Anonymous wrote:Let the child be American. Not some ridiculous refugee.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The child is five now. Likely some shared custody might be in the best interest of the child. For the sake of the child, being ripped away from your family to stay with people you don't know at 5 would be quite traumatic.

That was the Masts goal in delaying the case and keeping her this long, so it would be rewarding them.

Anonymous wrote:The child is five now. Likely some shared custody might be in the best interest of the child. For the sake of the child, being ripped away from your family to stay with people you don't know at 5 would be quite traumatic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The child is five now. Likely some shared custody might be in the best interest of the child. For the sake of the child, being ripped away from your family to stay with people you don't know at 5 would be quite traumatic.

That was the Masts goal in delaying the case and keeping her this long, so it would be rewarding them.

Anonymous wrote:The child is five now. Likely some shared custody might be in the best interest of the child. For the sake of the child, being ripped away from your family to stay with people you don't know at 5 would be quite traumatic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Major Mast should be court-martialed and lose his military career and benefits including retirement. They committed a federal felony, including doing so after both the DoD and DoS had both explicitly stated that he could not do this. He is a disgrace to his commission and uniform.

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised the Masts aren’t facing criminal charges with all the lying they did.

But the major and his wife did not give up their fight for the child. Through a lawyer in Kabul, they contacted the guardians of the girl, who had almost completely recovered from her injuries, and asked them to send her to the United States, arguing that they wanted to offer her specialized medical treatment. At no point, say the girl’s relatives — identified as John and Jane Doe in the court documents — did the Masts reveal that they had a custody order in Virginia.

With the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the Afghan family left the country on one of the military flights authorized by the United States from the capital’s airport. They were able to flee partly thanks to the major, who described John Doe as a man who had put his life and that of his family at risk to help the United States. 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.

+1

I wonder why he isn’t when other POC are subject to horrific punishments for lesser crimes. I wonder.

+1. This. Military personal can lose their careers over much smaller infractions. How is this guy still working in national security?

Can and do are two different things.

BY MARTHA MENDOZA, CLAIRE GALOFARO AND JULIET LINDERMAN
Updated 12:18 PM GMT+8, September 15, 2023
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The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge 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.

It is rare for the federal government to step into a local custody case, but concern about the child’s fate has stretched across the Trump and Biden administrations. The Justice Department argued in the court documents that the dispute has ramifications that extend far beyond the rural courthouse where the girl’s future is being decided.

Failing to return the child, now 4, to Afghan relatives in the U.S. could jeopardize American efforts to resettle Afghan refugees, threaten international security pacts and might be used as propaganda by Islamic extremists — potentially endangering U.S soldiers overseas, Justice Department attorneys and other U.S. officials warned in court filings seeking to intervene in the case.
Citing a litany of “falsehoods,” the Justice Department wrote that the court relied on “intentional misrepresentations” from the Marine and skipped critical safeguards to protect children being brought to the United States.

“The grave harm that the Masts have inflicted upon the Child, her family, and the United States is ongoing,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the court documents, which included signed declarations from State and Defense department officials. “Most troublingly, the child remains with the Masts to this day.”

Mast, who was on a short assignment as an attorney in Afghanistan, met the baby in a U.S. military hospital and became determined to bring her home.

The Masts and the girl’s Afghan relatives, who are suing to get her back, have been ordered not to speak publicly about the case, and their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are horrible. I feel awful for that little girl. They are the only family she knows and I can't imagine the trauma that will result from all of this. When she eventually gets removed, it is going to be horrific for her. As bad as they are, she considers them her family. The people she was with until she was 1 she won't even remember

They aren't her family. They are kidnappers.

Yes, but she’s 4 and everything she can remember is being told they are her family. Which makes what these people are doing even worse in my opinion; going back to her actual family will be traumatic for her because the kidnappers have been telling her they’re her family.

Them telling her this is her family doesn't make it her family. How do you think she'll feel when she's grown up, was taken out of her life and culture and people who loved her to be with them. It's not just about the now. This is why the courts need more judges and expedite cases like this. Anyone can lie to a child and tell them they are family and they aren't and manipulate a young child.

I don't think you're understanding what this PP is saying. All she's saying is that it's going to be really hard on the child. I don't know why you keep arguing with her. Yes, we all know they're not her real family, but that won't change the child's feelings.

Anonymous wrote:The federal government needs to come up with and enforce consistent guidelines for adoption and stop this non-sense. This happens to too many families and it destroys families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are horrible. I feel awful for that little girl. They are the only family she knows and I can't imagine the trauma that will result from all of this. When she eventually gets removed, it is going to be horrific for her. As bad as they are, she considers them her family. The people she was with until she was 1 she won't even remember

They aren't her family. They are kidnappers.

Yes, but she’s 4 and everything she can remember is being told they are her family. Which makes what these people are doing even worse in my opinion; going back to her actual family will be traumatic for her because the kidnappers have been telling her they’re her family.

Them telling her this is her family doesn't make it her family. How do you think she'll feel when she's grown up, was taken out of her life and culture and people who loved her to be with them. It's not just about the now. This is why the courts need more judges and expedite cases like this. Anyone can lie to a child and tell them they are family and they aren't and manipulate a young child.