Statement Regarding Qatari Captives
In December of 2015, 26 Qatari nationals, who included members of the ruling Al-Thani royal family, entered Iraq with government-issued permits, for the purpose of hunting bustards with falcons. They were taken against their will, captured and rounded up by more than 100-armed men, driving in a large convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles. The Qatari captives have been held in small towns near Basra.
Multiple intelligence sources identified Kata’eb Hezbollah, a leading Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ main groups in Iraq, their leader, Akram al-Ka’abi, of the Iranian-backed militias in Syria, as the group responsible for capturing the Qatari hunters.
After waiting months for the Iraqi government to negotiate a failed return of the captives, Khalifa bin Fahed bin Mohammed Al-Thani, a member of the ruling, Qatari Royal Family enlisted Miltos Goudamanis, CEO Global Strategies Council (GSC) in early March ’17, to lead all their efforts in the negotiation and safe return of the hunters. Goudamanis is a Greek national, US citizen, trusted advisor and close personal friend of Al-Thani.
No stranger to the Middle East and its current geo-political climate, Goudamanis has 20+ years of experience in working with both governments and multi-national organizations on their most complex diplomacy, security and counter-terrorism issues. In order to provide the necessary transparency regarding their role in this project, GSC’s attorney filed a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) with the US Department of Justice regarding the situation.
“Our number one goal is the safe return of the 26 Qatari hunters to their families,” said Goudamanis. “As this is an extremely complex negotiation process involving the Qatari captives, their families, multiple governments, militant groups, interested parties and potentially thousands of innocent people, we’d prefer to keep the details of the negotiation to a minimum at this time. We’re using every resource in our vast network to aid in this negotiation. We won’t rest until all the captives are returned home safely to the their families.”