts.

Our family also wishes to thank Congressman Ted Deutch, Senator Bill Nelson, Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Bob Menendez, and their staff members, who fought for Bob Levinson in every possible way.

To the men and women of the FBI, active and retired, who did their best to bring our husband and father home – we know you, also, are mourning with us.  Finding Bob Levinson was a personal mission for hundreds of agents and others who worked on this case over the years.  We cannot even begin to describe our gratitude.  He will always be one of the FBI’s own.

Bob Levinson was a truly remarkable individual – the best husband, father, brother, grandfather and friend anyone could ever ask for. He was an American hero – a true patriot, and his compassion and kindness knew no bounds. We will miss his warmth, humor, and wisdom, but most of all, we will miss the deep and unconditional love he had for each one of us. He will never be forgotten – we will make sure of it.

Christine, Susan, Stephanie, Sarah, Daniel, David, Samantha, and Douglas, and the entire extended Levinson family

Read the Article Here.

Courthouse News Service

December 5, 2019

MEGAN MINEIRO

Read the Article Here

VOA News on Iran

WASHINGTON – An American family suing Iran in a U.S. court for the 2007 disappearance of family patriarch Robert Levinson on an Iranian island has emerged from two days of tearful testimony more determined than ever to press Tehran for his release.

The testimony of the retired FBI agent’s wife and seven adult children at the Wednesday and Thursday sessions of Washington’s U.S. District Court “is one way to keep reminding the Iranians that we’re not going away,” said eldest son Dan Levinson in a Friday appearance on VOA Persian’s Late News program.

“They know exactly where my father is,” he said of the Iranian government. “It’s been almost 13 years (since the disappearance) and we’re just suffering terribly. It’s time for them to send my father home. And this (court testimony) is one way to hold them accountable and to pressure them to get this resolved.”

Father disappears in 2007

Robert Levinson disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting southern Iran’s Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier. In 2013, several U.S. news outlets reported that Levinson had been part of a rogue CIA intelligence mission, a claim that U.S. authorities have not confirmed.

His family long has accused Iran’s Islamist rulers of detaining Levinson as a hostage to be traded for concessions from the U.S., which those rulers have labeled an enemy for decades. However, Iranian officials have consistently denied knowledge of Levinson’s whereabouts in their public statements.

Family members have not received any proof of life from Levinson since his captors sent a video and photos of him looking gaunt and disheveled in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The family’s hopes were lifted last month, when the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances said Iran’s judiciary recently had notified the world body of an “open case” for Levinson in the nation’s Revolutionary Court system that handles national security cases. Iranian officials later tried to downplay the U.N. notification, saying it related to a “missing person” investigation into Levinson’s disappearance.

The Levinson family filed its ongoing lawsuit against Iran in the District Court of the District of Columbia in March 2017. Family members said this week they are seeking $150 million in compensation and $1.35 billion in punitive damages from Tehran, which did not have any representation at this week’s court sessions. Iran has not had diplomatic relations with Washington since Iranian Islamists hostile toward the U.S. seized power in the 1979 revolution.

Change Iran tactic

Levinson family lawyer David McGee told VOA Persian that the vast majority of the $1.5 billion sought from Iran is intended to dissuade it from continuing its long-running practice of arbitrarily detaining Iranian dual nationals and others with ties to the West.

“That’s inappropriate behavior. We think they should stop,” he said.

In the two days of testimony, Levinson’s children spoke of how the long disappearance of their father has traumatized some of them with panic attacks, attention deficiency, eating disorders and nightmares of Levinson being beheaded. They also read from touching messages their father had written to them before his fateful trip to Iran and described how he had been a loving influence in their lives. The testimonies brought the seven siblings to tears.

“It’s been very hard, and at times a little bit cathartic after 13 years of not talking about it, to be able to tell our story and talk about how wonderful our father is,” said Sarah Moriarty, one of Levinson’s four daughters, in a VOA Persian interview after Thursday’s session.

“The testimony of these past few days has shown how close we are as a family,” said her brother David, speaking alongside Moriarty. “It also has shown the strength of our mother, who for 12½ years has fought every day to get my father home.”

Levinson’s wife, Christine, was stoic throughout the week’s testimony.

Speaking to VOA Persian late Wednesday, she said she has worked to enable her children to go on with their lives.

“I tell them all that they need to make their father proud. I think that is what keeps everybody going,” she said.

Regarding the next steps in the lawsuit, McGee said he expects Judge Timothy Kelly to spend the “next month or so” writing an opinion about Iran’s liability for damages.

“Assuming that he finds a liability, he will appoint a special master (court official) to make a recommendation on the damages to the family. Then the judge will make a final decision.”

McGee said the judge will consider how the family has been harmed by Levinson’s disappearance in Iran.

“I have never seen a better case for emotional damage to human beings than what was presented in the last two days here. This is a wonderful family that has been grievously harmed by the actions of the Iranian government,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Iran to the testimony.

Dan Levinson said he expects it to take months for the judge’s final ruling to be issued.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6102989270001/#sp=show-clips

Nov. 12, 2019 – 4:09 – Iran acknowledges retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, missing since 2007, is the subject of an ‘ongoing case’ after the State Department offers $25 million for information leading to his return. Levinson’s daughter Stephanie reacts on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6102864950001/#sp=show-clips

Nov. 12, 2019 – 3:47 – Dan Levinson, son of missing former agent Robert Levinson, speaks out.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/robert-levinson-missing-daughter-iran-interview.amp

By Charles Creitz | Fox News

The daughter of Robert Levinson — a retired FBI agent and private investigator who went missing from an Iranian island in 2007 — praised President Trump and the administration for their focus on the case.

Trump and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien have been working tirelessly to find out what happened to the 58-year-old — now the longest-held hostage in U.S. history, Sarah Moriarty told “The Story” on Monday.

“We believe that President Trump, with this new $25 million reward and a tweet yesterday, has sent a clear message that this is a top priority for the U.S. administration, and we’re so thankful to him,” she said.

“Robert O’Brien has been amazing for our family — the entire administration has been working very hard; very tirelessly to bring him home.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/new-hope-for-family-of-fbi-agent-missing-in-iran-for-12-years-73250885817