The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that an American Marine’s adoption of an Afghan war orphan could be seen as international child abduction.
Authors of ‘Kabul: The Untold Story’ James Hasson and Jerry Dunleavy discuss how U.S. marines were ordered to clean up the airport for the Taliban on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as"endorsing an act of international child abduction," according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press.
The Justice Department was particularly scathing in its assessment of how Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife convinced a Virginia judge to sign off on the adoption of the girl, who has been in their custody since 2021. The documents were filed under seal this summer in the bitter custody battle over the child who was pulled by U.S. forces in 2019 from the rubble of a military raid.
Until now, the federal government’s role in the case has remained mostly a mystery. The government filings reviewed by the AP represent just a fraction of the thousands of pages of documents, transcripts and exhibits that remain under seal, locked away with no word of when the public will be allowed to see them.
Virginia law requires that whoever has physical custody of a child be given an opportunity to be heard in an adoption case. But the Virginia court failed to notify the U.S. government of Mast’s custody petition, the Justice Department argued. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a cable to the embassy in Kabul that described Mast’s custody order from Fluvanna County as"flawed in a number of respects," and questioned how any American court could have jurisdiction over an Afghan child.
Later, in the summer of 2021, when U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over, Mast reiterated his offer of assistance,"misleading" the couple into believing the child would receive specialized medical treatment, the Justice Department wrote. Mast helped arrange a Defense Department evacuation of the Afghan family by"falsely telling other military personnel that he was clear to bring the Child," the Justice Department wrote.
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