KEY POINTS:
How do you find two little girls, when you have the whole world to search?
For Melissa Hawach, the answer to bringing to an end the abduction of daughters Cedar and Hannah lay in Lebanon with three ex-New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) troopers.
Just before Christmas last
year, with the Kiwis' help, Hawach snatched the girls back from their father, who had unlawfully taken them from Australia to Lebanon where fathers have powerful custody rights.
For the first time last week, Hawach spoke about the role the Kiwi men played in helping her get her daughters back. The secret operation, carried out on the coast near Beirut, ended with Hawach returning to her home in Canada with her girls.
But it also left Kiwi ex-SAS trooper David Pemberton languishing in a Beirut jail, facing three years for his role in the plot. With him is fellow conspirator Brian Corrigan, a former Australian soldier with the 3RAR parachute regiment. The two other Kiwi special forces soldiers got away. They have been named by Lebanese authorities as Simon Dunn, 33, and Mike Rewi, 40.
"These men have committed no crime, they have done nothing wrong and they are being held there," Hawach told The Daily Telegraph. "There is still a long way to go and there are two amazing guys who have been apart from their family."
It was December 15, 2006, when Hawach first met Corrigan. She met Pemberton shortly after. Both men had served in Iraq as private security contractors, and had a career behind them of executing unorthodox missions in dangerous places.
She had already discovered a lead - her former husband Joseph Hawach had an uncle who owned a unit at the al-Rimal seaside resort, 30 kilometres outside Beirut.
Two German tourists had seen pictures of the girls distributed by Hawach, and had holidayed at al-Rimal. They emailed directions: "Two weeks ago, this is where your girls were." Now she needed to know more, and sat down to plan with the four ex-soldiers.
"These were fathers and they had heard about the case. They were more than happy to do an assessment to see if the girls were in danger, if there were guns, what the situation was," she told The Daily Telegraph.
The ex-soldiers left for al-Rimal, and began watching. In just days they saw the girls, and on December 19 brought in Hawach so she could see with her own eyes. "The guys called me out on the balcony. I had binoculars, and they warned me, 'Don't cry out, don't yell, just stay very quiet' and I was very calm," she said.
"And I saw them and I was crying and watching them playing and running around."
Lawyers were informed and the legal process begun but that night was agonising. She had seen her children - and done nothing.
Early the next morning, the four ex-soldiers returned to the resort with Hawach to wait for another sighting. About 4pm, the girls returned to the complex, went inside the unit, then back outside to play.
Hawach walked towards them, and stood watching them for 10 minutes. Then, she told The Daily Telegraph: "I just walked out, slow as you please, and just stood there watching for a little bit.
"And then I called to Hannie and I said, 'Hannie, Hannie', and she turned and looked at me. She took a while to kind of place me at that spot, like it wasn't adding up. And then she just ran straight over to me and I picked her up and Cedar followed her."
"And that was it. There was no rush, no grab. It was unbelievable, actually, how smooth it was. We walked out and got in the van and left. And they were as good as gold. They were so happy."
They had brought two cars - Hawach and the girls left in one and the ex-soldiers in another. The alarm was quickly raised, and it took Hawach four weeks to get out of the country, eventually leaving through Syria and Jordan.
For Pemberton and Corrigan, the end came quickly. They made it to the runway of Beirut's international airport and were minutes from taking off when authorities made their move. Rewi and Dunn somehow managed to evade Lebanese authorities.
Hawach, now in hiding, has pledged to help Pemberton and Corrigan out of their cells. While Corrigan's abduction charge has been reduced to a misdemeanour, both men are still locked up with no immediate prospect of release.
Timeline
* 1994: Canadian-born Melissa Engdahl moves to Australia.
* 1999: Meets Joe Hawach in Sydney and they marry.
* 2001: Hannah is born on January 1.
* 2003: The family moves to Canada, where Cedar is born.
* 2005: The couple separates in October. A Canadian court gives Melissa custody of the girls, and both parents continue living in the same city.
* 2006: Joe Hawach flies to Australia with the girls on July 1.
* July 15: Joe Hawach flies out of Australia with the girls and goes missing.
* July 17: Melissa Hawach launches an international search. Canadian police charge Joe with abduction.
* August 22: Melissa Hawach is told the girls have Lebanese passports and won't be returned to Australia unless she gives Joe full custody and drops charges against him.
* December 9: The team of one Australian and three New Zealand ex-soldiers meets in Beirut.
* December 13: Melissa Hawach flies to Lebanon to meet the men and search for the girls.
* December 19: Melissa Hawach sees her daughters for the first time in six months.
* December 20: The girls are taken and the team divides. Kiwi Dave Pemberton and Australian Brian Corrigan are arrested at Beirut's international airport.
* 2007: Melissa and the girls leave the Middle East on February 16.
