White House Slams AP for Levinson-CIA Story

'Highly Irresponsible' to Report the Facts, Carney Insists

After at least three solid years of burying the truth at the behest of the Obama Administration, the Associated Press finally got around to revealing that missing “retired FBI agent” Robert Levinson was actually working for the CIA at the time he vanished.

While declining to make any comments on the long-standing secret, or the status of Levinson, the White House did take time out to condemn the AP for the “highly irresponsible” act of finally reporting the story.

The AP said they had withheld the story before because the administration claimed to have leads that would lead to Levinson’s release, but published after officials conceded those leads had run dry.

While the AP chose to just duck the issue for three years, the New York Times, which knew for at least six years, overtly lied about the matter repeatedly, reporting the official claims of Levinson being a “private businessman” as a statement of fact even though they knew full well that was not the case.

The National Security Council also issued a statement expressing “regret” that the AP finally reported the truth, saying they had warned the AP not to “out of concern for Mr. Levinson’s life.”

The CIA has yet to comment on the matter, but did pay Levinson’s family $2.5 million to promise not to sue them in an attempt to keep the secret from going public.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.