December 14, 2013

"A day after the Associated Press dropped the bombshell news..."

"... that Robert Levinson, officially America’s longest-held hostage, was working for the CIA when he went missing in Iran in 2007, the reverberations were being felt across political and intelligence circles."

[O]ne by one, media organisations disclosed they had known about the story for years, but had acceded to government requests not to publish it....

Ali Alizadeh, a London-based seasoned Iranian analyst and commentator, said... “The admission that he was indeed working for the CIA somehow legitimises Iranian claims in recent years that Americans had been involved inside Iran and gives some credibility to Iran... This is why I believe it might open ways for his release if he is in fact still alive.”

... “Since the mid-90s, the agency has recognized that having analysts more involved in operational decisions and choices is a good thing, and enhances the finished product,” said Vicki Divoll, a former CIA lawyer. “However, if analysts get too far out in front, without the training necessary to successfully run operations, this could backfire. And a debacle such as this, if true, may set back internal agency co-operation 20 years."

15 comments:

madAsHell said...

I'm wondering why recent negotiations didn't bring him home. Of course, that would require smart diplomacy!!

EdwdLny said...

Oh yea, the country is in the best of hands. Gee, wasn't it just the other day that I was reading about how forcing fed employees into barry's potemkincare is going to make it difficult to attract "quality people". My comment questioned the current existence of quality people. I'm not far off the mark obviously.
Geez, are there no people actually managing these operations and activities ? The government, homeland security, tsa, are so focused on us, they ignore or ,in their gross incompetence, forget about what the hell they're doing out in the rest of the world. Brings new hilarity and incongruity to the phrase " I'm here from the government and I'm going to help you" . Hah, and these folks think that they can run healthcare. Wouldn't trust them with a lemonade stand.

EdwdLny said...

" that would require smart diplomacy!! " I eagerly await any evidence, even the slimmest possibility, of intelligence in anyone in this administration. Their actions to date provide no support for the asinine assertion that these jackasses have more intelligence than a sand flea, on a good day.

Anonymous said...

I eagerly await any evidence, even the slimmest possibility, of intelligence in anyone in this administration.

This guy disappeared in 2007. Guess who was president when this harebrained scheme was conceived and bungled?

You can't complain about the incompetence of Obama in this case without also deriding the clusterfuck foreign policy of George W Bush.

Darrell said...

Doesn't this let the cat out of the bag? What if he is alive? We admitted he is CIA, something that is never supposed to be confirmed or denied by the Agency.

Anonymous said...

We admitted he is CIA, something that is never supposed to be confirmed or denied by the Agency.

We (if by "we" you mean the U.S. government) did nothing of the sort. The story was released by they AP after they sat on it for years at the request of the government. They decided to finally run the story when the government could not give them a good reason to continue to hold it.

The government still contends he was not a federal employee (notice the wiggle room that leaves) when he disappeared.

Darrell said...

The AP first confirmed Levinson’s CIA ties in 2010 and continued reporting to uncover more details. It agreed three times to delay publishing the story because the U.S. government

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/12/3815247/missing-american-in-iran-was-working.html#storylink=cpy

Darrell said...

I wonder who was President in 2010?

southcentralpa said...

To adapt a notorious KGB boast, Levinson now not only says he's the King of England now, but believes it.

How twenty billion of unfroxen assets doesn't at least get us the broken shell of our guy back escapes me ...

SGT Ted said...

And Iran has been sending Al Quds teams into Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis since 2003. This is an undeclared war we've been in since Jimmy Carter. I should hope we have spies in Iran.

And Obama is a shitty Commander in Chief and an incompetent liar, along with the rest of the morons he put in place.

Wince said...

From that picture, Levinson should have claimed he was just passing through Iran as "White Santa".

Oh, wait, is Levinson a Jewish name?

EdwdLny said...

" This guy disappeared in 2007." We have had a president since 2008 whom professes to be an expert at everything. Did he "forget" about this guy ? Or are you another apologist excusing every damn mistake barry makes ? To wit, where the hell has his assininess been on this particular situation for 5 years ? Geez.

EdwdLny said...

" You can't complain about the incompetence .." Yes I can. A new regime has office. Folks who purported to be able to "fix" what was wrong, so far they've proven to be incomparable cockups.

" the clusterfuck foreign policy " well let's see, 5 years ago Iraq was progressing nicely despite the wish of the democrats to surrender, again. Progress was being made in Afghanistan despite the lack of assistance from some of our allies and the desire of the democrats to surrender, again.
So fast forward to today. Barry the skidmark surrendered to Iran, granted not alone. The Arab spring has collapsed into al-queda advances throughout the middle east. Ambassador Stevens and 3 other brave individuals are still dead because the skidmark, his secretary of state and the rest of his fucked up administration abandoned them. Just like the air wasting, useless cowards they still are. And, not a one of them has the balls to take responsibility for the biggest cluster fuck since the bay of pigs. So, Libya is a disaster, Syria, a disaster, Afghanistan, a disaster, the Russians and the chicoms see that the skidmark is another fucking lib eunuch air waster. But, you keep defending him like the good little sychophant that you are. One last thing George Bush hasn't been President for 5 years, when, do you suppose will you dipsticks grow some balls and take responsibility for all of the carnage that you have caused ?
Make an appointment and I'll explain about responsibility and taking it you pompous jackass.

SteveR said...

Freder uses the "Bush did it too" as if the election in 2008 wasn't all about being not Bush, being better, smarter and more transparent, something he trumpeted then and conveniently forgets now. Weak, predictable, and typical.

J said...

The spy wannabe got caught and his family expects us to get him out.The idiot case officer actually let him go.The clueless State Department forgets about him.Is their anyone competent in this government?