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A rotating team of three dozen Canadians worked tirelessly in West Africa over the past four months to secure freedom for two Canadian diplomats, sources say. Drawn from the ranks of the foreign service, Mounties, spies and other agencies, they ran the most sophisticated rescue operation Canada has ever known.

Using the wizardry of modern surveillance, calling in favours and exerting pressure on African governments, the team considered every option, up to and including a military raid.

Robert Fowler, a distinguished Canadian civil servant and a former ambassador to the United Nations, and his colleague Louis Guay, also a senior diplomat, were captured on a desert road in eastern Niger just before Christmas. Today, the two men are expected to fly out of Bamako, Mali, on their way to be reunited with their families.

While the full story of the mission may never be known, it's clear the stakes for the rescue were high.

To add to the complexities, The Globe and Mail understands, there was suspicion that people in Niger had tipped a criminal gang to the Canadians' travel plans. When the UN jeep was stopped at gunpoint, the kidnappers knew they had prized assets.

The hostages were “traded up” at least twice, sources say, before ending up in the hands of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, a group that emerged from the civil war in Algeria. The ransom demand that came to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attention included the freeing of AQIM members imprisoned in neighbouring Mauritania.

“The longer it went on, the more it seemed likely that there might be a positive resolution, because clearly they had value to whoever was holding them. Whether it was political or financial, they had value,” said Gerald Ohlsen, a retired senior diplomat and long-time colleague of the captured men. “There were clearly an awful lot of people involved in the negotiations.”

Geography, intergovernmental relations and quality of intelligence all factor into decisions made by Ottawa in terms of what can be done. Each kidnapping is different and officials stress that the fact that the targets were two former ranking diplomats was not material to the scale of the response.

The first challenge for Canada was found in the vehicles carrying the hostages. Cellphones the Canadians had been carrying were left behind, sources say, indicating the kidnappers were aware signals intelligence could be used to triangulate a phone position.

The Canadian military, Mounties and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service were mobilized. A rich contributor to the Malian infrastructure over the years, Canada has forged close relations with the government. This gave the rescue team a considerable advantage, allowing for relatively easy transfer of Canadians in and out of the sovereign country.

In January, for example, two Canadian military officers were spotted in Mali. “They believe Mali is the Islamists' base, so they have come to seek the support of our security sources in finding the hostages,” an anonymous source told Reuters.

Then, in the country's northeast regions at the edge of the Sahara, Canadians in chartered planes introduced themselves to community leaders.

But it was the hidden hand of a signals-intelligence agency that is being described as key to the success of the whole operation. Sources say the eavesdroppers in the Communications Security Establishment are the “the unsung heroes” of the mission.

That is because the Ottawa-based CSE can go where human agents cannot. The signals experts have increased their capability to listen in to conversations around the world. Sources say the CSE provided pivotal information, although what they obtained is classified.

Among the Canadian officials involved in the operation was a husband and wife team. They took turns leaving the comfort of Canada, their mission being to replace one with the other in the field. Mounties were seconded from their regular jobs in Ottawa to join the mission on the ground.

But this was all clandestine work. The heads of state of Burkina Faso and Mali are taking credit publicly. “Canada [had] never asked us for anything. For once this friend asked us for help,” Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré said on Thursday. “Of course it was Mali's duty to help.”

The President of neighbouring Burkina Faso was also personally involved in the negotiations, according to its ambassador to Canada, Juliette Bonkoungou. “He engaged personally and directly with the President of Mali.”

All things considered, the rescue mission was the kind of effort that Mr. Fowler, long regarded as a top-notch international operator, might himself have been proud of had he known.

For 30 years he held key positions in the Canadian bureaucracy, mostly in Foreign Affairs, but also in National Defence and Privy Council Office. He joined the United Nations a few years ago, and last year was dispatched on a low-key mission to mediate between the Niger government and armed rebel groups.

It was that mission that led to his captivity.

On Saturday, the Fowlers' inner circle got word that wheels were in motion. Sensitivities were such that nobody dared breathe a word.

On Monday, an ambulance and a UN vehicle with Burkina Faso plates were seen heading toward the northern desert areas of Mali, triggering local speculation a hostage deal was imminent. By Wednesday, local reports broke the news that Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay had been released.

Prime Minister Harper finally confirmed the story in Ottawa on Wednesday evening. As is customary, he gave few secrets away.

He specifically thanked Mali and Burkina Faso for their help. Niger was not mentioned.

Was a ransom paid? Mr. Harper's response was that Canada paid nothing. Burkina Faso and Mali and the United Nations have also denied paying a ransom.

However, reports emerged last night that an Algerian newspaper is suggesting that a European country paid five million euros to secure release of the Canadian diplomats, as well as two Europeans who were simultaneously freed.

One Canadian source said that, to use a crude analogy, international hostage negotiations can resemble something like an NHL player swap involving five or six or more teams.

“It requires a whole lot of people to be satisfied in terms of future draft picks and immediate benefits,” he said. “Everybody has to come out a winner; that's what a good trade is.”

By Thursday afternoon, the desert hideout was a world away when Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay appeared for the first time in public, looking gaunt and sporting long, grey beards. Mr. Fowler needed sunglasses, even indoors. Mr. Guay walked with a hesitant stride.

The two diplomats were later joined by the two released female hostages, who also appeared frail: Gabriela Greiner of Switzerland and 77-year-old Marianne Petzold of Germany, who needed a cane and had a bandaged hand. Two of the four captured tourists, a Swiss man and a British man, remain hostages.

Canadian government officials said both men endured serious psychological abuse while held captive in a region where daytime temperatures soar to 43 degrees, although neither appears to have been tortured.

Marie Okabe, deputy spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the UN still waited for the two men to have medical check-ups and a debriefing.

Mr. Harper told the country on Wednesday: “I wish to also thank the women and men of Canada, and throughout the world, who worked without relaxing in the course of the four months to bring an end to this terrible situation.

“It's a long day, but they're never too long when they end well,” he said.

With reports from Serge Daniel in Bamako, Mali, Tu Thanh Ha and Josh Wingrove in Toronto and Bill Curry in Ottawa