by Barry Meier
McJunkin wasn’t certain about what had happened to Bob, but he knew his captors had chosen the cruelest outcome for Chris and his children. Without finality, his family was trapped in a cycle of hope and despair, one that might never end. The kids would be okay, but McJunkin worried about Chris. He wanted to gently prod her into moving on with her life. As they sat together, he tried to talk to her about the future and the types of things she might like to do. Chris sensed where the conversation was headed. Years earlier, not long after Bob disappeared, she had sat down with her children. Their futures, she told them, lay ahead. They would marry, have children, and raise families. But Bob, she told her children, was the love of her life.
Chris looked across the table at McJunkin and said, “I want to be there for Bob.”
On January 16, 2016, the day the nuclear deal between the United States and Iran went into effect, the two countries exchanged prisoners. Those released by Tehran included Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter; Saeed Abedini, the pastor; and Amir Hekmati, the ex-marine. There was no mention of Bob Levinson.
Chris and her children learned about the exchange in the same way other Americans did: by hearing the news on television. They were devastated and appalled that the Obama administration had not alerted them beforehand.
“I thought that after nine years they would have enough respect for our family to at least tell us in advance that this is happening,” Chris said in one interview. “I am very disappointed. I feel extremely betrayed.”
The White House, the State Department, and the FBI put out statements saying they would continue searching for Bob, adding that Iran had agreed to assist in that effort, the same promise Tehran had made many times before.
When a reporter asked Secretary of State John Kerry if he knew whether the missing man was alive or dead, Kerry’s reply was brief. “We have no idea,” he said.
Notes
The page numbers for the notes that appear in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.
This book was based on interviews with many of the people portrayed in it. They include Christine Levinson and several of her children, including Dan, Dave, Stephanie, Sarah, and Samantha Levinson. In this account, I took the liberty of referring to Stephanie and Sarah by their maiden names, though they use their married names, Stephanie Curry and Sarah Moriarty. Susan Levinson now uses her married name, Susan Boothe. Chris’s sister Suzi Halpin and Bob’s sister, Judy Levinson, were also interviewed. Over the course of several years, I spoke regularly with David McGee, Ira Silverman, Sonya Dobbs, Jeffrey Katz, Boris Birshtein, and Madzhit Mamoyan. Several former and current FBI agents involved in the search for Bob also spoke with me, though in most cases they did so on the condition that they would not be identified by name. In reconstructing Bob’s work and travels before his disappearance on Kish, I spoke with, among others, Houshang Bouzari, the Iranian-born oil consultant; Philip Séchaud, the Swiss detective; officials of Global Witness; and Hezi Leder, a former Israeli law enforcement officer. To my surprise, when I initially spoke with many of these people, they had not yet been contacted by the FBI. I also interviewed several private investigators who worked with Bob, as well as journalists who knew him. They included Brian Ross, Joe Trento, Linden MacIntyre, Neil Docherty, and Chris Isham. In late 2007, I exchanged several emails with Dawud about Bob’s case. Dawud replied that he did not want to discuss the matter, and my subsequent efforts to contact him were unsuccessful.
This book also draws on a wealth of material written by Bob Levinson: reports to the CIA, memos about proposed assignments, emails with agency officials and private clients. Wherever possible, those reports and emails, or extracts from them, are reproduced verbatim. In a few cases, I corrected the types of common mistakes in spelling or punctuation that are typical of email correspondence. Those minor fixes were made for the purposes of clarity and did not alter the language’s meaning. In those instances where exchanges of emails between two people are juxtaposed conversationally, the exchanges were part of an email thread or represent exchanges that took place within a short period of time, often minutes. I tried not to draw unwarranted inferences from documents or emails.
The decision by some key actors and organizations central to this book not to cooperate in it was disappointing, though not surprising. The Central Intelligence Agency refused to participate in any way with this project, even denying my request to visit Langley. The Federal Bureau of Investigation responded to a few written questions, but officials there would not address some central ones.
I interviewed Anne Jablonski on several occasions, the first time in 2009, not long after her dismissal by the CIA. My impression of her was similar to the ones given to me by her friends and acquaintances; she was bright, funny, and, yes, goofy. She spoke at length to me and was very eager to present her side of the story. During that time, she also spoke with reporters with the Associated Press and gave her friends permission to do so. However, after her role in the Levinson case became public in late 2013 when the AP published its article, she shut down and refused to speak to me. I contacted her on several occasions while writing this book, and some of Anne’s friends encouraged her to participate in it. Her position, according to a note she sent me, was that she did not believe that any good would come from discussing Bob’s case and that she viewed the episode as behind her. Both she and her husband, Robert Otto, did not respond to written questions sent to them. A lawyer for Timothy Sampson, Anne’s boss at the Illicit Finance Group, said the former CIA official had prepared a response to written questions sent to him and submitted it in the spring of 2015 to the CIA for approval. The agency did not clear his response for release.
