Posted on 03/03/2011 1:12:01 PM PST by Danae
Link only due to Copyright agreement.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I remember that story. Very bizarre.
Wow, that was 4 years ago? Time flies...
I sincerely hope this is true. Even more, I wish the US would go in with utterly overwhelming force and go get him. But with Obama in “charge” that isn’t going to happen. Obama has NO courage, let alone the balls to do and free one of our citizens, a public servant who has been held captive (God only knows how they tortured him in that time.. I don’t even want to think about it, it can’t be good) for years.....
No, Obama won’t lift so much as a spoon of icecream to go get him. They have been NEGOTIATING for his release. Carter found out how well THAT works, and apparently Obama has once again proven he is stupider than Carter.
All we can do is pray that God intervenes and something GOOD happens now.
If he gets back, he won’t recognize the country he left. Hell, I don’t.
bump
Praying this ends well.
“I wish the US would go in with utterly overwhelming force and go get him.”
Almost as importantly, I wish that when we were done, we’d just turn around and come home, rather than spending billions on “nation building” and taking in millions of Iranian “refugees.”
Of course he won’t. He’s closer to Ahmedinejad’s way of seeing things than ours, anyway.
Prayer is probably our ONLY recourse at this point.
A jewish FBI agent investigating the Revolutionary Guard and the russian mob (one of whom he testified against), in IRAN, without backup...??
Whats wrong with this picture?
I seem to remember he was not in Iran at the time, he was abducted I think.
Per FoxNews and the AP: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/03/officials-believe-fbi-agent-went-missing-iran-4-years-ago-alive/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nearly four years after retired FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared inside Iran, U.S. officials now say they have proof that he is still alive – a development that will reinvigorate an investigation into his whereabouts and condition.
“As we approach the fourth anniversary of Bob Levinson’s disappearance, we have received recent indications that Bob is being held somewhere in southwest Asia,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a written statement on Thursday. “As the Government of Iran has previously offered its assistance in this matter, we respectfully request the Iranian government to undertake humanitarian efforts to safely return and reunite Bob with his family.”
In response to Clinton’s comments, FBI spokesman Paul Bersson said the case is an “ongoing” matter but “it remains our goal to bring him home safely.”
Prior to the disclosure, the U.S. had inconclusive evidence on what happened to Levinson after his disappearance from the Iranian island of Kish in March 2007. After March 9, he did not appear for a scheduled flight to Dubai and there were no records of him using his passport or credit cards since he went missing.
Iran has repeatedly said it has no information about him, but U.S. diplomats and investigators have long said they believed he was taken by Iranian government agents.
As years passed, many in the U.S. government believed the 63-year-old with diabetes and high blood pressure might have died. But late last year, Levinson’s family received proof that he was alive. Investigators confirmed its authenticity and that it was recent, current and former officials said.
The nature of the proof is not disclosed in the announcement because officials believe that would hurt efforts to free him.
Next Wednesday will mark the fourth anniversary of Levinson’s disappearance. With proof that he is alive, the case becomes one of the longer international hostage situations involving U.S. citizens. Levinson is unique, however, in that no one has publicly acknowledged holding him.
The government’s announcement said Levinson may be in southwest Asia and renewed its calls for help from Iran. The statement was a change in tone from what had been stalemated discussions. The U.S. has previously expressed deep frustration over what it said was Iran’s lack of cooperation.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been circumspect about what his country knows about Levinson. In the course of a single interview, he has said he had no information, has offered to help and then has accused the FBI of withholding information about why Levinson was in Iran.
Levinson retired from the FBI in 1998 and became a private investigator. He was investigating cigarette smuggling in early 2007 and his family has said that investigation took him to Iran. Kish is a popular resort area and a hotbed of smuggling and organized crime. It is also a free trade zone, meaning U.S. citizens do not need a visa to travel there.
Authorities don’t know why the evidence that Levinson was alive surfaced now, after years of silence. But it has touched off the most hopeful round of diplomacy since he disappeared.
Iran shares borders with the southwest Asian countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan, raising the possibility that Levinson was shuttled into one of those countries. Both border crossings are known smuggling routes. The route into Pakistan leads into a lawless tribal region that’s home to insurgents, terrorist groups and criminal organizations.
Levinson disappeared after a meeting with Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive wanted for the assassination of a former Iranian diplomat in Maryland in 1980. Salahuddin has said he last saw Levinson being questioned by Iranian officials. Levinson’s distinctive signature was used to check out of his hotel, but he never made it to the airport.
“I don’t think he is missing, but don’t want to point my finger at anyone,” Salahuddin told the Financial Times.”Some people know exactly where he is... He came only to see me.”
