Bob Levinson still awaits freedom as we celebrate

Hamburgers, a cold beverage and fireworks — these are some of the things we enjoy as we celebrate our Independence Day. We spend it with family, relaxing on a day off, enjoying the warm summer weather. I spent my life working in various government jobs and I appreciate the way that my former colleagues celebrate this holiday, because they work each day to deliver the free society that our ancestors fought hard to wrest from tyranny.

But not every American is free today. Some languish in faraway prison cells, not because they committed a crime but because they are Americans. Caught up in a game of geopolitics that has very little to do with their individual circumstances, our fellow Americans and their families cannot celebrate all that July 4th means because they are deprived of their freedom as political hostages.

Take for example Bob Levinson, another career government employee. He ended a decades-long federal law enforcement career and started doing private consulting. He disappeared in Iran on March 9, 2007. 

Today marks approximately 4,500 days that he has languished abroad. That is 12-plus years, making him the longest held American hostage in history – far surpassing Terry Anderson’s inauspicious record of 2,454. Think about what you were doing 12 years ago, how many of your family members were not yet born. Bob now has eight grandkids (and one on the way) that he has not even met.

There are some — even some in our own government — who want to take the duration of Bob’s time in captivity and conclude that he is no longer with us. But that is un-American. We do not leave people behind and we do not forget. The first word in the motto of Bob’s long-time employer, the FBI, is fidelity. As much as hamburgers and apple pie are American icons, our determination to bring our citizens home is an American ethic.

On this important holiday, we need a renewed commitment to bring folks like Bob back to their families because none of us are truly free until we are all free. Bob is owed 12 July 4th barbecues, 12 Christmases around the tree, 12 wedding anniversaries with his beloved Christine, 12 of his own birthdays and the opportunity to celebrate the same number of each of his seven kids.

With winds of conflict blowing all around the Iran, now is a great time for a point of human connection. The people who are in power in Iran now are not the same ones who were in power 12 years ago. They have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people by taking a courageous action to reach deep into the Iranian prison system and bring Bob home to his family. 

We have all seen cases where someone was sentenced to 10 years and then released from prison, so perhaps that is the option for Iran. It is obvious that there have been mistakes on both sides of Bob’s captivity, but Iran has the opportunity to correct the wrong actions taken by a predecessor regime and make a grand humanitarian gesture in favor of peace and improved relations between our two countries.

As we have seen over the past few years, President Trump savors deal-making. Where traditional diplomacy may be a carefully managed process of leveraging incentives and disincentives, the Trump approach is one where he can be harsh in one moment and familiar in the other. We have seen him embrace returned detainees and the personal attention he pays to such matters. Speaking as a seasoned diplomat, I can tell Iran that taking this action would undoubtedly be a means of direct communication with the U.S. president. Regardless of previous denials that he is being held, releasing Bob now would send a message that President Trump and the American people could embrace.

I hope the Iranians seize this opportunity to help steer us both in a better direction and I hope that next year, Bob will have 12 overdue slices of apple pie served to him in person by his family at a barbecue in Florida, where they all deserve to be together.

Bill Richardson is a former congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, U.S. Energy secretary and governor for New Mexico. He founded the Richardson Center for Global Engagement in 2011 to promote global peace and dialogue by identifying and working on areas of opportunity for engagement and citizen diplomacy with countries and communities not usually open to more formal diplomatic channels.