One of the first steps I took in 2014 when starting work on this book was to visit the Iranian mission to the United Nations and apply for a visa. In discussions with the mission’s press attaché, I made it clear that while I was writing a book about Bob Levinson, I did not want to go to Iran to investigate his case but to gain a better sense of that country and its people. Over the course of one year, I repeatedly contacted the Iranian mission to get an update about the status of my visa request and was told each time that officials in Tehran were still reviewing it. In light of the Iranian government’s unconscionable treatment of journalists such as The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, I suppose I should consider myself lucky.
Prologue
“This is a serious message”: Email from [email protected] to Ira Silverman, November 13, 2010.
“For my beau— my beautiful”: Transcript of videotape attached to email from [email protected] to Ira Silverman, November 13, 2010.
1. The House on Ninety-Second Street
“If you do this right”: “Managing Danger,” Florida Trend magazine, September 1, 1999.
his own one-man shop: R. A. Levinson & Associates was formed on April 23, 2001. State of Florida corporate records.
another large investigations firm, SafirRosetti, hired him: SafirRosetti press release, March 26, 2004.
teach seminars for young agents: The presentation that Bob gave to FBI agents about identifying and developing informants was titled “Source Development and Penetration of Targeted Organizations.”
The DEA agent, who did undercover buys: David Samuels, a former undercover agent for the DEA and a friend of Bob’s, told me this story.
The House on 92nd Street: This film, which was released in 1945, starred William Eythe and Lloyd Nolan. It might have inspired a very young Bob Levinson, but I would not recommend it.
City College of New York: Bob attended Yeshiva University in New York on a scholarship for two years before transferring to CCNY, according to Dan Levinson.
TGI Friday’s: Chris Levinson described her chance encounter with her future husband at this iconic Manhattan singles bar.
Raymond Donovan: My description of the long-running controversy
involving the onetime labor secretary was drawn from accounts in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Newsday.
Michael Orlando: The FBI investigation for which Michael Orlando served as an informant was called “Operation Tumcon” and named after its initial target, Angelo Tuminaro, the suspected head of a major heroin trafficking ring.
“This kid Mike”: William Masselli’s allusion to Orlando’s role as a Mafia contract killer proved accurate. FBI records show he later acknowledged carrying out at least one gangland murder.
A subsequent internal FBI review: The results of the internal bureau inquiry into the handling of Michael Orlando by Bob and Larry Sweeney are contained in an FBI report dated February 16, 1981.
too much bad blood: Larry Sweeney told me about the decision by supervisors in the FBI’s New York office to take Bob off the organized crime task force.
Baruch Vega: Baruch Vega’s career as a photographer and career as an informant with the CIA, FBI, and DEA are described in reports in the St. Petersburg Times and other publications.
“Bob Roberts”: Baruch Vega told me about the scheme developed by Bob and him that involved a fictional FBI agent. Vega used a similar stratagem when he later became a DEA informant and was subsequently arrested and charged with taking bribes from cartel members. During a DEA investigation, Bob Levinson and other former FBI agents confirmed the “Bob Roberts” scheme. As a result, charges against Vega were dropped.
Alexander Volkov: His role in Summit International and its description as a Ponzi scheme is contained in Robert I. Friedman’s book Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000).
Vyacheslav Ivankov: The description of the FBI’s sting operation against him is drawn from court filings and newspaper accounts.
at a conference in New Mexico: Anne Jablonski described her meeting with Bob.
“Toots”: In nearly all his emails to Anne, Bob addressed her as “Toots” and signed them as “Buck.”
The informant said his sources had spotted an executive: The claim that a mole within Philip Morris was selling its technology to product counterfeiters is contained in a SafirRosetti report dated July 8, 2004.
James Giffen: Bribery charges against James Giffen were dropped after a judge allowed him to mount the defense that federal officials knew of his actions in Kazakhstan and that they had benefited U.S. policy.
the Kazakh president was willing to help the U.S. government: Bob detailed the president of Kazakhstan’s offer of help to the United States on terrorism-related issues in a “briefing paper” dated October 23, 2004.
The DEA already knew: Interview with Philip Scott Forbes, who described the arrest of Leonid Venjik in Austria on drug and contraband trafficking charges.
gave Austrian authorities a sworn affidavit: Bob swore out a statement attesting to the honesty of Leonid Venjik on December 20, 2004.
“I’m going to get eaten alive”: Letter from Bob to Dave McGee, April 26, 2005.
Bob sent a letter to Joseph Cooley: Bob sent his letter to Cooley on April 26, 2005.
Explaining to Philip Morris: Officials of the cigarette company did not respond to inquiries about its decision to stop using SafirRosetti, but Philip Scott Forbes, the DEA agent, said the cigarette company was aware of the Venjik case.
a “success fee”: A private investigator, Jim Mintz, provided me with an explanation of how this form of payment works.
Every month, Anne told him about a hang-up: The hang-ups involved in getting Bob’s contract approved by the CIA’s bureaucracy are detailed in several emails written by Anne to Bob.
2. Toots
“Meow … And welcome”: Anne’s account of her experiment that restored her cat, Duke, to health was recounted in a post on her website CatNutrition.org.
“Anne-ski”: Anne told me that her colleagues called her this.
Robert Otto: Emails show that Otto asked Bob for information about Russian politicians or businessmen in which he, apparently as a State Department official, had an interest.
