Lawmakers urge Iran to provide whereabouts of missing Floridian

February 3, 2009

WASHINGTON – A belief that Robert Levinson, the retired FBI agent who disappeared two years ago in Iran, may still be alive led lawmakers Tuesday to join with Levinson’s wife and children in a renewed push to call on Iran to divulge details about the Floridian’s 2007 disappearance.

"I believe he is alive and he's being held by the Iranians," Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has told NEWSWEEK.

Today, Nelson joined Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Boca Raton, Fla.), Levinson’s wife, Christine, and six of their seven children to unveil a resolution calling on the new Obama administration to engage with officials of the Iranian government to raise the case at every opportunity and for Iran to keep a previous promise to cooperate and provide information on his whereabouts.

Robert Levinson has been missing since March of 2007, when he went on a business trip to the island of Kish off the coast of Iran.  “The Levinson family has worked tirelessly to locate Robert Levinson and bring him back home.  It is critical that the United States government use every diplomatic tool at our disposal and raise his case at the highest levels internationally and with the Iranian government,” said Wexler.  “I look forward to seeing this resolution pass in both the House and the Senate; and, will continue to support the Levinson family in whatever way possible as they continue to search for answers and Robert’s safe return home.”

The lawmakers’ resolution reads, in part, “that Congress . . . urges the President and the allies of the United States to engage with officials of the Government of Iran to raise the case of Robert Levinson at every opportunity, notwithstanding other serious disagreements the United States Government has had with the Government of Iran.”

The resolution is being cosponsored by a number of other lawmakers, including Sens. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida, George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, and Evan Bayh, a Democrat from Indiana.

“I hope that the Obama Administration will move to ensure that Mr. Levinson’s case is raised at highest levels and that a robust effort is made to bring him home to his family,” said Sen. Voinovich.

Last month, Nelson questioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at her confirmation hearing about the Levinson case, and asked that she make it a top priority for relations with Iran.  In response, Clinton said, "It would be an extraordinary opportunity for the government of Iran to make such a gesture -- to permit contact, to release him, to make it clear that there is a new attitude in Iran as we believe there will be with the Obama administration towards engagement." 

And a new report in Newsweek suggests the case could be the new Obama administration’s first diplomatic step to opening a dialogue with Iran.

Nelson previously met with Levinson’s family in December of 2007, before they departed for Iran on a fact-finding trip.  The senator also wrote to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to ask that he assist the Levinson family in their pursuit of answers about the disappearance.

This isn’t the first time Nelson has gotten involved in a case like this involving a missing Floridian.

In the past, he pushed the Defense Department to investigate reports that missing Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher of Jacksonville, who was shot down during the first Gulf War, was still alive and being held captive.  He also convinced President Alan Garcia of Peru to call for reopening the unsolved case of a murdered Tampa Tribune journalist.  And more recently, he worked with government officials and pressed for the release of the three Americans with Florida ties who were being held hostage by the Colombian terrorist group known as FARC.

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