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Salahuddin was not the sole source of the information that Levinson’s release from Iran was pending. Several U.S. intelligence authorities confirmed that information. These sources are now saying that intercepted intelligence from Iran indicates that Iranian authorities changed their mind as they learned from media accounts that described Levinson’s FBI career as more significant then he revealed during his interrogation sessions. This led Iranian officials to believe that he should not be released according to both US intelligence sources and Salahuddin.

Picture of Bob Levinson Helpboblevinson.com

US and Iran have been grabbing each other’s foreign nationals for the last several months. It began with the US military grabbing five Iranian intelligence officers in the Kurdish controlled area of Iraq. In December, Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, was visiting her mother in Tehran when authorities began to harass her. Last week she was arrested and taken to Tehran's gruesome Evin prison. Esfandiari holds dual citizenship, a concept the Iranian regime does not recognize.

Iranian authorities are especially upset over the detention Mehdi Pourisfahani, according to Salahuddin. Pourisfahani was picked up at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport with a group of other Iranians about six weeks ago. All the others in the group were released within a day or two. Pourisfahani remains in detention. According to Salahuddin, the Iranian “is a wealthy businessman, resident in the states he past 15-20 years, apolitical but knows people over here.”

Salahuddin, formerly known as David Belfield, has been living in Iran since carrying out a murder of the Shah of Iran’s former spokesman in Bethesda, Maryland. Belfield, now known as Dawud Salahuddin, confessed to NSNS’s Joe Trento in 1995 (for ABC’s “20-20”) that he killed former Iranian spokesman Ali Akbar Tabatabai after being recruited by Iranian intelligence to carry out a Fatwa issued by the Supreme Iranian Revolutionary Council.

Levinson has not been seen by any independent observers since his meeting on Kish Island with Salahuddin. Salahuddin said in an email received yesterday that Levinson remains in custody “... it is obvious that the guy has not been released and that the person who told me that he was, was not a person I deal with on things like this but has his own sources, is not a journalist and had never lied to me before. He apparently has this time--as he is not taking my telephone calls and not making pre-arranged meetings...because he knows I am pissed off.”

Salahuddin has been a reliable source for NSNS since 1995. But the circumstances surrounding the Levinson disappearance have raised questions about how much pressure Salahuddin is under in Iran to carry out the instructions of the hard line regime. Outside of Iran Belfield would be subject to arrest and extradition back to the United States. Did Salahuddin lure Levinson to the free trade zone of Kish in order to set him up for the Iranian authorities to grab the 6” 4” tall 59 year-old Levinson?

Salahuddin denies it saying that he had warned both Levinson and former NBC Television producer Ira Silverman, a friend of Levinson, who arranged for Salahuddin to meet Levinson, to put the trip off: “I also made it unmistakably clear before that and after the Bush surge speech of early January that no one should even think about coming for a very long time. Obviously the two gentlemen involved thought they knew better than I or were in such a hurry to get their project off the ground concerning me they could not wait. As for me setting the guy up, well people can think what they like but and I really don't give a rat's ass. I simply did not do that.”  Silverman has not returned calls seeking comment.

Salahuddin says that claims he has seen that Levinson was involved in a wildlife documentary are not true. When Levinson did arrive from Dubai on Saturday March 7, the two men checked into a hotel where they took a room for a six hour conversation. Salahuddin said he believes the fact that he was meeting with an American lead to his and Levinson’s detention by local authorities. Salahuddin said he heard that Levinson was detained by the national authorities only when he returned to Tehran from Kish.

Salahuddin said that two subjects were discussed. One was Russian tobacco smuggling but the main topic involved information that Levinson claimed to have that would supposedly implicate a top politician in Iran in improper overseas investments. Salahuddin says that it made no sense for Levinson to bring him such information: “after all I am American fugitive living here.” Salahuddin says that one possibility is the Levinson was using the information as bait to have Salahuddin feed the information to a friendly reporter who would agree to meet the fugitive outside Iran.

What Salahuddin is referring to is the possibility that once lured outside Iran, Levinson and Silverman may have thought they could play role in bringing Salahuddin to justice back in Montgomery County Maryland where he remains a fugitive for murder. “I am convinced he did not have my interests at heart or cigarette smuggling either. He and Ira were looking to get paid for me in some form or fashion… I would like to see him out of whatever he is in.”

Salahuddin says that “Why would locals lie to me? Well, the person who told me [Levinson] was released is not in the government but is a person who knows people and it is possible that he threw that at me to put people off track for some days. As to my contact with government people about Levinson, no such thing but I operate over an open telephone line and the internet so it would not take much to monitor who I am communicating with and about what or even to know that I had brought a ticket to Kish. Still, I am convinced that his arrest and it was local police and not intelligence or the IRGC was purely happenstance and not pre-arranged. What made him of interest is that he was with me and then the stories started appearing about his past. More than that I can not say--other than Americans value their lives more than they do those of other people and that is finally catching up with them in a big way.”

Salahuddin is angry about the situation he now finds himself in: “He invited himself, I did not invite him. And this thing about handlers, I don't have any handlers, I report to no one. I am a private person not a 'low level intelligence asset' as some call it. People over there watch too many of their own movies."