the state of maryland, before the prosecuting attorneys, before even michael shannon knew she d been released from prison. were you notified? no. no. the office was not notified that she d been paroled, nor that there would be any action taken by immigration officials at the time. reporter: if you re wondering how that could have happened, you re not alone. the state department told cnn it doesn t interfere in deportation cases, that is up to the u.s. immigration service. and no one from immigration has returned multiple phone calls and e-mails, asking for comment. michael shannon hired the lawyer who arguably knows more about international child abduction than anyone in the country, who believes the u.s. government not only has done nothing to help, it may have expedited afaf khalifa s deportation. these are american boys, american citizens. they re not entitled to be egyptian citizens. and they ve been held in a foreign country for 12 years,
the west until now. hello? hi, nermeen, this is drew griffin with cnn. reporter: though she refused to be interviewed on camera and even refused to meet with us off camera, she did agree it was time for her to talk, at least by phone. i d like to explain my point of view. okay. reporter: her story is a completely different account of the marriage, the kidnapping, and the u.s. court record on the case. and though it may sound far-fetched in the united states, in egypt and in the middle east it is easily believed that the entire u.s. justice system conspired against her. reporter: nermeen khalifa tells us it was not she athat was the abuser, it was him, not she that was the alcoholic, it was him, and not she that kept the family apart, it was him. in a not so unbiased way told us that an anti-arab, anti-muslim
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.
until december 30th of 2004. then another two-year postponement, until february of 2006. then, nothing. it has lingered in this court ever since. american orders to bring american citizens back to the united states ignored. the bottom line is when we talk the american orders to egypt and asked for them to be, in the lingo of this specialty, domesticat domesticated, we were just laughed at. this was a pure and simple kidnapping with a lot of elements involved, a lot of planning involved. i keep going back to this family that you married into and knew. are you . never thought they d are you stunned still stunned of course. never thought they would go this far. but just who is nermeen khalifa? and who is telling the truth about what really went on nearly 12 years ago? it is why cnn came to this upscale neighborhood in cairo.