cover story blown

CIA Paid Missing American in Iran

Part of unapproved intelligence-gathering mission.

It turns out that Robert Levinson, an American man who went missing in Iran almost seven years ago, was working for the CIA as part of an unapproved intelligence-gathering mission that broke the agency's most basic rules. Though the U.S. has said that Levinson was a private citizen who went missing during a business trip to Kish Island, an Associated Press investigation found that a team of CIA analysts ("with no authority to run spy operations") paid Levinson to gather intelligence around the world. According to the AP, three veteran analysts have been forced out of the agency and seven more disciplined over the matter. Levinson's family last received proof-of-life photos and a video from his captors in late 2010 and early 2011.