Authors: Barry Meier
Her father raised her
: Interview with Sarah Levinson.
Myers showed Ira and Wickham
: Interview with Ira Silverman.
“I wouldn't push it”
: Interview with Ira Silverman.
12. Passwords
Sonya logged into it
: Interview with Sonya Dobbs.
Several folders were marked
GLOBAL WITNESS
: I reviewed these and other folders from Bob's files.
Stephen Kappes
: His appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was described to me by people present.
It was early December
: Chris, Dan, and Suzi Halpin described their visit to Tehran and Kish and Chris and Dan's meeting with Dawud.
The call was from Jonathan Winer
: Interview with Dave McGee.
“a pure cockroach”
: R. Allen Stanford's campaign to try to discredit Jonathan Winer was first reported by McClatchy newspapers, November, 29, 2012. In the article, Winer called the characterization of his ex-wife's sexual preferences “patently absurd.”
13. The Nuclear Option
“This is an odd and painful âanniversary'”
: Email from Dawud to Chris, March 8, 2007.
But the firm never paid
: Interviews with Dave McGee and John Moscow. Both the law firm as well as lawyers involved with the Bank of Cyprus case who no longer work for Reed Smith did not respond to emails or phone calls.
she agreed to be interviewed
: Anne's comment about homemade cat food appeared in a
Wall Street Journal
article, “How Do Cats Like Rabbits? Very Much and Preferably Raw,” on July 30, 2007.
“You were angry with your friend”
: Interview with Anne Jablonski.
“What about those hostages in Colombia”
: Ibid.
One of Anne's CIA mentors
: Paul Redmond, a former CIA official who argued on Anne's behalf, declined to be interviewed for this book.
Richard Clarke
: He did not respond to an email.
Janine Brookner
: My description of Janine Brookner's career is based on accounts that appeared in
The New York Times
, the
Chicago Tribune
, and other publications.
Sampson and Clement had told her
: I sent Timothy Sampson a list of questions containing statements made by Anne about his actions in the aftermath of Bob's disappearance. After a long period, Mark Zaif, a lawyer for Sampson, contacted me and said his client had drafted a statement in response to my inquiries and submitted it to the CIA for clearance. The CIA refused to allow its release, Zaif said. I also sent Peter Clement a list of questions containing statements that Anne had made about his actions in the aftermath of Bob's disappearance. Clement, who now teaches at Columbia University, told me he would need the CIA's permission to be interviewed. He never received it.
he sent her a lengthy memo
: Memo from Bob to Anne describing possible operation to recruit Dawud as an agency source, December 12, 2005.
“Attached is something I would like you to review”
: Email from Bob to Robert Seldon Lady, December 23, 2005.
“I will personally push them”
: Email from Robert Seldon Lady to Bob, February 13, 2006. Lady declined to be interviewed for this book.
14. “Heloo Cheristi”
the subject line “Heloo Cheristi”
: The woman describing herself as a hospital technician sent her emails to Chris in April 2008.
Soghanalian told Dave
: Sarkis Soghanalian also told me that the Iranians had given Bob to Hezbollah.
They were greeted affably
: My description of Fouad al-Zayat's career is based on descriptions of it in several publications, including
The Observer
,
The Times
of London, and
The Guardian
.
He summoned the NBC News anchor
: Brian Williams's interview with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was broadcast on July 28, 2008.
Years later,
Outside
magazine
: The magazine's piece about Jamie Smith, “The Spy Who Scammed Us?,” was published October 10, 2014. As of September 2015, Smith's libel lawsuit against the magazine was pending.
he wrote that he had warned Dave
: Both Dave and Ira said that Jamie Smith was not present during their interactions with the person who said he represented Hezbollah.
Mila might have told the story to Smith
: Jamie Smith said through his lawyer that Mila probably told him about the hair incident at the Maryam hotel but that he didn't have a specific recollection.
15. The Hikers
“If we had him, we would announce it”
: My description of the 2009 meeting between Chris and her family and Mohammad Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, is based on contemporaneous notes taken by Sarah Levinson.
a twenty-seven-year-old computer engineering student
: U.S. embassy officials in Istanbul reported the visit by an Iranian student who claimed to see Bob's name carved in a jail cell in a cable sent to the State Department. It was among the trove of State Department records released by the group WikiLeaks.
In 2009, three young Americans became the newest political pawns
: The hikersâSarah Shourd, Joshua Fattal, and Shane Bauerâprovided an account of their capture and captivity in
Outside
magazine in April 2014 and in a book,
A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
(Boston: Eamon Dolan Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).
The Iranian judge was coming
: I was told by an FBI source about the Iranian judge's brief visit to Washington. It was confirmed by another bureau official. It is not clear whether any of the judge's statements about Bob were accurate.
“The mullahs have industrialized the religion”
: Dawud's comments to Jon Lee Anderson appeared in
The New Yorker
, “A Fugitive in Iran,” September 30, 2009.
16. The Young Man
Oleg Deripaska
: My description of Oleg Deripaska, his career, and his lobbying efforts to get a U.S. visa is based on accounts in several publications, including
Bloomberg Markets
magazine,
Newsweek
,
The Guardian
, and
The Wall Street Journal
. He did not respond to inquiries seeking to interview him for this book.
One of the lawmaker's advisors, Rick Davis
:
The Washington Post
broke the story of Deripaska's efforts to court Senator John McCain of Arizona on January 25, 2008.
