Earlier this month, the U.S. government bailed from the contentious federal litigation of Doe v. Mast. The government chose to remove itself after AFLC successfully argued to the federal court in the Western District of Virginia that the government could not continue the charade of playing the role of a neutral party while putting its heavy hand on the scales of justice in favor of the Taliban’s effort to get its hands on a baby (now a young girl) adopted by a Marine officer and his wife.
This dispute involves a young Marine assisting an infant child recovered off the battlefield by Army Rangers during a mission to take out a nest of East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP), Al Qaeda foreign fighters in Afghanistan in September 2019.
Two of the foreign fighters were the parents of this little girl. The father was killed in the firefight engaging the Rangers; the mother blew herself up with a suicide pack while holding her months-old baby girl.
Miraculously, the baby survived but was seriously injured.
The Marine and his wife were granted custody of this child, and now that custody is being challenged by those who do not want a Muslim child to be raised by Christians.
We are representing the Marine’s brother, who is embroiled in this legal battle because he assisted his brother with obtaining legal custody of the child.
The U.S. government’s involvement arises from the Biden administration’s efforts to appease the Taliban to allow the U.S. to evacuate its forces and to leave the Afghan Republic in place–a government U.S. taxpayers shelled out trillions to stand up and maintain. The battlefield orphaned child became fodder for the State Department, which effectively threw the child back to Afghanistan as she was recovering at a U.S. military hospital in anticipation of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces.
In the meantime, Marine Captain (now Major) Mast obtained a custody order, a temporary adoption order, and ultimately a final adoption order from Virginia state courts in order to provide the orphaned baby proper medical care stateside.
As we all know, the U.S. recklessly and chaotically evacuated its personnel from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to regain control and leaving many U.S. citizens and allies behind.
To save this child, Major Mast arranged for her evacuation along with an Afghan couple who had taken physical custody of her. When the three arrived in the U.S. safely, the young girl, who was then the Masts’ legally adopted daughter, was taken in by the Mast family and raised as their own.
Subsequently, and after using the child to get to safety in the U.S., the couple decided they wanted to challenge the adoption and take custody of the young girl. They turned to the Gitmo bar (lawyers from the huge international law firms who cherish the opportunity to represent, pro bono, jihadists and Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathizers). As a result, they filed multiple state and federal lawsuits attacking the Masts.
As noted, we are representing the Marine’s brother, a lawyer, who assisted his brother with obtaining legal custody of the child.
The U.S. government, embarrassed by its fecklessness, had taken the position that it wanted to participate in the federal litigation to provide cover for its reckless decision to turn this war-orphaned child over to a family of suspected Taliban sympathizers without any real due diligence or DNA testing. Indeed, the U.S. government participated in turning over this child to the Afghan family without even an Afghan court order in violation of Afghan law.
During the course of the federal litigation, the U.S. government filed documents in support of the Taliban’s position, yet refused to allow AFLC to obtain discovery that would uncover the truth. AFLC challenged this duplicitous position, and the federal court agreed. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government, fearful of AFLC’s legal discovery efforts, chose to bail from the lawsuit.
You can read more about this intriguing case here.