Kin to madman: Bring Bob back home to us NOW
THE FAMILY of a retired New York G-man who vanished five years ago in Iran sent a message Tuesday to the monster who runs the country — and it got through to him.
With world leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly, the FBI worked with Robert Levinson’s kin to put up billboards in Times Square and on subway entrances near the United Nations pleading for the international community to help find the missing man.
“United Nations Delegates,” the Times Square billboard said. “Please encourage the Islamic Republic of Iran to work with the United States Government to bring Bob home.”
It was signed: “On behalf of the Levinson Family.”
The former FBI agent has not been seen since a 2010 video of him emerged, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been spewing anti-Semitic and anti-American bile all week, buoyed the Levinson family by suggesting that the 64-year-old husband and father is still alive.
“I remember that last year Iranian and American intelligence groups had a meeting, but I haven’t followed up on it,” he told CBS on Tuesday. “I thought they’d come to some kind of an agreement.”
The comment has renewed Christine Levinson’s hope that her husband is alive — and that Iran might be willing to help.
“This is the first time he’s said anything about Bob,” Levinson said. “We are hoping he will follow up and get the job finished so we can get him home safely.”
Daughter Sarah Moriarty, who carried a picture of her dad in her bouquet when she got married two years ago, said they dream of their long-lost dad walking her sister Susan down the aisle in February.
“I would be just devastated” if that didn’t come true, she said.
Levinson, who had a 28-year career with the FBI, was working as a private eye on a tobacco smuggling case in Iran’s Persian Gulf resort island of Kish when he disappeared March 8, 2007.
The Iranians insisted they had no idea what happened to Levinson, but U.S. diplomats said they were convinced he’d been arrested by government agents.
The Levinsons began pressing for his release and put up a website seeking help.
Then, two years ago, they got the 57-second “proof of life” video of a gaunt and grizzled-looking Levinson.
“Please help me get home,” Levinson pleaded in the footage as Middle Eastern music played in the background.
Dressed in a white Tshirt, Levinson said he was being treated well by his captors but warned his health was failing and that he was running low on his diabetes medication.
“I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me,” he said.
But the video did not identify the group or list their demands.
“We don’t even know the purpose of that video,” the worried wife said. “In the video, he lost a lot of weight.”
When Levinson vanished, he had just become a grandfather. That child is now 6, his wife said.
“I don’t even know that he knows he has another grandchild,” she said.
The Levinsons have seven kids. They still “call me in the middle of the night because they miss their father,” the dogged wife said.
And anything that reminds them of their dad is precious, she said.
Christine Levinson said one of her sons was devastated when he “accidentally erased a voicemail from his father with his father’s voice.” “You cling to everything,” she said. Iran’s military test-fired four missiles during a military drill in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to a semi-official news agency.
Even as Ahmadinejad plays nice in New York, he’s still on a war footing in Iran.
Top military leader Gen. Ali Fadavi of the powerful Revolutionary Guard said late Monday that missiles hit a “big target” the size of a warship and sunk it within 50 seconds during a military exercise, FARS News Agency reported.
It was the first report of an Iranian military exercise taking place simultaneously and close to U.S.-led joint naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, including mine-sweeping drills.
The U.S. Navy claims the maneuvers are not directly aimed at Iran, but the West and its regional allies have made clear they would react against attempts by Tehran to carry out threats to try to close critical gulf oil shipping lanes in retaliation for tighter sanctions.
Robert Levinson’s wife, Christine I don’t even know that he knows he has another grandchild. (Our kids) still call me in the middle of the night because they miss their father.