Family worries about American missing in Iran

updated 2:52 p.m. ET April 4, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Relatives of a former FBI agent who has been missing in Iran for three weeks said Wednesday they are worried and doing everything possible to find him. U.S. officials, meanwhile, downplayed the disappearance as routine.

Robert Levinson, 59, of Coral Springs, was last seen March 11 on the Iranian resort island of Kish. He was said to be working on a film on the island, known for its beaches, sea turtles and relatively liberal atmosphere.

“We miss him and love him very much. We are worried about him and want him home safe and sound as soon as possible,” his wife, Christine Levinson, and other relatives said in a statement to The Associated Press.

“This has been a very difficult time. In the past 48 hours, as this has become public, we’ve heard from many of our friends. We are touched and so grateful for the support and prayers we’ve received,” the statement said.

The family asked for privacy “as we do everything possible to bring Bob home.”

Tehran seeks details on man's itinerary
Iran replied to a U.S. request for information or help, and asked for additional details about the missing man’s travel itinerary, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. The response came through Swiss intermediaries in Iran.

“We’ll see if they come up with anything, but they certainly didn’t have any specific information,” about the man, Casey said.

The United States and Iran have no diplomatic relations, but do exchange information through neutral Swiss diplomats.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, said the disappearance was not unusual.

“We have several such cases each year involving welfare and whereabouts of American citizens in Iran,” Robertson said. “He’s a private citizen involved in private business in Iran.”

Former DEA agent
Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted Kish officials on Tuesday as saying there was no evidence that Levinson had disappeared, but it gave no details on his whereabouts.

Levinson was an FBI agent in New York and Florida known for busting Italian and Russian mobsters. Before joining the bureau in 1976, he was an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Retired from the FBI since 1998, he owns a private security company, R.A. Levinson & Associates. He is also a principal at Business Integrity International, an international investigative firm in Miami and New Jersey.

U.S.: No connection to detained Britons
The Iranian response to a request for assistance finding Levinson came hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to release 15 British sailors held in Iran.

The United States says there is no connection between the British sailors and the case of the missing American, and no connection to other recent incidents involving Iranians detained by U.S. or Iraqi authorities.

“There isn’t, in our mind and I don’t think in anyone else’s, any connection between an individual, private American citizen whose whereabouts are unknown, and who went missing in early March, and any of the rest of this stuff,” Casey said.

U.S. citizens are not barred from traveling to Iran but must obtain a visa, although Kish Island is a Persian Gulf resort area and free-trade zone for which no Iranian visa is required.

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