been growing up here. 12 long years. 12 years not even seeing a single photograph. but that is about to change. it s 7:05 a.m. sunday morning. the beginning of the school week in cairo. and two boys, appearing to be about 16 and 12, are walking out of the apartment building where nermeen khalifa lives with michael shannon s two sons. khalifa has refused to give cnn a picture of her boys. she has refused to allow the u.s. state department to take a photo of adam and jason. and for a dozen years has denied their father a single image. these undercover pictures, blurred to protect their identities, will be the first michael shannon has seen of his children since august 22nd, 2001. listen, i want you to do something. i know he s got a computer in front of you. mm-hmm. i want you to just open up that computer, and i want you to hit play.
the first male grandchild of the khalifas. nermeen s mother came over for the birth pf pictures show a beaming mother, father, and grandmother. there was even time for a family visit to cairo. michael shannon says his father-in-law was so overjoyed to have a grandson. he offered michael a job and a house. with just one condition. they had to live in egypt. i said, well, the problem is your daughter, my wife, hates this country. she hates egypt. women are second-class citizens here. she can t smoke. she can t drink. more people visit spring training games than they go to reporter: there was another reason not to move to egypt. michael shannon s son from another marriage. mike was 11 years old when adam was born. now 27, he recalls the little brother from whom he became
and i remember how difficult that decision was. reporter: august 2001. nermeen s father, afaf khalifa, flew from her home in cairo to baltimore to visit her daughter. and there was something else. afaf khalifa was asking permission to take her two grandsons and her daughter for a rare weekend trip out of state to new york, to visit a relative. shannon was suspicious but reluctantly agreed. i said to my father, i said, well, there s no way she can take them to egypt. i have full custody. i have full rights. i have their passports locked in a safe. how could she possibly get them out of the country? reporter: sunday night the boys weren t back. phone calls to the cousin in new york went unanswered. and then it just becomes let s get in the car and go find out what s going on. where are they?
a visit with no one from the shannon family present. he will join his infant brother jason on the trip to visit a cousin. their older half-brother mike shannon recalls just how nervous his father was. nobody wanted to say it, but the thought always was in the back of your mind, you know, what are they getting at here? why all of the sudden change? but at the end of the day you kind of want to understand that from a grandmother s standpoint she wants to have some time with her grandson. reporter: the shannon family s trust in afaf khalifa was misplaced. thomas fleckenstein, the state s attorney in ann arundel county, maryland says the facts would later reveal adam and jason s grandmother was the co-conspirator of an international kidnapping weeks in the works. she came from her home country of egypt. she came here. she participated in the planning of the removal of the children from maryland. she participated in the story
it is in all parties best interests that it be done as quickly as possible. at any time do you know if there was some kind of negotiation with the family in egypt to say, okay, we give, we re going to bring these kids back? not that i m aware, no. reporter: a judge heard the case and sentenced afaf khalifa to ten years in prison on multiple counts. a sentence later reduced to three years. a 60-year-old woman, she began serving her time here at the maryland women s prison in jessup, maryland. 14 months passed. then afaf khalifa, the only bargaining chip michael shannon had left to get back his children, disappeared. she was suddenly gone. reporter: deported back to egypt. before the state of maryland, before the prosecuting attorneys, before even michael shannon knew she d been released from prison.