Amid war, FBI confirms longest-held American hostage in U.S. history died in Iran

As the U.S.-Iran war raged this week, the State Department and FBI publicly acknowledged for the first time that the longest-held American hostage in U.S. history died in Iranian custody. The hostage, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, has been missing since March 7, 2007, when he disappeared on the Iranian island of Kish. This year marked 19 years since his disappearance, after which the U.S. government believes he remained in Iranian custody.   
Levinson, who worked for six years at the Drug Enforcement Administration and a further 22 years at the FBI, went missing while he was on a mission for the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East. 
“For nearly my entire career, we have been searching for Bob,” FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia said Monday at a flag-raising ceremony for U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day. 
“As most of you know, Bob spent nearly three decades in service to our nation, including 22 years as an FBI special agent. Quite simply, he was one of ours. Our evidence suggests that Bob died in captivity in Iran. And he is the longest held American hostage in U.S. history.”
Though this is the first time the U.S. government has acknowledged his death, Levinson’s family said in 2020 that they had been informed privately by U.S. officials that they believed he died sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Director Raia said that the FBI continues to hunt for leads and information related to Levinson’s disappearance in the hopes of piecing together what happened. Last year, the FBI announced an up to $25 million reward for information related to two Iranian intelligence officers, Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai, who the bureau believes orchestrated Levinson’s abduction. 
After Levinson left the FBI in 1998, he became a private investigator. He was later employed by the CIA on a contract basis. After he first disappeared, U.S. officials claimed that Levinson’s visit was in a private capacity. However, by 2013, the Associated Press revealed Levinson was actually on a mission for CIA analysts who did not have the authority to authorize such an operation.   
The Iranian government has never acknowledged any involvement, but officials have given contradictory statements on Levinson for the nearly two decades he has been missing. 
“We are willing to help, and all the intelligence services in the region can come together to gather information about him to find his whereabouts,” then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in an interview with CNN in 2013. 
However, the year before, then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to acknowledge negotiations with the U.S. for a possible prisoner exchange including Levinson.  
On at least one occasion, the United States nearly succeeded in negotiating Levinson’s return with the help of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, Just the News previously reported. 
FBI officials, Levinson’s family, and Deripaska himself confirmed the Russian spent millions of his own money trying to help the FBI gather intelligence on Levinson’s whereabouts and almost succeeded in arranging his transfer back to U.S. custody. The deal, however, fell through.
In return for Deripaska’s help, the FBI arranged a special visa to get him into the United States a few times.
Deripaska was later wrapped up in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation. Before the allegations were dispelled, some Democrats had speculated that Deripaska could be the secret link connecting President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin because of his prior relationship with Paul Manafort, who eventually rose to become a Trump 2016 campaign chairman.
The wild theory – which Deripaska and Manafort both denied – sent FBI agents knocking on Deripaska’s door again in 2016 while he was visiting New York.
The Russian, by his own account in the 2019 interview, told the agents there was no collusion and their theory of collusion was preposterous. Robert Mueller, the former FBI director, would eventually reach the same conclusion as the Justice Department special counsel named to investigate the collusion allegations.
Levinson’s family reportedly received proof-of-life in 2010. They later released a hostage video they received in November 2010 that showed Levinson, who appeared to have lost weight but showed no apparent signs of mistreatment. 
“I have been treated well. But I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for three and a half years,” Levinson said in the video. “And please help me get home.”

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