Over the years, stories have trickled in from witnesses claiming to have evidence about Levinson’s whereabouts. But like so much about Iran, the U.S. was never able to verify those accounts.
An Iranian defector now living in the United States, Reza Kahlili, told the AP that Levinson was picked up by the Quds Force, a unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Kahlili said he was told by sources inside Iran that Levinson was investigating money laundering and discovered a link between the Russian mob and the Revolutionary Guard.
Kahlili said Levinson was taken to a safe house in Tehran but he does not know what happened to him. A former FBI official said the U.S. was aware of that account and, though he described Kahlili as credible, the U.S. could never confirm his story.
In 2009, an Iranian defector told U.S. authorities that, while imprisoned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, he saw the name “B. Levinson” scrawled on the door frame of his cell. That account was included in a diplomatic memorandum obtained by WikiLeaks and published last month. Former officials have raised doubts about the defector, however, and when the AP located him in Europe in early January, he said he never saw Levinson’s name.
The State Department has repeatedly called on Iran to provide more information about Levinson. U.S. diplomats have also asked foreign leaders to intervene. Even the Vatican was enlisted, but in 2008 the Iranian government chastised the pope’s ambassador to Tehran, saying the Vatican had no business asking about the case, according to State Department documents.
In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered a fresh diplomatic push. At a United Nations conference at The Hague that year, Clinton personally passed a note to Iranian officials, urging them to help find Levinson.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A *pussy*. This guy makes Clinton look like Eisenhower.
We also used to have a CIA that made sure that a whole bunch of sterile surplus military rifles and ammo that couldn't be tracked back to us (or at least with enough plausible deniability cover) would just show up at the right time when say, a bloodthirsty African dictator needed a bullet in the face. Or maybe that loudmouth MFer would get a smart bomb down his chimney while he's sleeping.
We need to go back to those days, because our President who's trying the opposite approach of bumping fists with dictators and low-fives on the back hand side and bowing to cretins along with a bunch of jive-ass speechifying is only emboldening people all over the world who just can't wait to be enemies of the USA.
Otherwise I agree with you. Nations do NOT get, keep or maintain their power by being nice. They do it with judicious use of POWER. When and where needed. If you don't have the balls to USE it, then you don't have the balls to lead this Nation. Obama has no balls at all.
Calling Carter!
Calling Jimmy Carter!!
There are still more questions than answers, but it looks like there may be some hope for the safe return of Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in March 2007. I don’t think he’s out of the woods yet, so prayers would be helpful.
I hope everyone who wants to post their prayers feels free to do so.
I’m not one to post colorful prayers, nor even share much about the content of my prayers, but I did briefly mention my own prayer in post #7:
Praying this ends well.
I got a FReepmail admonishing me for it:
So, just what did your comment add to the thread? Such posts just hamper folks that are seeking serious information and dilute the very purpose of Free Republic. If you get such a kick out of seeing your name, please go outside and write it on your sidewalk with chalk. FR is not a chat room.
How could prayers hamper the true purpose of Free Republic? When Jim Robinson says that himself, I’ll immediately quit posting prayers, or anything else on FR. When some unimportant person sends me an unsolicited FReepmail of that nature, don’t expect me to play along.
I just checked, and Jim Robinson’s thread is still highlighted. Welcome to Free Republic! America's exclusive site for God, Family, Country, Life & Liberty constitutional conservative activists!:
One more time:As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our BORDERS, our constitution and our national sovereignty.
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If you cannot live with the above, fine, but keep your mouth shut about it while on FR. Don't fight against us on ANY of our deeply held beliefs!!
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I don’t see anything there to suggest that prayers are not allowed, but it looks to me like Jim doesn’t want us fighting against the open display of prayers.
Ironically, while I was writing this post, I got a ping to an update on Jim’s condition: Prayers Requested for Jim Robinson [update by Jim @ 468 and 1023]. So I guess that settles it. Prayers are still allowed here.
“I got a FReepmail admonishing me for it”
Who sent you the email? Was it from one of the mods?
No, just some unimportant freeper. I don’t recall having any conversations with this person before, but I suppose it’s possible he/she is carrying a grudge from some thread I’ve forgotten. Or maybe they don’t like prayers. Or maybe they have a grudge against Robert Levinson, or everyone with a name like Levinson. All I know is what they said. Why they said it is anyone’s guess.
A Jerk
Probably, but there’s always the chance that they accidentally clicked on the wrong post, and that freepmail was meant for someone who actually deserved it. Stranger things have happened.
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