US prisoner in Iran was CIA contractor

After years of denying that Robert Levinson, who has been held in Iran for more than six years, was a CIA agent, the US government has finally admitted that, well, yes, he was, sort of. it looks like some folks who weren’t authorized to run an operation into Iran, ran Levinson into Iran, according to the Washington Post;

But months after Levinson’s abduction, e-mails and other documents surfaced that suggested he had gone to Iran at the direction of certain CIA analysts who had no authority to run operations overseas. That revelation prompted a major internal investigation that had wide-ranging repercussions, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The CIA leadership disciplined 10 employees, including three veteran analysts who were forced out of their jobs, the officials said.

[…]

The CIA ultimately concluded that it was responsible for Levinson while he was in Iran and paid $2.5 million to his wife, Christine, former U.S. intelligence officials said. The agency also paid the family an additional $120,000, the cost of renewing Levinson’s contract.

Levinson’s whereabouts [remain] unknown. Investigators can’t even say for certain whether he’s still alive.

Nice. It sounds like the plot of a hundred bad movies I’ve watched over the last forty years.

“The investigation into Mr. Levinson’s disappearance continues, and we all remain committed to finding him and bringing him home safely to his family,” said spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

Yeah, he’s dead. If Caitlyn Hayden tells me water is wet, I’d go check on it. She’s been on the blog before spinning government tales when we were writing about Karl Eikenberry, that dick, when he was ambassador to Afghanistan and she worked for the State Department. So, since she always says that which is the opposite of the truth, she means that they could give a sh*t less what happens to Levinson.

Category: Terror War