It seems from day one the plan to “snatch” Sally Faulkner’s children from the streets of Beirut was doomed.
Tonight’s Australian Story looks at what went wrong with the plan, and how Ms Faulkner and her children, Lahela and Noah, were lucky to have not been hurt or even killed in April this year.
The new information has emerged from players on the ground including the Lebanese driver who drove the abduction car, the woman who sheltered Ms Faulkner and her children in the safe house, as well as police.
It is claimed when the recovery team led by Adam Whittington of Child Abduction Recovery International or CARI sailed into Beirut, intelligence authorities became suspicious.
Mr Whittington moored the boat in a small marina near the five-star Movenpick Hotel, where the four members of the 60 Minutes crew who were reporting on the recovery attempt were staying.
Intelligence officers monitoring new hotel guests obtained scans of their passports.
“They had simply done a Google search,” said Martin Chulov, of The Guardian’s Beirut bureau.
“They had worked out that among them were a couple of very well known Australian television correspondents so they knew something was up.”
He said on the day of the abduction, intelligence authorities saw members of the abduction crew leave the hotel in a small grey car, but they did not follow it.
Driver says kids were screaming.
Local man Khaled Barbour was hired to drive the car.
“The day started at about 6:00am. We picked the Westerners up near the Movenpick. I was the driver,” he told Australian Story.