Hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman reveals world of high stakes diplomacy

Hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman sat down with ABC News’ Linsey Davis to talk about the recently released book, “In the Shadows: True Stories of High Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad,” which he co-authored with journalist Ellis Henican.

After serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Bergman went to study in the U.S. and began his career in strategic diplomacy. His humanitarian work in Sudan brought him into contact with the late Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and Bergman is currently the vice president and executive director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement.

He is also the co-founder and CEO of Global Reach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing home Americans who are being held abroad.

ABC News talked to Bergman about his book, the situation in Gaza, his role in helping to get WNBA player Brittney Griner out of Russia, negotiating the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed and his first encounter with Richardson, as well as the ongoing detainments of former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

ABC NEWS: Our next guest is shedding light on what goes on behind the scenes of high stakes hostage negotiations. Mickey Bergman is a former IDF combat officer and, for the past decade, he’s traveled the world as a private citizen, working to free Americans held unjustly overseas. He played a key role in securing the release of Brittney Griner in 2022. Mickey is co-author of the new book titled, “In the Shadows: True Stories of High Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad.” Mickey Bergman, thanks so much for joining us.

BERGMAN: Thank you for having me.

ABC NEWS: So we’re going to get to the book in just a moment. But first, just let’s talk about the believed to be about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza, some of them Americans. If you were part of these negotiations, what would you be angling for at this point?

BERGMAN: Well, first of all, I am a part of the negotiations, again on behalf of some of the families, not in any formal position, because we…we don’t work for governments. We work on behalf of families. The theory of return, which is the story, the script that we tell ourselves, the shortest way of a hostage coming home in the case of Gaza relies on three basic assumptions. The first one, the Israelis and Hamas, they don’t talk directly. It has to be mediated. Number 2, there are four countries in the region that can influence Hamas — Iran, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt can influence them.

None of these countries want to have to do any favors to Israel, but at least two of them, which is Egypt and Qatar, have a very significant interest in working with the United States. Therefore, the theory of return has always been for us, since Oct. 7.

ABC NEWS: In your book, you detail how Brittney Griner’s family reached out to you while she was being detained in Russia. Just walk us through that process. How, how first people know you’re the guy, right, to reach out to? And then what happens after you hang up from those calls?

BERGMAN: Yeah. So again, we’re a non-for-profit, nongovernment organization. We work on behalf of families at no cost to them. We don’t advertise.

It is still very, very tough because there’s a family, Brittney’s family, overnight, suddenly was thrown into an international crisis. And a lot of people come to them with a lot of information, everybody with the best intentions, but very few people with experience of actually getting people home.

And so I’ve engaged with, with Brittney’s wife, Cheryl, and her agent Lindsay, for quite a while, for about two months before they actually formally asked us to come and help. Once they did, we again had to create the theory of return for us. That story, that script of how she comes home and engage informally with our Russian counterparts, the same counterparts that just in April before Brittney came home, helped us deliver Trevor Reed, the deal for Trevor Reed.

ABC NEWS: But as a nongovernment official and you’re sitting across from a strong-willed foreign leader, they might say, “Hey, why am I talking to you”?

BERGMAN: Well, that Linsey is exactly what I was writing, the reason why I wrote my book. Because our ability, we don’t have any authority and any mandate on policy issues, but we have emotional intelligence. We have ongoing relationships. These are relationships that we invest in over time before there’s crisis. We do engagement in a lot of of these countries, specifically the countries that the United States has problem with; problems with communicating, diplomatic relationships. We build that trust. We build those relationships, so then when we actually have a crisis, we’re able to sit honestly.

ABC NEWS: How did you get into this?

BERGMAN: I met Gov. Richardson of New Mexico after he was ambassador to the UN and Secretary of Energy and a member of Congress. He called me on a Wednesday, he heard about me as he was going to Sudan back in the days that there was the Darfur genocide. And he called me on the phone, he says “Is this Mickey Bergman?” I said yes. “This is Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. I need you to pack your stuff and get to me, to Santa Fe. You’re coming with me to Khartoum.”

And Linsey, not only did I not know Gov. Richardson at the time, I didn’t know the man existed. And I had 48 hours to decide whether it’s an opportunity of a lifetime or the worst decision I make before my head gets separated from my body.

ABC NEWS: Last question. I could keep talking to you for hours, but there are so many that we’ve talked to on the show with regard to their, their relatives. Paul Whelan, for example, Evan Gershkovich. Do you have any sense that there’s something that can be done to, to bring them home and and soon?

BERGMAN: Yeah, I think and we, we chatted about it before. My work is, is one that is very exciting when people come home. And it’s extremely difficult and frustrating every single day until they come home, and sometimes it takes years. And Paul Whelan is a failure of mine because he was left behind in my count four times and we tried really, really hard and we continue to try. But I am optimistic.

I think there’s an assumption right now that even though we know more or less what Putin wants in return for the Americans that he’s holding, and he’s holding quite a few of them.

ABC NEWS: I said that was the last question, but I just have to follow up. So are you suggesting, hypothetically, that if Donald Trump were president right now, some of these people would be home?

BERGMAN: I would, I’m suggesting, Donald Trump, I think, said himself that he believes that he can get them home at no cost. I, my argument was, well, if you can do that at no cost, why not do it now and it will help him in the elections? I don’t think that there is any added advantage to whether it’s Trump or President Biden currently or, presumably, Kamala Harris as the, as the, as the Democratic nominee.

It’s just a matter of it needs to happen after the elections because otherwise it plays in the domestic, so I don’t think it’s a matter of Trump is going to be better than, than Harris or something like that. But now that President Biden is not running, he’s not the candidate, I actually argue that the window opened right now, to do this work, and I’ll do everything I can to try and bring them home.

ABC NEWS: Mickey Bergman, we thank you so much for your time and the work that you do.

BERGMAN: Thank you.

ABC NEWS: His book, “In the Shadows,” is now available wherever books are sold.