Private security firm helping Americans evacuate the Middle East amid war with Iran

MCLEAN, Va. – As Americans are stranded in the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, government and private agencies are working around the clock to conduct evacuations.

In addition to the U.S. Department of State’s 24/7 task force aimed at evacuating Americans, private security firm Global Guardian is also working around the clock to complete the same mission.

As of Friday, Global Guardian has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East, according to its CEO and President, Dale Robert Buckner.

While operations and logistics teams sit in an office building in northern Virginia, the firm has personnel in more than 140 countries, allowing Global Guardian access to nearly every corner of the world for emergency response or evacuations.

“We provide medical evac services, we provide kidnap, ransom, extortion negotiation payment if someone is kidnapped or extorted,” Buckner said. “We’re providing about 300 missions a month of executive protection travel, in about 84 countries a month.”

The private security firm also conducts camera surveillance of residences and commercial property and has cyber analysts monitoring mobile devices. 

After the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in a joint attack last weekend, the firm has been coordinating multiple emergency response evacuations — but this isn’t the first time it has assisted Americans out of a crisis zone.

“That means getting people out of Puerto Vallarta a week ago, and Jalisco, Mexico. That means getting people out of Asheville, North Carolina when it got wiped out by a hurricane,” Buckner said. 

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Logistically, getting tourists out of a war zone and back to safety is a process, but the firm works fast, completing their first border crossing within the first six hours of the missile strikes.

Immediately, the firm received a call from a pair of students studying abroad, Deputy Vice President of Operations Colin O’Brien told Fox News. He said they were trying to leave Dubai.

“Within about four and a half hours from the phone call, we had our teams in motion to go pick these people up and it was two college-aged women,” said O’Brien.

“Put them in the car, we were then able to move from the Omani border and by eight hours we were at the border. Work through the border checkpoint to a hotel in Muscat, where we could stop and give them a short rest while we arrange their transportation home,” he says. 

The group said it remains active year-round to ensure evacuation plans are in place before disasters strike.

“There’s a narrative of, here’s the pickup point, here’s the key crossing site,” Buckner said. “This is what you’re gonna need from a paperwork standpoint, legally. And then we’re gonna put you in a hotel or straight onto a commercial flight. Most likely, at this point in the war, we’re gonna put you on a private charter.”

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Buckner said most of these missions happening in the region are ground movement, done by locals. He says in the 140 countries the firm is in, they have ground teams working year-round. Consistently training year-round. 

“We’re communicating, we’re coordinating, we’re executing. Executive protection agents, armed agents, armed vehicles, large-scale event support with medical and security personnel,” he said, describing the firm’s standard operating capabilities.

“We’re coordinating whether the firm needs drivers. From Dubai to Oman, Israel to either Oman, Jordan or Egypt. Out of Bahrain into Saudi Arabia,” Buckner said.

While the firm is coordinating with the State Department, it said it has not yet conducted a flight mission on behalf of the department.

Global Guardian offers these services through what it calls a “Duty of Care Membership,” which Buckner said costs $15,000 per year for a family of five.

“You are going to sign a contract — whether it’s a family, a family office or typically a large corporate logo. Then we become, at your beck and call,” Buckner said, describing the emergency response services included in the agreement.

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For Americans currently stuck in the Middle East, Buckner said the cost of evacuation using ground and air resources varies depending on the situation and location.

Waltz shuts down NBC anchor, arguing Trump is ending a war Iran started with the US in 1979

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz argued to Kristen Welker on Sunday that President Donald Trump has not started a war with Iran, but that he is merely finishing it.

Waltz was asked during NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether the U.S. is indeed at war with Iran, suggesting the conflict actually began in 1979 under then-President Jimmy Carter.

Waltz had formerly been national security adviser to the Trump administration, but was moved to his current role on May 1, 2025, following the SignalGate controversy.

Welker shared clips of Trump referring to his current military actions in Iran as a “war” and reiterated her question, noting, “As you know, words matter. Does that front administration, do you, describe this as a war against Iran?”

“Well, I describe it as Iran has been at war with us, as I just said,” Waltz replied.

He continued, arguing Trump is not starting a war, but “ending it.”

“President Trump is ending it,” he replied. “I will leave it to the lawyers and those who deal with Congress in terms of the War Powers act, which every administration has viewed as unconstitutional. That said, Secretary Rubio has been there day after day and week after week in the recent months, to appropriately brief congressional leaders.”

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He went on to pivot the conversation, saying, “I’ll tell you, you know, who does believe that they are being attacked. It is the soldiers that have been buried for many, many years as a result of Iranian attacks and the proxy attacks, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and others in Beirut in 1983 and Iraq, through those years, over 600 American soldiers, so, I mean, we need to take a step back and look at how many billions, how much time, how much treasure that administration after administration has spent dealing with this.”

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“President Trump put diplomacy first, both last year and this year. It was clear the Iranians were not negotiating in good faith, had no intention of backing away from its nuclear intentions,” he claimed. “We are trying to protect it with a massive phalanx and shield of ballistic missiles that they were quadrupling their production of on a month-by-month basis, and finally President Trump said enough is enough.”

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US-sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei named Iran’s next supreme leader after father’s death: reports

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has elected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, according to Iranian state television.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the second-eldest son of Ali Khamenei and was born in Mashhad in 1969.

His early childhood coincided with his father’s rise as a revolutionary figurehead opposing the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Ali Khamenei moved from a dissident cleric to a senior government official, holding key posts in the regime including deputy defense minister.

The family moved from Mashhad to Tehran, where Mojtaba attended Alavi High School, which is a school that is known for educating members of Iran’s political and religious elite.

There, he received a general and religious education and graduated in 1987. In 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ali Khamenei was appointed supreme leader.

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That same year, Mojtaba began his formal clerical studies in Tehran. He studied under his father as well as Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who later served as Iran’s chief justice.

Over the years, Mojtaba was seen constantly with his father and was also regarded as an influential figure behind the scenes.

In an Axios interview last week, when asked about reports suggesting Mojtaba Khamenei was the new supreme leader, President Donald Trump said, “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.” Trump also said “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela.”

In 2019, the U.S. sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei under Executive Order 13867. The U.S. Treasury Department stated that he had been “representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father.” 

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The Treasury also said that the supreme leader had delegated part of his leadership responsibilities to Mojtaba. 

It said he worked closely with commanders of the IRGC’s Quds Force and the Basij Resistance Force, positioning him as a key player in both domestic and international security affairs.

Mojtaba is married to the daughter of former Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel.

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Among Ali Khamenei’s sons, he is considered the most powerful and politically influential, according to reports.