RELATIONS
BETWEEN IRAN AND THE USA:
“INTER-SPY DIPLOMACY”
Part I
‘The cold
war’ between Iran and the USA recently reached a different
dimension. This process started when the five Iranian
intelligence officers were taken under custody in January in
Irbil/Iraq and continued by the disappearance of Ali Reza
Asghari, the former Defense Minister/ Former General of the
Revolutionary Guards on February 7, 2007 in Istanbul/Turkey
and by the disappearance of the former FBI agent Robert
Levinson. It is necessary to get information about the
mentioned ‘actors’ to understand especially the last part of
this process.
We, as the
writers of “Our South Azerbaijan”, deemed it a mission to
scrutinize the publications on Robert Levinson and David
Belfield, the actors of the game that turned almost into a
‘puzzle’ and to inform you, our readers, about the
developments in the most ‘objective’ manner…
Who is
Robert Levinson, the person who disappeared on March 8, on
our Kish Island which is famous with its beaches, sea
turtles and relatively more liberal atmosphere, and who, due
to his disappearance, was covered recently by the news
agencies frequently?
The former
FBI agent Robert Levinson lives together with his 7 children
in Coral Springs, 20 miles/32 km from Florida/Fort
Lauderdale. Levinson, who is 59-year-old, can speak Spanish
and Russian and he graduated from The City College of New
York with Phi Beta Kappa degree. Levinson, prior to his
joining the FBI in 1976, worked at the “Drug Enforcement
Administration”. Immediately after his joining the FBI,
Levinson was appointed in the New York City where five big
mafia families were dominant. Struggling with the Italian
mafia in the New York City, Levinson was later on appointed
in Florida and fought against the Russian mafia. He blew a
strike against both the Italian and Russian mafias. Levinson
also had a role in collapsing the Colombian Medellin
Narcotics Network and provided assistance to the operations
to oust the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who assumed
the protection of the cocaine in Panama on its way from
Colombia to Miami via Panama. Robert Levinson, who became a
prominent figure in the FBI due to his successful workings
and performance appraisal, established his own security
company “R.A. Levinson & Associates” after his retirement in
1998 from the FBI. Levinson also works at an international
investigation firm that functions in New Jersey and Miami.
Levinson’s contact with Iran was first revealed last year,
during the visit of the Iranian President to the USA. The
public opinion heard about Levinson as “the person who,
through his personal contacts, prevented fingerprinting
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”.
David
Belfield, the other piece of the puzzle, is known to be the
person who fled to Iran after killing in 1980 in
Maryland/USA Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, the spokesman of the
ousted Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi. David Belfield was born in
1950 and when he was 18 he converted and changed his name as
Dawoud Sallahuddin. Thereafter, Dawoud Sallahuddin carried
out propaganda activities especially towards the American
black people claiming “there is no racist discrimination in
Islam” and invited people to Islam. In Iran he is known by
the name of “Hasan Abdulrahman”. David Belfield as (aka
Dawoud Sallahuddin, aka Hasan Abdulrahman) is in the
“wanted” list of the USA since 1980, due to the Tabatabaei
murder.
From 1980
until today, Dawoud Sallahuddin maintained his significance
for the American Intelligence circles. As it was also
mentioned by some of the American writers, Dawoud’s being
arrested and tried by the American justice is significant in
terms of the prestige of the country. However, the
interesting point is that the articles written recently by
the same writers revealed a change in the views. That is to
say, the American intellectual circles started to say that
“the Dawoud issue should be handled from intelligence
perspective” and that “it would be meaningless to bring him
to the USA and imprison him”. The political writers prefer
to mention that Dawoud Sallahuddin ‘would be more useful at
the place he is now’. From wider perspective, it would not
be very wrong to mention “due to the fact that he has
stronger contacts in Iran, Dawoud is no more deemed a target
but he was turned into a form that is relevant to the US
interests, thus the attitude towards Dawoud Sallahuddin
totally changed”.
Such
changes in attitude were results of the developments that
increased Dawoud’s significance for the USA and that altered
the aims of the US on Dawoud. Dawoud informed that there
will be an attack against the US forces in Bosnia and that
there will be a possible assassination attempt by the
radical Islamist terrorists against the US President Clinton
during his visit to Bosnia in December 1997. Furthermore, in
late 1990s Dawoud informed in advance that there will be
attacks against the US Embassy in Albania. The information
he provided must have increased his value before the
American Intelligence, because Belfield or his other names
are not in the list of the “flight banned” individuals which
is included in the international flight safety book. This
shows that the American Intelligence wants Belfield to
travel and even that it has other plans for him.
When we
thoroughly scrutinize the reports that took part in the
media, we understand that Robert Levinson and David
Belfield, the two pieces of the puzzle, met at the Kish
Island upon the insistence of Levinson. After this meeting
that took place under the observation and control of the
Iranian Intelligence, Levinson was taken to Iran. Levinson,
before going to the Kish Island, visited the US Consulate in
Dubai and did not neglect the “last preparations for the
work”.
