By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
It has been 11 years since former FBI agent Robert Levinson was last seen alive.
Levinson, who would have turned 70 years old on Saturday, disappeared while on a CIA operation on Kish Island in Iran.
The Iranian government initially responded that it had detained Levinson but soon backed off that story and has since maintained it has no idea about Levinson’s whereabouts.
“This is something the FBI has never forgotten. His fellow agents have never forgotten Bob,” Tom O’Connor, the head of the FBI Agents Association, told WTOP. “The FBI Agents Association stands with his family and with the FBI in the efforts that everyone is making to reunite Bob with his family.”
The FBI has not given up. O’Connor said.
“There are people that are dedicated to working nothing but the Bob Levinson kidnapping case,” he said.
Some intelligence officials believe Levinson may be dead, but that hasn’t stopped the search.
“By remembering these solemn anniversaries — 11 years is a long time — we hope that somebody will come forward with information. There’s a reward out there, $5 million, for the return of Bob Levinson to his family,” O’Connor said.
“Representatives of the Government of Iran and the United States agreed to cooperate in sharing information which would lead to Mr. Levinson’s return,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday. “The FBI calls on the government of Iran to uphold this commitment so that Mr. Levinson and his family can be reunited.”
In his experience, O’Connor said he’s not giving up hope.
“I’ve worked on hostage cases in the past where someone was held in Iraq for 311 days, and it just was one piece of information that broke and he was reunited with his family,” he said. “People didn’t think that was going to happen and it did, so never give up hope.”
