Missing American in Iran was working for CIA

[porque]

WASHINGTON (AP) — In March 2007, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson flew to Kish Island, an Iranian resort awash with tourists, smugglers and organized crime figures. Days later, after an arranged meeting with an admitted killer, he checked out of his hotel, slipped into a taxi and vanished. For years, the U.S. has publicly described him as a private citizen who traveled to the tiny Persian Gulf island on private business.

But that was just a cover story. An Associated Press investigation reveals that Levinson was working for the CIA. In an extraordinary breach of the most basic CIA rules, a team of analysts — with no authority to run spy operations — paid Levinson to gather intelligence from some of the world's darkest corners. He vanished while investigating the Iranian government for the U.S.

The CIA was slow to respond to Levinson's disappearance and spent the first several months denying any involvement. When Congress eventually discovered what happened, one of the biggest scandals in recent CIA history erupted.

Behind closed doors, three veteran analysts were forced out of the agency and seven others were disciplined. The CIA paid Levinson's family $2.5 million to pre-empt a revealing lawsuit, and the agency rewrote its rules restricting how analysts can work with outsiders.

The AP first confirmed Levinson's CIA ties in 2010 and continued reporting to uncover more details. It agreed three times to delay publishing the story because the U.S. government said it was pursuing promising leads to get him home.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...american-in-iran-was-working-for-cia/4003437/

 

[Mr. Somebody]

O boy they got 008. I guess they'll have to send in 007.

 

[Shogun]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I thought dude was still in captivity....

the US fukked that one up heavy.

I aint know the family got paid 2.5MM tho...thats nuts.

...but why though? Aint that the risk he took?

 

[porque]

I thought dude was still in captivity....

the US fukked that one up heavy.

I aint know the family got paid 2.5MM tho...thats nuts.

...but why though? Aint that the risk he took?

no one knows anything about him, at least not publicly

and I guess the 2.5 was to keep them quiet

 

[Deflatedhoopdreams]

Interesting

 

[OPTiMO]

O boy they got 008. I guess they'll have to send in 007.

You think you funny?

 

[Ciggavelli]

The US government lied about something CIA related

 

[Strapped]

The US government lied about something CIA related

 

[MikelArteta]

 

[Deflatedhoopdreams]

I wanted to be in the CIA when I was a kid

 

[porque]

the CIA gave the family a $2.5 million annuity, which provides tax-free income, multiple people briefed on the deal said.

Immediately after Levinson's disappearance in March 2007, the CIA acknowledged to Congress that Levinson had previously done contract work for the agency. But the agency had no current relationship with Levinson and there was no connection to Iran, the CIA assured lawmakers.

But in October 2007 Levinson's lawyer discovered emails between Levinson and his friend Anne Jablonski, who worked at the CIA. Before his trip, Levinson had told Jablonski that he was developing a source with access to the Iranian regime and could arrange a meeting in Dubai or an island nearby.

Problem was, Levinson's contract was out of money and, though the CIA was working to authorize more, it had yet to do so.

In a later email exchange, Jablonski advised Levinson to keep talk about the money "among us girls" until it had been officially approved.

Jablonski signed off: "Be safe."

Levinson said he understood. He said he'd try to make this trip as successful as previous ones. And he promised to "keep a low profile."

Once the Senate Intelligence Committee saw the emails between Jablonski and Levinson, lawmakers demanded to know more. That touched off an internal CIA investigation, which discovered that the agency's relationship with Levinson had been unusual from the start.

Instead of e-mailing his work product to the CIA, he mailed packages to Jablonski's home in Virgina. His correspondence was primarily with Jablonski's personal email account.

Jablonski said the analysts simply wanted to avoid the CIA's lengthy mail screening process.

"I didn't think twice about it," she said in an interview.

The Illicit Finance Group also didn't follow the typical routine for international travel. Before someone travels abroad for the agency, the top CIA officer in the country normally clears it. That way, if an employee is arrested or creates a diplomatic incident, the agency isn't caught by surprise.

That didn't happen before Levinson's trips, former officials said. He journeyed to Panama, Turkey and Canada and was paid upon his return, people familiar with his travels said. After each trip, he submitted bills and the CIA paid him for the information and reimbursed him for his travel expenses.

Nobody who reviewed the intelligence or reviewed the contract ever flagged this as a potential problem, investigators found.

The whole arrangement was so peculiar that CIA investigators conducting an internal probe would later conclude it was an effort to keep top CIA officials from figuring out that the analysts were running a spying operation. Jablonski adamantly denies that.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I wanted to be in the CIA when I was a kid

Me too breh

Then I was like, I gotta kill innocent Muslims? I ain't about that life



Then I was like, I can't have used drugs in the past 3 years?

Then I was like, I gotta fill out a 50 fukking page application sheet and get monitored by the feds for a year

Then I was like, I gotta sit at a desk for 40 hours a week rummaging through bullshyt "terrorist" documents?


Then I was like private sector

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

.......................

 

[Ciggavelli]

What if they turned him like brody

Maybe he is Brody

He could have

Spoiler

been sent in to kill the Head of State Security

Edit: if you're up to date don't tell me what happened in last week's episode. I'm behind