Obama Expresses Commitment to Bring Home American Hostages Including Levinson

Barack Obama, the President of the United States, reiterated on Friday, June 24, his administration's "commitment" to bringing home American "hostages" including Robert Levinson, who has been missing abroad. Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent, disappeared in 2007, over nine years ago, on Kish Island, Iran, and currently, there is no information on his whereabouts or imprisonment. Reports initially indicated that Mr. Levinson traveled to Iran for investigations into cigarette smuggling in the region. However, the American newspaper Washington Post recently suggested that Mr. Levinson was working for the CIA at the time of his disappearance and had traveled to Kish to meet with an "informant" regarding Iran's nuclear program. In response, the Islamic Republic claims it has no information on what happened to this American agent, but the FBI announced in March 2016 that Tehran was willing to cooperate with the U.S. regarding Robert Levinson's case. In this context, Barack Obama stated, "We will not rest until we bring our fellow countrymen back to their families." According to Reuters, Barack Obama issued this official statement exactly one year after his administration promised to fundamentally improve the process of reviewing the status of American hostages. As part of this new policy, the President appointed James O'Brien at the State Department as the "Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs." On Friday, Mr. Obama specifically referred to three American hostages: Austin Tice, a journalist who went missing in Syria in 2012, Caitlan Coleman, who is imprisoned in Afghanistan, and Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran. Last week, prior to the official White House statement, the families of four Americans killed by ISIS in Syria had urged the President not to spare any effort to bring Austin Tice back home. Families of Americans held abroad have consistently criticized their government for weakness and inaction in this regard. Robert Levinson's son also harshly criticized the U.S. government for its neglect of his father's situation in an article last month, calling his father a "hostage." Dan Levinson, in a piece for the New York Post on May 2, 2016, strongly criticized the government and the State Department for not considering his father a "hostage."