Ammon News - By Amal Ghabayen and Shaheera Khatatbeh

AMMONNEWS – The story of the American woman who accused her Jordanian husband of "kidnapping" their three children and taking them back to Jordan is not unprecedented, but this particular story, that of Muhammad Al Saleh and his estranged wife Heidi Sides Al Saleh took a bizarre twist, especially with the direct interference of a "snatchback" clandestine expert who came to Jordan specifically to snatch the kids back to the United States.

American T.V. program, ABC's 'Nightline,' dedicated an episode to highlight the work of Gustavo Zamora of Zamora & Associates, who specializes in international 'non-custodial' child abduction cases, in this case, Al Saleh's three children, Ahmad (9), Manar (5), and Sarah (4).

in a previous report, ‘Ammon News’ relayed the story of Al Saleh and his wife Heidi Sides, as reported by several U.S. media outlets, none of which took the father's statements into account.

Al Saleh and his wife Heidi Sides met over the Internet in the early 1990's, and Al Saleh moved to the state of Maine in the U.S. to marry Heidi. They later moved to Maryland where Al Saleh's job was relocated. Their marriage soon fell apart and they separated, yet had shared custody of the children.

In May 2009, Al Saleh took his children and returned back to Jordan, only notifying Heidi via text message of his departure to Jordan along with the kids.

Following ABC Nightline's report, Ammon News met with Al Saleh, who had quite a different perspective on the story, particularly in regards to the 'Snatchback' operation, orchestrated by Zamora who was contacted by Heidi's mother, Geneva Sides.

ABC, a reputable American TV corporation, hosted at one of its top rated programs - Nightline - the President and Chief Executive Officer of the private international security services company’ the snachback ‘Gustavo Zamora’ who was hired by the mother Heidi to bring her children back to America.

Zamora, a former U.S. army ranger, indicated during the interview that his company attempts every legal - and potentially illegal - method in achieving his goal to bring the American children back to their mothers. He has successfully snatched back 55 children back into the United Sates.

‘Nightline’ program – with over 60 million viewers - reported that Zamora’s company had been trying for the past year to bring the children to America after signing a contract with fees up to $70,000 with the grandmother, Geneva, according to Al Saleh.

His mission, however, faced obstacles of "Jordanian Red Tape."

Zamora said in the report, which was filmed mostly in Jordan, that he tried for over two years to draw up a plan to steal the children from their father's home, but he couldn't because of the location of the house, which is in an alleyway of Zarqa city (East of Amman), and very far from the main street, making it difficult to control and monitor the family's movements. Zamora considered snatching the children from their home a dangerous operation, so instead, resorted to convincing the mother to sue for custody in Jordanian court.

The mother, who used Skype to talk to her children from the apartment set up in Amman, alluded the father that she was calling from the US, intending to come to Jordan to be him and the children. Al Saleh, on his part, said that he had believed that his estranged wife wanted to reunite, only to figure that it was all part of the snatchback operation.

Heidi, after spending several months with her husband, left Al Saleh sleeping and locked him in, got in the car, and resorted to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, where she was advised to go to the Family Protection Administration (FPA) and file a complaint against the father.

Zamora, who admitted to snatching back 55 American children via clandestine, aggressive operations in different countries without ever being arrested, was confronted with several obstacles, especially after Al Saleh managed to take back his 9-year old son and hide with him in an undisclosed location.

Zamora's mission was to get the children back to their mother and get them out of the country, without raising the suspicions of the Jordanian authorities, NBC Nightline anchor said.

A court order also put a block on children's travel, making it more difficult to sneak the children out of Jordan. "If we can't get visas entered in the passports, or, if there is a block put on .. then they're not going to be able to leave through the airport or through a border crossing, or through any legal means, which means that we have to get creative and figure out a plan to get them out," Zamora said in the program.

Nightline's co-anchor indicated that "to whiss them out of Jordan, they will either drive through the desert, and walk over the border to Israel... or hire boats and cross the Red Sea into Egypt."

"But the plan snags on Jordanian red tape," the co-anchor added.

Zamora, who received training from Blackwater, and boasts a resume that trains Israeli commandos, tried to convince the mother and grandmother to "charm" the father in an effort to get the children back, something that both of them refused to do.

On his part, Al Saleh said that his wife deceived him to get the kids, calling him telling him that she wants to return to live with him to raise her children, a matter that he agreed upon unaware that this was all part of the plan to snatch back the kids.

Al Saleh discovered the conspiracy that was orchastrated by Heidi's mother, Geneva Sides with Zamora to sneak the kids out of Jordan via e-mail exchanges he got by 'coincidence', leading the legal judge to issue an expedited order to give temporary custody to the father, and another order to keep them at "Dar Al Wefaq" family protection unit, out of fear that Zamora would kidnap them.

Yet the case turned against Al Saleh after the Family Protection Administration interefered to violate the judge's orders, and get the mother and the children out of Dar al Wefaq, according to Al Saleh. The judge later sent an inquiry letter to the FPA to clarify their reasons for violating his orders.

Al Saleh accused the Family Protection Administration of siding with the wife, since employees there initially refused to take into account his information about the plans to get the kids out of the country. Al Saleh claimed that FPA Director, Brigadier General Muhammad Al Zoubi "mocked" him upon hearing of Zamora's story, and considered that this whole plot is a figment of Al Saleh's imagination and a "theatrical play" the father cooked up to retrieve his children.

A month later, FPA contacted Al Saleh to get more information about Zamora and his company. Yet despite knowledge of Zamora's plot, and despite listening to witnessed knowledgable of Zamora & Associates' work, FPA still ordered the children out of Dar Al Wefaq.

FPA also put an arrest warrant against Al Saleh, accused of kidnapping his son Ahmad, in an effort to pressure the father to return the son without guarantees that they will not be snatched back out of Jordan.

9-year old Ahmad, who currently resides with his father in an undisclosed location for over a month, told Ammon News over a phone conversation that he "misses his mom and sisters," yet he does not want to live away from his father. "I wish my whole family would go back to living under one roof."

When asked whether he prefers to live with his father or mother, Ahmad stressed that he will not take sides, and will only choose to live with both of them together.

Ammon News requested a response from the Public Security Directorate (PSD) regarding FPA's violation of the court's orders, and regarding how a questionable company would enter Jordan several times, film a whole program marketing the potentially illegal services of Zamora and Associates without any questions.

Several Hours later, PSD responded that members of the police along with FPA personnel raided Al Saleh's uncle's house after receiving a tip that the child Ahmad is there. They pressured the uncle, after a short detention, to reveal where Ahmad and his father are.

Regarding Zamora & Associates, Ammon News learned that Zamora visited Jordan four times in the past 2 years, of which he crossed into Jordan through its borders with Israel 3 times. Zamora & Associates is a world-wide, international security services company, specialized in re-abduction of children internationally from outside the United States. It has associates in over 25 countries. Yet the company is not a licensed private investigation company and not authorized to operate within any state inside the U.S.


* Video of ABC Nightline's episode on Zamora and his plot to snatchback the kids from Jordan.