WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain said on Sunday that the CIA has not been forthcoming with the Congress on details about an American who disappeared while on a secret intelligence mission to Iran.
Iran's foreign minister asserted that Robert Levinson is ''not incarcerated by the government and I believe the government runs, pretty much, good control of the country.''
An Associated Press investigation published last week found that Levinson was working for the CIA — investigating the Iranian government. The United States long has publicly described Levinson as a private citizen who traveled to an Iranian island on private business.
McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said on CNN's ''State of the Union'' that ''the CIA did not tell the truth to the Congress'' about Levinson.
McCain said he is confident the United States is doing all it can to learn what has happened to Levinson. But he said he is disturbed the Obama administration has not been more forthcoming with information about him.
He said he does not ''think there's any doubt'' about whether Iran knows Levinson's fate.
Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed a suggestion by Levinson's family that the US government was not doing enough to find out what happened to Levinson.
''The fact is I have personally raised the issue not only at the highest level . . . but also through other intermediaries," he told ABC's ''This Week.'' "So we don't have any meeting with anybody who has something to do with Iran or an approach to Iran where we don't talk to them about how we might be able to find not just Levinson, but we have two other Americans that we're deeply concerned about.''