Latest news with #TaghiDaneshvar
Arab News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
FBI adds Iran's ambassador to Pakistan to most-wanted list over 2007 agent abduction
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday added Iran's current ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, to its list of most wanted individuals, accusing him and two other Iranian officials of involvement in the 2007 abduction of a retired special agent from Iran's Kish Island. The FBI said the release of 'Seeking Information' posters featuring the three senior Iranian officials was part of its ongoing investigation into Robert A. 'Bob' Levinson's disappearance and Iran's alleged efforts to conceal its responsibility. The other two named individuals are Taghi Daneshvar, identified as a counterespionage officer in Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, a senior MOIS deputy who served as Iran's ambassador to Albania before being expelled in 2018. 'These three intelligence officers were among those who allegedly facilitated Bob's 2007 abduction and the subsequent cover-up by the Iranian government,' Steven Jensen, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, said in the statement. 'Bob likely later perished in captivity far away from his family, friends, and colleagues.' 'The FBI will continue its relentless pursuit to hold anyone involved in his abduction to account for their reprehensible actions,' he added. According to the FBI, Moghadam, also known as Ahmad Amirinia, led MOIS's operations unit at the time of Levinson's abduction. The agency said European-based MOIS agents reported to him in Tehran. The statement said authorities in Tehran attempted to shift blame for the FBI agent's abduction onto a militant group operating in Pakistan's Balochistan region. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to Levinson's location, recovery and return. In addition, the US State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $20 million for relevant information in the case.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
FBI releases new images of Iran intel officers allegedly involved in Robert Levinson abduction
Federal authorities on Tuesday released new images of three Iranian intelligence officers allegedly involved in the abduction of retired FBI special agent Robert Levinson. Each attached to a seeking information poster, the images of Reza Amiri Moghadam, Taghi Daneshvar and Gholamhossein Mohammadnia are part of an extensive investigation into Levinson's disappearance in 2007, the FBI's Washington field office said. Moghadam is the current Iranian ambassador to Pakistan and previously led the operations unit of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Tehran, an agency whose members the FBI has accused of helping orchestrate Levinson's abduction. Daneshvar is described by the FBI as a high-ranking officer in the Iranian intelligence ministry involved in counterespionage activities. Around the time Levinson disappeared, he allegedly oversaw the work of Mohammad Baseri, another Iranian intelligence officer whom the United States government has accused in the abduction. Mohammadnia is a senior deputy in the intelligence ministry who served as the Iranian ambassador to Albania in 2016, before being expelled from Albania two years later for "damaging its national security," according to the FBI. The U.S. agency said Mohammadnia led an initiative to blame Levinson's disappearance "on a terrorist group in Pakistan's Baluchistan region to shift blame away from the Iranian government." "These three intelligence officers were among those who allegedly facilitated Bob's 2007 abduction and the subsequent cover-up by the Iranian government. Bob likely later perished in captivity far away from his family, friends, and colleagues," said Steven Jenson, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington office, in a statement. "The FBI will continue its relentless pursuit to hold anyone involved in his abduction to account for their reprehensible actions." The U.S. has maintained a view since Levinson vanished that the retired agent was kidnapped during an unauthorized CIA mission in Iran, and subsequently detained wrongfully by the Iranian government. Levinson was believed to be alive for years, until U.S. officials in 2020 said intelligence indicated he may actually have been dead "for some time." Moghadam, Daneshvar and Mohammadnia were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in March for allegedly playing a role in Levinson's "abduction, probable death, and Iran's efforts to cover up or obfuscate their responsibility," the federal agency said in an announcement at the time. The latest seeking information posters followed two others released by the FBI in December, for Baseri and Ahmad Khazai, both Iranian senior intelligence officers thought to be responsible for Levinson's abduction, detention and probable death. Federal authorities have described the men as high-ranking officers in the Iranian intelligence ministry. Both also were sanctioned by the U.S. government.
