Last week, Washington imposed sanctions on two Iranian intelligence officers in connection with the disappearance, and probable death, of the former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in the Islamic Republic under suspicious circumstances. The editors of the New York Daily News write:
It was in March 2007 when the then-retired FBI agent vanished shortly after arriving on the island of Kish to work on an unauthorized CIA contract. For many years, the U.S. government said he was working as a private investigator and was “not a U.S. government employee,” while the Iranians disavowed any role in his disappearance.
But last year, a UN agency revealed that Tehran had just admitted that “Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran”—their first indication that he was in fact in custody.
Why this secretive government would issue blanket denials for years, then suddenly let slip that he was in fact being held, is anyone’s guess. What is beyond dispute is that Iran holds at least five Americans, hiding them from their families while subjecting them to the mercy of a brutal and Kafkaesque justice system.
As Joe Biden entertains a thaw with Tehran, including on the international nuclear deal, he must stand up for our fellow countrymen swallowed up in the mullahs’ maw.
Read more on New York Daily News: https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-punish-them-20201217-7szag3aeuzbxzeplnvxfxyhfra-story.html