Revealed: US 'tourist' held in Iran for SIX years WAS a CIA spy - whose family have been secretly paid $2.5million.

Captured: Robert Levinson, who was working as a CIA operative, has been missing nearly seven years. He is seen here in a video sent to his family in December 2010
Robert Levinson, an American who was kidnapped in Iran nearly seven years ago, was working for the CIA on an off-the-books intelligence operation when he disappeared, it was revealed today.

The shocking fact that Levinson was a CIA operative comes despite years of repeated denials from the White House, the State Department and the intelligence community.

For eight crucial months after Levinson disappeared, top CIA brass claim they didn't even know that the retired FBI agent was working for them - which led to public denials that he had vanished while in the service of the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, Levinson's trail has grown cold. He has not been seen or heard from since his captors sent a series of distressing pictures to his family in December 2010. Top intelligence officials fear that the 65-year-old father of seven is dead.

The FBI's hunt for Levinson has led them into Afghanistan and Pakistan - and back to Iran. However, two Iranian presidents - including recently-elected moderate Hassan Rouhani - have denied having any involvement in his kidnapping or knowing where he is.

The CIA paid Levinson's family $2.5 million to pre-empt a revealing lawsuit, and the agency rewrote its rules restricting how analysts can work with outsiders.
Feared dead: No sign of Levinson has been seen since October 2010 and many top officials fear he is now dead. Iranian officials have repeatedly claimed they have no idea where he is
An Associated Press investigation reveals that Levinson was gathering intelligence on corruption in the Islamic republic and reporting to Anne Jablonski, a top-ranking CIA analyst.

A CIA investigation found that she did not tell her bosses that she had been paying him to go into the field.

Jablonski, who was later forced to resign after a lengthy CIA inquiry, never came forward with the information that he had been working in the field for her, according to the AP. She denies knowing that he was headed to Iran to develop contacts for the CIA - despite a chain of emails in which he talked about a possible trip to the Islamic republic. 

Jablonski, who is now a yoga instructor who blogs about finding inner peace, denies any wrongdoing. Allies say she and Levinson were longtime friends and that the idea that she would put him in danger is 'laughable.'

The CIA was slow to respond to Levinson's disappearance and spent the first several months denying any involvement. When Congress eventually discovered what happened, one of the biggest scandals in recent CIA history erupted.

Behind closed doors, three veteran analysts - including Jablonski - were forced out of the agency and seven others were disciplined.

But even after the White House, FBI and State Department officials learned of Levinson's CIA ties, the official story remained unchanged.

'He's a private citizen involved in private business in Iran,' the State Department said in 2007, shortly after Levinson's disappearance.

The blame game: A CIA investigation concluded that Anne Jablonski, a senior analyst, had broken agency rules by running a covert operation with Levinson. Jablonski was forced out, but denies any wrongdoing
'Robert Levinson went missing during a business trip to Kish Island, Iran,' the White House said last month.

Details of the unusual disappearance were described in documents obtained or reviewed by the AP, plus interviews over several years with dozens of current and former U.S. and foreign officials close to the search for Levinson.

Nearly all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive case.
From BEN Latest News.