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Missing 'businessman' Robert Levinson was spying for CIA in Iran

Robert Levinson, who disappeared from the Iranian island of Kish in 2007, was a former FBI agent working for US intelligence

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Retired-FBI agent Robert Levinson appears in this undated photo received by his family in April 2011, four years after he disappeared in Iran. There has been no hint of his whereabouts since. Photo: AP
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To conceal the affair, the CIA paid Robert Levinson's family US$2.5 million to head off a lawsuit. Three veteran analysts were forced out of the agency and seven others were disciplined.

The US has publicly described Levinson as a private citizen.

"Robert Levinson went missing during a business trip to Kish Island, Iran," the White House said last month.

But that was just a cover story. In an extraordinary breach of the most basic CIA rules, a team of analysts - with no authority to run spy operations - paid Levinson to gather intelligence from some of the world's darkest corners. He vanished while investigating the Iranian regime for the US government.

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Details of the disappearance were described in documents seen by AP, plus interviews over several years with dozens of current and former US and foreign officials close to the search for Levinson. Nearly all spoke on condition of anonymity.

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