Iran Releases Journalist; New Hope for Coral Springs Family

For the Levinson family of Coral Springs, it's an auspicious sign: Today's release by the Iranian government of Roxana Saberi, the journalist imprisoned there on charges of spying, suggests that the Iranian regime can be reasoned with.We wrote last month about how the June presidential election in Iran might have...

By Thomas Francis

May 11, 2009

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For the Levinson family of Coral Springs, it's an auspicious sign: Today's release by the Iranian government of Roxana Saberi, the journalist imprisoned there on charges of spying, suggests that the Iranian regime can be reasoned with.

We wrote last month about how the June presidential election in Iran might have implications for the three Westerners who were imprisoned or -- in the case of Robert Levinson -- simply disappeared during visits to that country. A former FBI agent turned private investigator, Levinson has not been seen since a visit to Kish Island in the Persian Gulf.

In Saberi's case, it's evident that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intervened personally. Her guilty was overturned in part because of recent statements by the government asserting that there was no hostility -- and thus no reason to suspect spying -- between the U.S. and Iran. If that's the case, then there's absolutely no reason that the Iranian government can't also provide information about the whereabouts of Levinson. In the past, officials have claimed to not know what became of him after his visit.

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