{"id":32812,"date":"2022-10-20T16:30:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/20\/afghan-couple-accuse-us-marine-of-abducting-their-baby\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:49:20","slug":"afghan-couple-accuse-us-marine-of-abducting-their-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/10\/20\/afghan-couple-accuse-us-marine-of-abducting-their-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The young Afghan couple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2021\/09\/10\/29-purple-hearts-approved-12-pending-for-marines-and-corpsman-who-defended-kabul-airport\/\" target=\"_blank\">raced to the airport in Kabu<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2021\/09\/10\/29-purple-hearts-approved-12-pending-for-marines-and-corpsman-who-defended-kabul-airport\/\" target=\"_blank\">l,<\/a> clutching their baby girl close <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2021\/09\/24\/4-marines-still-hospitalized-nearly-a-month-after-suicide-bombing-in-afghanistan\/\" target=\"_blank\">amid the chaotic withdrawal of American troops<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The baby had been rescued two years earlier from the rubble of a U.S. Special Forces raid that killed her parents and five siblings. After months in a U.S. military hospital, she had gone to live with her cousin and his wife, this newlywed couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, the family was bound for the United States for further medical treatment, with the aid of U.S. Marine Corps attorney Joshua Mast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the exhausted Afghans arrived at the airport in Washington, D.C., in late August 2021, Mast pulled them out of the international arrivals line and led them to an inspecting officer, according to a lawsuit they filed in September. They were surprised when Mast presented an Afghan passport for the child, the couple said. But it was the last name printed on the document that stopped them cold: Mast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They didn\u2019t know it, but they would soon lose their baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a story about how one U.S. Marine became fiercely determined to bring home an Afghan war orphan, and praised it as an act of Christian faith to save her. Letters, emails and documents submitted in federal filings show that he used his status in the U.S. Armed Forces, appealed to high-ranking Trump administration officials and turned to small-town courts to adopt the baby, unbeknownst to the Afghan couple raising her 7,000 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/08\/23\/1-year-later-after-the-abbey-gate-attack\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/18-afghan-evac-1.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Marines look back 1 year after the Abbey Gate attack<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Even at the 20-year war\u2019s bitter end, Marines shepherded Afghans to safety, even at the cost of losing their own.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The little girl, now 3 \u00bd years old, is at the center of a high-stakes tangle of at least four court cases. The Afghan couple, desperate to get her back, has sued Mast and his wife, Stephanie Mast. But the Masts insist they are her legal parents and \u201cacted admirably\u201d to protect her. They\u2019ve asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ordeal has drawn in the U.S. departments of Defense, Justice and State, which have argued that the attempt to spirit away a citizen of another country could significantly harm military and foreign relations. It also has meant that a child who survived a violent raid, was hospitalized for months and escaped the fall of Afghanistan has had to split her short life between two families, both of which now claim her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Five days after the Afghans arrived in the U.S., they say Mast \u2014 custody papers in hand \u2014 took her away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Afghan woman collapsed onto the floor and pleaded with the Marine to give her baby back. Her husband said Mast had called him \u201cbrother\u201d for months; so he begged him to act like one, with compassion. Instead, the Afghan family claims in court papers, Mast shoved the man and stomped his foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was more than a year ago. The Afghan couple hasn\u2019t seen her since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAfter they took her, our tears never stop,\u201d the woman told The Associated Press. \u201cRight now, we are just dead bodies. Our hearts are broken. We have no plans for a future without her. Food has no taste and sleep gives us no rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Pulled from the rubble<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story of the baby unfolds in hundreds of pages of legal filings and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as interviews with those involved, pieced together in an AP investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a federal lawsuit filed in September, the Afghan family accuses the Masts of false imprisonment, conspiracy, fraud and assault. The family has asked the court to shield their identity out of concerns for their relatives back in Afghanistan, and they communicated with the AP on the condition of remaining anonymous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Masts call the Afghan family\u2019s claims \u201coutrageous, unmerited attacks\u201d on their integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They argue in court filings that they have worked \u201cto protect the child from physical, mental or emotional harm.\u201d They say the Afghan couple are \u201cnot her lawful parents,\u201d and Mast\u2019s attorney cast doubt on whether the Afghans were even related to the baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJoshua and Stephanie Mast have done nothing but ensure she receives the medical care she requires, at great personal expense and sacrifice, and provide her a loving home,\u201d wrote the Masts\u2019 attorneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The baby\u2019s identity has been kept private, listed only as Baby L or Baby Doe. The Afghan couple had given the baby an Afghan name; the Masts gave her an American one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737805989.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64829\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737805989.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737805989.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737805989.jpg.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737805989.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Smoke billows from the Green Village, home to several international organizations and guesthouses, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019.  