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Following Reuters’ report yesterday that the Haftar army secured the release of Kevin Rideout, it is worth looking more closely at Rudolph “Rudy” Atallah, one of the U.S. officials who helped oversee Washington’s efforts to recover the American missionary. Rideout was kidnapped in Niamey, Niger, in October 2025. U.S. officials later indicated he had been transferred to Mali, where Reuters reports that Rideout was held by Daesh. In November 2025, The Washington Post reported that the FBI formally led the investigation, but Sebastian Gorka, the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, and Atallah, Gorka’s deputy, were “running point” on the Rideout case. Atallah, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, retired as a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel after a 21-year career encompassing aviation, special operations, intelligence and counterterrorism. Until recently, Atallah’s NSC portfolio covered counterterrorism across Africa and the Levant. Earlier this summer, Atallah left the White House. He now runs White Mountain Research, a security consultancy he founded that advises governments, companies and nonprofits. Atalla has other companies. His 2025 federal financial disclosure says he owned Brimtek DMCC, a UAE-registered cybersecurity and intelligence company. There is no indication Attalah has been in touch with the Haftars. Reuters reported that the Haftar army secured Rideout late on Aug. 13. An unnamed senior source in Haftar’s forces claimed that an elite LNA commando had physically entered Malian territory, freed Rideout in a military raid and flown him to Benghazi. Reuters explicitly said it could not verify that account. In its reporting, Reuters also included a sharply different version of events: four other sources said it is a negotiated agreement that secured Rideout’s release, and one insisted that the Haftars had paid a ransom. Several of my reliable Benghazi sources likewise cast doubt on the Haftars’ narrative, too, suggesting that money may well have changed hands. Other reporting indicates that Rideout was taken to Benghazi and handed to U.S. officials there, although the place where his captors relinquished him has been established. A separate Mali hostage case is worth recalling here. After the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM kidnapped Dubai royal Sheikh Ahmed bin Maktoum bin Juma al-Maktoum and two of his foreign associates near Bamako in September 2025, the trio was freed in late October after the UAE reportedly paid a ransom of approximately $50 million.