NB:
For more information – see HelpBobLevinson.com
Thanks to Greta Van Susteren, her producers and Fox News – for keeping the case of Bob Levinson in the public forum. From Missing Former FBI Agent’s Wife Seeks Answers From Ahmadinejad, an interview conducted on 22 September on the Fox show “On the Record.” This is from a draft transcript.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: A former FBI agent travels to Iran and now he is missing. His wife is in New York tonight and she wants a face-to-face meeting with the Iranian president.
This is a case we have followed closely here at “On the Record.” Here is what weigh know. Robert Levinson vanished in March of ’07 during a trip to the Iranian island of Kish. Since then there has been no sign of him. Levinson is simply gone.
Is he being held prisoner in Iran? The missing man’s wife Christine Levinson wants answers. Christine joins us live. Good evening, Christine, and I take it there is no information update since the last time you and I spoke, right?
CHRISTINE LEVINSON, WIFE OF MISSING BOB LEVINSON: No, there isn’t. Thank you for having me on tonight.
VAN SUSTEREN: Christine, I know you want to talk to the president of Iran. Has there been any indication that he is willing to do that since he is now in the United States? I know you have traveled as well to Iran, but is there any indication that he will talk to you within the next 48 hours?
LEVINSON: I have no information that he will talk to me. I am hoping that that will happen. This is the third year in a row that I have come here to New York in hopes of meeting with him.
VAN SUSTEREN:
All right. He is on American soil, but, of course, he is there as part of the U.N., so he is protected by that fact.
But has the United States government said to you, Christine, your husband is an American. He is a former FBI agent as well. We really want to help you out. As long as he is in New York, we are going to ask him — we are going to try to help you out getting to this president to help you get answers.
LEVINSON: I hope so. I have not received any information that a meeting will take place. But I’m hopeful that at any given time anyone who can will bring up my husband’s case.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you feel — and I suspect this just from watching from afar, that basically you just got the giant runaround.
LEVINSON: A runaround — I don’t know. Right now I just don’t have any information about whether this meeting is going to happen. I’m still hopeful, and I have been promised that if it will happen they will let me know.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you believe that someone in authority in Iran knows where your husband is or what’s happened to him?
LEVINSON: I believe someone in Iran knows what happened to him. Who that is, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about where he is today. I know no more than I did when he disappeared on March 9, 2007. And I’m hoping that someone hearing this story tonight will be able to help me find him and bring him home.
VAN SUSTEREN: I take it all you want is information about your husband. You don’t want to cause any problems. You don’t want any trouble between the countries. You just want to know where your husband is, right?
LEVINSON: Right. Bob and I have been married 35 years. I’m just a housewife looking for my husband so that he can come home and bounce his grandchildren on his knee.
VAN SUSTEREN: So you would be delighted if anyone just sort of slipped you some information, you know, and you go quietly off in pursuit of the information to see whether he is still living or whether he might be in trouble, in jeopardy, or something might have happened to him?
LEVINSON: Yes, anything. I would just like information about my husband. And anyone who needs to can get in touch with me on our Web site.
VAN SUSTEREN: What’s the Web site?
LEVINSON: www.helpboblevinson.com.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. When were you last in Iran?
LEVINSON: I was in Iran in December 2007. And at that time they promised that they would give me a report on what they had found when they investigated the case. And I have not heard anything.
I hired an Iranian lawyer while I was over there, Mr. Agazi (ph), and he has tried through the legal system to try to get information and has not.
VAN SUSTEREN: It is deeply distressing, Christine, because we have followed this story and others have as well, because, you know, to the rest of us, you know, sort of watching from the side, all it is a family who just wants information about a loved one.
And why you can’t have it — I don’t know if you are caught up in the two countries or whatever it is, but it is deeply disturbing. I hope this time Christine something good happens for you. Good luck.
LEVINSON: Thank you, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you.
Disclosure: Bob Levinson is my dear friend and former colleague. We would think the matter newsworthy in any case, but make no bones about our biases in the case: we want Levinson returned immediately, and are skeptical about the Iranian government’s protestations of ignorance in the matter.