VZCZCXRO7784
PP RUEHDIR
DE RUEHC #7328/01 1572319
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051523Z JUN 07
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 8579-8580
RUEHDIR/IRAN RPO DUBAI PRIORITY 0008-0009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 077328 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y - CAPTION ADDED 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM IR PREL PGOV KDEM
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE: DETAINED/MISSING AMERICANS IN IRAN 
 
REF: A. STATE 68161 
     ¶B. TOKYO 2358 
 
STATE 00077328  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Department understands that the GOJ has 
expressed a willingness to raise the case of detained AmCit 
Kian Tajbakhsh with Iranian officials in Tokyo, but has asked 
 
 
 
for a formal request from the USG to do so.  Based on the 
Department's request to raise the case of Dr. Haleh 
Esfandiari earlier this month (Reftels A, B), FM Aso raised 
the issue of detained AmCits in general terms only.  The 
Department asks post to request that GOJ officials again 
reach out to their Iranian counterparts to raise not only 
Kian Tajbakhsh's detention, but the cases of Haleh 
Esfandiari, Parnaz Azima, Ali Shakeri and Robert Levinson as 
well.  END SUMMARY. 
 
---------- 
OBJECTIVES 
---------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Begin Objectives. 
 
-- Thank the GOJ for Foreign Minister Aso having raised the 
issue of Americans detained in Iran with FM Mottaki. 
 
-- Raise the issue of other AmCits detained or missing in 
Iran using background points below and provided in Reftel A. 
Emphasize the high level of interest in these cases within 
the USG, as evidenced by the June 1 Statement by the 
President on the Detention of American Citizens by the 
Iranian Regime (available at www.whitehouse.gov).  Stress 
that these cases represent a disturbing pattern of harassment 
of innocent citizens. 
 
-- Convey that we believe it is within the power of the 
Iranian government to assist in returning these individuals 
to their families. 
 
---------- 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
3.(U) Begin Background. 
 
(U) Kian Tajbakhsh is an Iranian-American social scientist 
and urban planner who works as a consultant for the Open 
Society Institute.  He has worked as a consultant in the 
areas of local government reform, urban planing and social 
policy, and has taught at universities in the United States 
and Iran.  On/around May 11, while Tajbakhsh was visiting 
Iran on personal travel, Iranian authorities arrested and 
imprisoned him.  An Iranian judiciary spokesperson later 
announced on May 29 that Tajbakhsh, along with Haleh 
Esfandiari and Parnaz Azima (see below), had been charged 
with endangering national security and espionage. 
 
(U) Parnaz "Nazi" Azima is an Iranian-American journalist for 
Radio Farda based in Prague.  Iranian officials confiscated 
her passports at the Tehran airport on January 25 as she was 
entering Iran to visit her mother.  Azima has not been 
imprisoned, but she has tried unsuccessfully on several 
occasions to retrieve her passports from Iranian authorities, 
who finally summoned her to appear at the Revolutionary Court 
on May 15.  In court, the judge interrogated Azima for four 
hours, accused her of antiregime propaganda and ordered her 
to pay a bond of 800,000,000 Iranian Rials.  Later, on May 
29, a judiciary spokesman also identified Azima, together 
with Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh as a spy who has been charged 
with endangering national security and espionage.  Azima's 
lawyer denies that she was ever charged with these crimes. 
She remains out of prison at her mother's house in Tehran, 
but is unable to leave Iran. 
 
(U) Ali Shakeri works as a mortgage broker and peace activist 
in Irvine, California, and is a founding board member of the 
Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of 
California at Irvine.  He traveled to Iran in March to visit 
his sick mother (NOTE: Shakeri's mother has since died) and 
was arrested by Iranian authorities on/around May 8.  While 
the judiciary spokesman who publicly charged Tajbakhsh 
Esfandiari and Azima with revolutionary actions on May 29 did 
not identify Shakeri with that group, Shakeri remains in 
 
STATE 00077328  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
prison in Iran without charges. 
 
(U) Robert A. Levinson is a retired FBI Special Agent who 
traveled to Kish Island, Iran on March 8 on personal travel. 
Reports indicate that he checked into the Maryam Hotel in 
Kish Island that day, and that two Iranian officials later 
escorted him out of his hotel room for "questioning" that 
evening.  Mr. Levinson has not been seen or heard from since. 
 The USG has sent multiple "Swiss Note" messages to Iran via 
the Swiss Protecting Power in Tehran, and Levinson's wife, 
Christine, has spoken directly with Iranian PermRep Zarif at 
the UN in New York, but so far there had been no additional 
information about his whereabouts.  Levinson has seven 
children and one grandchild, and recently missed his 33rd 
wedding anniversary on May 11. 
 
End Background. 
 
---------------- 
POINT OF CONTACT 
---------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The POC for this request is Rob McInturff in the 
Office of Iranian Affairs (202-647-2520). 
RICE