Lawmakers renew effort to locate CIA employee

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers renewed the pushTuesday to locate and return Robert Levinson, theCoral Springs resident who went missing off the coast of Iran a decade ago.

Calling Levinson’s return “an urgent humanitarian issue,” the lawmakers asked President Donald Trump to “maintain pressure onIranto see thathe is returned as soon as possible.”

In a letter spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, DFla., they asked the president to “re-engage with Iran” to get movement on the case; meet with Levinson’s wifeandchildren; and designate a senior White House official to keep the family informed about the administration’s efforts on his behalf.

“Bob is still not home, anddespite repeated promises, Iran has yet to cooperate in any meaningfulway,” the lawmakers wrote. “Iran is responsible — if Iranian officials don’t have Bob, they know where to find him.”

Levinson, a former agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, was working for the CIA when he planned a trip in 2007 to Kish Island, a resort island that is a part of Iran and located in the Persian Gulf just off the Iranian mainland.

He was there trying to cultivate an informant for the CIA.

A United Nations report from last year concluded Iranian authorities detained Levinson at his hotel onMarch 9, 2007, and have held him ever since – a claim Iran has denied.

The family received proof Levinsonwas alive in a 2010 hostage video. Additional evidence came in 2011, when they received pictures of Levinson wearing an orange jumpsuit — mimicking a Guantanamo Bay detainee — looking gaunt and wearing a thick beard.

If he is still alive, be 69.

Years of congressional and presidential efforts to get information and action on Levinson have, so far, not yielded results.

In late June, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch urging release of Levinson.

Deutch is a Democrat whose district includes Levinson’s Coral Springs home. Levinsonwould