The Ghost of Snapped Shot

Today seems to be a good day for catching up on our kidnapping stories, it seems. Robert Levinson, an American citizen and ex-FBI counterfeiting expert, went missing in Iran in early March. Now, via Sweetness & Light, we learn that some rather interesting questions have arisen in his case, which is reported to be getting the attention of the highest levels of the American government:

Robert Levinson, missing in Iran.

Just why Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and now private investigator, should venture into Iran to meet a American fugitive wanted for murder in the US remains a mystery that the highest Bush administration authorities are trying to unravel.

As the Financial Times revealed this week, Mr Levinson disappeared on March 8 after a six-hour meeting on the Iranian island of Kish with Dawud Salahuddin, an American who converted to Islam and was recruited by revolutionaries to assassinate an Iranian opposition activist near Washington in 1980.

Friends of Mr Levinson are mystified that he took the risk of travelling for such a meeting. They fear he is the victim of a sting operation by Iranian secret services engaged in an escalating “dirty war” between the US and Iran, involving hostage-taking and covert cross- border operations.

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