Report: Lebanese, U.S. War Veterans Orchestrated Ghosn's Escape

An American ex-soldier and a Lebanese former militiaman were on the plane that took off from Japan to Turkey with Carlos Ghosn on board, a media report said.

Citing information obtained from Turkish authorities, French weekly Le Point said only two names appeared on the registers of the Osaka-Istanbul flight operated by MNG Jet -- those of Michael Taylor and George Zayek, as revealed by U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal. The name of the third passenger, Carlos Ghosn, does not appear at all on the documents.

Michael Taylor is American. He was born on Staten Island and is 59 years old. He began his career serving in the United States Special Forces as a paratrooper for four years. He arrived in Beirut in 1982 shortly after the assassination of President-elect Bashir Gemayel and the Israeli invasion.

According to Le Point, he then began to train the Lebanese Forces militia and he maintains a “long-term relationship with the Christian community in Lebanon.”

Taylor, who speaks fluent English and Arabic, later married a Lebanese woman and the couple lives in the suburbs of Boston.

He has founded a security company called American International Security Corp (AISC), which employs ex-military and former secret service agents. It offers close protection services for people threatened or on hostile ground, as well as exfiltration services.

This former Green Beret had notably worked on the exfiltration of David Rohde, a journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2008. Taylor shut down his company after trouble with American law and started another job.

Zayek, the second man who helped Ghosn, who has not yet reached the age of 60, was also present in the jet which made the trip between Japan and Turkey. Zayek presents himself on the AngelList and Bayt websites as a “security manager” having worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt and Nigeria

In the section where he describes his skills, one reads "war, weapons, hostile lands." Zayek is the youngest brother of Elias Zayek, a slain member of the Lebanese Forces.

Elias was the commander of the LF’s infantry. He was assassinated on January 19, 1990. LF leader Samir Geagea was later convicted of ordering his murder.

George Zayek meanwhile was a fighter with the Lebanese Forces during the war. He made several stays in hospital, wounded several times, notably in the eye and in the leg.

Always discreet, George worked a lot in Iraq, notably for the American forces during the war of 2003. He also was involved in missions on behalf of private companies, organizing the protection of sensitive industrial sites in Iraq and other countries of the Middle East.

Le Point said he is described as “a brave man who likes to live dangerously.”