Anne met her at Union Station: Sarah Levinson described to me her day in Washington with Anne.
Jonathan Winer: Winer acknowledged to me several years ago that he was a consultant with the Illicit Finance Group. He declined to be interviewed for this book.
“Ugh … Pay NO attention to Bonnie”: Email from Anne to Bob, August 29, 2005.
Olga Vega: The role of Baruch Vega’s sister as a possible source of information about the three Defense Department contractors held hostage in Colombia is outlined in an email sent by Baruch Vega to Bob, October 11, 2005.
“I’ll pass it along”: Email from Anne to Bob, October 12, 2005.
“I’ll try and get a debrief”: Email from Anne to Bob, October 22, 2005.
“I am sure you’re weary”: Email from Anne to Bob, May 2, 2006.
Brian O’Toole: He is described in Bob’s contract as its administrator.
The contract’s language was vague: The effective date of Bob’s CIA consulting contract was June 15, 2006.
Peter F. Paul: Bob visited Paul in August 2006 at a federal prison and sent several reports to Anne about information Paul provided.
“And for heaven’s sake”: Email from Anne to Bob, August 11, 2006.
“We teeter on the edge”: Email from Anne to Bob, August 15, 2006.
The solution presented to Bob was simple: The directions given to Bob about how he should prepare future reports for the Illicit Finance Group and send them to Anne at her home are contained in a note titled “Instructions pursuant to meeting of 22 August 2006.” The same memo contains a list of “Principal Interests,” such as Iran and Hugo Chávez.
“Iran is the flavor of the day”: Interview with Ira Silverman.
3. The Fugitive
“In the past, I was Teddy”: The documentary in which Dawud speaks these words is called American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan, by Jean-Daniel Lafond, a Canadian filmmaker. Dawud also used the name Hassan Abdulrahman.
Dawud drove to Tabatabai’s home: The account of Dawud’s assassination of Ali Akbar Tabatabei is drawn from accounts in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
“Who am I, who grew up privileged and white”: The writer who made these comments was Christopher de Bellaigue, a journalist living in Iran. He painted a sympathetic portrait of Dawud in the memoir In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs (New York: HarperCollins, 2006).
Grady had never met the detective: Interview with James Grady.
“This country, this regime”: Dawud made these comments in a tape-recorded conversation with Carl Shoffler.
“I believe that I am in a position”: While Dawud drafted this letter to Janet Reno, the then attorney general of the United States, it is not clear that he sent it.
“I don’t need a notch”: Shoffler made these comments in a tape-recorded conversation with Dawud.
Joseph Trento: The freelance writer included an account of Dawud’s recruitment as an assassin for the Iranian Revolution as a chapter in his book Prelude to Terror: The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America’s Private Intelligence Network (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005).
Ira wrote a eulogy: His tribute to Carl Shoffler, “Capital Cop,” appeared in The New Yorker, July 29, 1996.
his relationship with Brian Ross: Interview with Brian Ross and others who worked with Ira and Ross at NBC News.
a critically acclaimed Iranian film, Kandahar: Dawud’s acting in this extraordinary film seems wooden, but the scene in which he examines its female protagonist from behind a curtain is memorable.
a piece about Russian organized crime: The Fifth Estate segment in which Bob appeared, “Power Play,” examined the involvement of Russian organized crime in professional ice hockey.
a twilight war: I borrowed this phrase from The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran, by David Crist (New York: Penguin, 2012). Crist’s book is an arresting and authoritative account of the decades-long
war between the United States and Iran fought through proxies.
“The Iranians of my immediate association”: Dawud’s comments are drawn from Ira Silverman’s profile “An American Terrorist,” which appeared in The New Yorker, August 5, 2002.
“The link below”: Email from Ira to Bob, July 11, 2006.
“It turns out that our friend”: Email from Bob to Ira, August 3, 2006.
4. Boris
Bouzari was among Tehran’s best and brightest: The description of Houshang Bouzari’s career and harrowing experiences in Evin Prison is based on court filings in Canada and the article “Escape from Iran” in The Atlantic, March 20, 2012. Bouzari was awarded damages in his lawsuit against Mehdi Rafsanjani, but a higher court determined that Canada was not the proper venue for the action. Separately, an Iranian court in 2015 upheld Mehdi Rafsanjani’s conviction on corruption charges, and he was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
Bob learned about him because of a lawsuit: Bob first contacted Bouzari by email on August 18, 2006—of interest because it was the same time a memo following a CIA meeting described Iran as a key target for the Illicit Finance Group.
He said the family owned condominiums: Houshang Bouzari described in an interview the assets the Rafsanjani family was suspected of controlling in Canada.
“Just so you know”: Email from Bob to Ira, August 26, 2006.
“Have an op going”: Email from Bob to Gazman Xhudo, State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security, August 26, 2006.
“Please tell our friend”: Email from Bob to Ira, August 28, 2006.
tying Mogilevich to the firm: The focus of Global Witness’s interest in Semion Mogilevich is described in a series of emails and memos.
“You need to leave right now”: Interview with a former FBI official based in Moscow who spoke on the condition of anonymity.