U.S. blames Iran for former FBI agent’s death

Robert Levinson retired from the FBI in 1998 and went missing on March 9, 2007, during a trip to meet a source on the Iranian island of Kish. In March, his family revealed U.S. officials believed the retired FBI agent had died. For the first time, the United States on Monday formally blamed Iran for Levinson’s death, publicly identifying and sanctioning two Iranian intelligence officers.

Was the rest of the Iranian government involved? U.S. officials accused the regime of approving the plot to kill Levinson and lying about it. The United States government froze the properties and assets of Iranians Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Kazai, who are accused of abducting the American. The Iranian government has not responded, but the Levinson family thanked Trump administration officials.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Lynde Langdon’s report about the revelation in 2013 that Levinson was secretly working for CIA analysts at the time of his disappearance.