September 2019 was one of the deadliest months of the entire U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. (Rahmat Gul\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Originally from Florida, Joshua Mast married Stephanie and attended Liberty University, an evangelical Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia. He graduated in 2008 and got his law degree there in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2019, they were living with their sons in Palmyra, a small rural Virginia town, when Joshua Mast was sent on a temporary assignment to Afghanistan. Mast, then a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, was a military lawyer for the federal Center for Law and Military Operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Marine Corps declined to comment publicly, along with other federal officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That September 2019 was one of the deadliest months of the entire U.S. occupation in Afghanistan, with more than 110 civilians killed in the first week alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sept. 6, 2019, the U.S. attacked a remote compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No details about this event are publicly available, but in court documents Mast claims that classified reports show the U.S. government \u201csent helicopters full of special operators to capture or kill\u201d a foreign fighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast said that rather than surrender, a man detonated a suicide vest; five of his six children in the room were killed, and their mother was shot to death while resisting arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sehla Ashai and Maya Eckstein, attorneys for the Afghan couple, dispute Mast\u2019s account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They say the baby\u2019s parents were actually farmers, unaffiliated with any terrorist group. And they described the event as a tragedy that left two innocent civilians and five of their children dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both sides agree that when the dust settled, U.S. troops pulled the badly injured infant from the rubble. The baby had a fractured skull, broken leg and serious burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She was about 2 months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast called the baby a \u201cvictim of terrorism.\u201d His attorney said she \u201cmiraculously survived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>\u2018Do the right thing\u2019<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The baby was rushed to a military hospital, where she was placed in the care of the Defense Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The International Committee of the Red Cross told the AP that they began searching for her family with the Afghan government, often a plodding process in rural parts of the country where record-keeping is scant. At first, they didn\u2019t even know the baby\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Mast said, he was \u201caggressively\u201d advocating to get her to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over several months, he wrote to then-Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s office, according to exhibits filed in court. He said his colleagues in the military tried to talk to President Donald Trump about the baby during a Thanksgiving visit to Bagram Airfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast also said he made four requests over two weeks to then-White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, asking for help to medically evacuate the baby \u201cto be treated in a safe environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Masts were represented by Joshua\u2019s brother Richard Mast, an attorney with the conservative Christian legal group Liberty Counsel, which says it is not involved in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of the Masts responded to repeated requests for interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"770\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737801858.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737801858.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737801858.jpg.jpg?resize=300,193 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737801858.jpg.jpg?resize=768,493 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737801858.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,657 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A cross erected on Candlers Mountain overlooks Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 2015. Originally from Florida, Joshua Mast, who would be come a Marine Corps attorney, married his wife, Stephanie, and attended the evangelical Christian college. (Steve Helber\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In emails to military officials, Mast alleged that Pence told the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to \u201cmake every effort\u201d to get her to the United States. Mast signed his emails with a Bible verse: \u201c\u2018Live for an Audience of one, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pence\u2019s spokesman, Marc Short, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Embassy never heard from Pence\u2019s office, said a Department of State official, who requested anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly about the situation. But they did begin getting highly unusual inquiries about the possibility of sending the baby to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The diplomats were rattled by the suggestion that the U.S. could just take her away; they believed the baby belonged to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was aware that it may not be smooth sailing ahead, but that just made me more determined to do the right thing,\u201d the State Department official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About six weeks after the baby was rescued, the U.S. Embassy called for a meeting, attended by representatives of the Red Cross, the Afghan government and the American military, including Mast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The State Department wanted to make sure everyone understood its position: Under international humanitarian law, the U.S. was obliged to do everything possible to reunite the baby with her next of kin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the meeting, Mast asked about adoption, the State Department official said. Attendees from Afghanistan\u2019s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs explained that by Afghan law and custom, they had to place the baby with her biological family. If that did not work, the Afghan Children\u2019s Court would determine a proper guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American concept of adoption doesn\u2019t even exist in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under Islamic law, a child\u2019s bloodline cannot be severed and their heritage is sacred. Instead of adoption, a guardianship system called kafala allows Muslims to take in