Madzhit Mamoyan
: I interviewed Madzhit on several occasions for this book and he told me about his relationship with Abdullah Ãcalan, the imprisoned head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
“I know that people are sucking your blood”
: Interview with Boris Birshtein.
His most high-profile case at Kroll
: Jeff Katz recounted his work examining the circumstances of Roberto Calvi's death in an article for
The Sunday Telegraph Magazine
, “Dead Men Talking,” October 26, 2003.
The consultant, Xavier Houzel
: Interview with Xavier Houzel.
“getting results from other irons”
: Interview with Jeff Katz.
the Fars News Agency
: The government news service's attack on Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was published in 2009.
it was Anne Jablonski's husband, Robert Otto
: Several FBI officials confirmed Otto's presence at meetings about Oleg Deripaska. Neither Otto nor the State Department responded to inquiries about it.
reporters at
The Wall Street Journal
got a tip
: The newspaper's front-page article about Deripaska's visits to the United States, “FBI Lets Barred Tycoon Visit U.S.,” appeared on October 30, 2009.
“That's just a fancy name for gruel”
: The account of Deripaska's meal and the oligarch's comment was provided by a person present.
17. Proof of Life
Amir Farshad Ebrahimi
: Jeff Katz and Dan Levinson described their meeting with Ebrahimi in a memo Katz sent to Chris on May 24, 2010.
“Our Nation is Proud to Be the Student”
: The general consensus of intelligence and law enforcement officials was that these documents were forgeries. However, significant effort went into producing them.
Chris received a phone call
: Interview with Chris.
“I hope this message finds you in good health”
: Email from Chris to Dawud, April 20, 2010.
“Forgive this tardy reply”
: Email from Dawud to Chris, April 26, 2010.
“This report is completely fictitious”
: Email from Larry Sweeney to multiple recipients, including me, April 19, 2010.
Seyed Mir Hejazi, the reputed son
: An FBI official told me that he was identified by the CIA as the son of Ayatollah Khameini's intelligence chief.
he told Madzhit
: Interviews with Madzhit and Boris Birshtein.
Hejazi, who was thirty-nine years old
: My description of Seyed Mir Hejazi is based on his passport photograph.
“Martin finally called tonight”
: Email from Larry Sweeney to Dave and Ira, February 1, 2010.
The similarities weren't coincidences
: Two federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity acknowledged the FBI had mistakenly ignored the first email from “Osman.Muhamad.”
18. Tradecraft
He told Chris something she never expected to hear
: Robert Mueller, who resigned as FBI director in 2013, declined to be interviewed for this book.
Sean Joyce
: Joyce, who retired from the FBI in 2013, declined to be interviewed for this book.
Whenever Joyce posed a question
: Interview with a former FBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They suggested President Obama
: Interview with a former State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“As we approach the fourth anniversary”
: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued this statement on March 3, 2011. She declined to be interviewed for this book.
“HE IS 99% SURE”
: Email from Madzhit to Boris, March 18, 2011.
“These fucking people”
: Boris Birshtein made this comment to me.
“My name is David Levinson”
: The CDs containing Bob's hostage video and Dave's and Chris's pleas for information about him were released on December 5, 2011.
19. Breaking News
Linda Fiorentino
: I spoke with Linda Fiorentino on several occasions. When I informed her that her name would appear in this book, she did not respond to subsequent messages.
Prosecutors said they had found an internal CIA email
: Interview with Dave McGee.
“I have thought about your disclosure”
: Email from Dave McGee to Michael Mullaney, March 20, 2013.
“You mentioned a person”
: Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran, made those comments to Christiane Amanpour on CNN on September 25, 2013.
a reporter for
The New York Times: I was that reporter.
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman
: Interviews with Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman. Matt Apuzzo left the AP and now works for
The New York Times
. The book they coauthored is
Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America
(New York: Touchstone, 2013).
editors at the AP contacted Chris's sister
: Interview with Suzi Halpin.
he didn't need those notes
: Interview with Adam Goldman.
Senator Bill Nelson was irate
: Interview with Senator Bill Nelson.
“The CIA sent Bob Levinson on a mission”
: Dave's comments were made on
NBC Nightly News
, December 13, 2007.
“There hasn't been progress”
: John Kerry made this comment or similar ones to several news outlets, including ABC News.
He told
The Christian Science Monitor: Dawud's interview with the newspaper, “Iran Nabbed CIA Asset Levinson, Says Witness,” appeared on December 16, 2013.
20. The Fellowship
“Today, again, we call on the Iranian government”
: President Obama spoke before the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, 2014.
Haleh Esfandiari
: Her book about her captivity in Iran is
My Prison, My Home: One Woman's Story of Captivity in Iran
(New York: Ecco, 2009).
Terri Schiavo
: My description of that high-profile case and Robert Destro's role is drawn from accounts in several publications.
Seyed Mehdi Miraboutalebi
: He was Iran's ambassador in France from 2008 to 2012.
“As a believer and a follower of Jesus”
: This extract from Douglas Coe's letter to Ayatollah Khamenei is contained in a memo Robert Destro sent to the FBI agent Dean Harp on October 28, 2011. The memo is titled “Background Information on Putative âReligious Channel' to the Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, and Robert Levinson” and lays out the Fellowship's involvement in the case.
“I called Doug Coe”
: Ibid.
Eshel told the Iranian official
: Madzhit Mamoyan and Ory Eshel met with Ambassador Miraboutalebi on October 30, 2011. Eshel subsequently sent an extensive memo about the meeting to Robert Destro.