orphans and raise them as family, without relinquishing the child\u2019s name or bloodline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">American adoptions from Afghanistan are rare and only possible for Muslim-American families of Afghan descent. The State Department recognizes 14 American adoptions from Afghanistan over the past decade, none in the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet two days after the embassy meeting, a letter was sent to U.S. officials in Kabul from Kimberley Motley, a near-celebrity American attorney in Afghanistan, the State Department official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Motley wrote that she was representing an unnamed concerned American citizen who wished to adopt this baby. Motley declined to be interviewed by the AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast also continued his appeals to American politicians. The U.S. Embassy began hearing from Congressional staffers about the baby, and diplomats met with a military general, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The general in turn put a \u201cgag order\u201d on military personnel about the baby and said \u201cno one was to advocate on her behalf,\u201d Mast wrote in a legal filing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But he wasn\u2019t ready to give up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Halfway around the world<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Masts searched for a solution halfway around the world \u2014 in rural Fluvanna County, Virginia, where they lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They petitioned the local Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, describing the baby as a \u201cstateless minor recovered off the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In early November 2019, a judge granted them legal custody. The name of this judge is not publicly available because juvenile records are sealed in Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few days later, a certificate of foreign birth listed Joshua and Stephanie Mast as parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The custody order was based on the Masts\u2019 assertion that the Afghan government \u2014 specifically now-deposed President Ashraf Ghani \u2014 intended to waive jurisdiction over the child \u201cin a matter of days,\u201d according to a hearing transcript. The waiver never arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an email to the AP, Ghani\u2019s former deputy chief of staff Suhrob Ahmad said there is \u201cno record of this alleged statement of waiver of Afghan jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahmad said he and the head of the Administrative Office of the President do not remember any such request going through the court system as required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Embassy heard that Mast was granted custody. Military lawyers assured them that the Marine was just preparing in case Afghanistan waived jurisdiction, but would not interfere with the search for the baby\u2019s family, according to the State Department official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet all along they planned to adopt the baby, according to records obtained from the state of Virginia under a Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard Mast wrote the Attorney General\u2019s office in November 2019 that the Masts \u201cwill file for adoption as soon as statutorily possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, Joshua Mast enrolled the baby in the Defense Department health care system, made an appointment at a U.S. International Adoption Clinic and asked to have her evacuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then came a surprise: The Red Cross said they\u2019d found her family. She was about five months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In late 2019, Afghan officials told the U.S. Embassy that the baby\u2019s paternal uncle had been identified, and he decided his son and daughter-in-law were best suited to take her, according to court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were young, educated newlyweds with no children yet of their own, and lived in a city with access to hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The young man worked in a medical office and ran a co-ed school, which is unusual in Afghanistan. His wife graduated from high school at the top of her class, and is fluent in three languages, including English. They had married for love, unlike many Afghans in arranged marriages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast expressed doubts about the newly-found uncle, describing him in court records as \u201can anonymous person of unknown nationality\u201d and claiming that turning the baby over to him was \u201cinherently dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He asked the Red Cross to put him in touch, but they refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In emails to a U.S. military office requesting evacuation, Mast alleged that he read more than 150 pages of classified documents, and concluded the child was a \u201cstateless minor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast believed she was the daughter of transient terrorists who are citizens of no country, his attorney said. He also speculated that if reunited with her family, she could be made a child soldier or a suicide bomber, sold into sex trafficking, hit in a U.S. military strike, or stoned for being a girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Afghanistan did not waver: the child was a citizen of their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast\u2019s attorney sent the U.S. Embassy a \u201ccease and desist\u201d letter warning them not to hand the baby over, according to the State Department official. But on February 26, 2020, the Masts learned that the U.S. was preparing to put the baby, now nearly 8 months old, on a plane early the following morning to join her family in another Afghan city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Masts, represented by Richard Mast, sued the secretaries of defense and state in a federal court in Virginia, asking for an emergency restraining order to stop them. The Masts claimed they were the baby\u2019s \u201clawful permanent legal guardians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within hours, four federal attorneys \u2014 two from the Justice Department and two from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office \u2014 were on the phone, and Richard Mast was in Federal Judge Norman Moon\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard Mast said the baby should not be \u201ccondemned to suffer.\u201d He complained that the Afghan government had not conducted DNA testing to confirm the family they found was truly related to the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Justice Department attorneys said they had no right to mandate how the Afghan government vets the family, and that the Red Cross \u2014 which has reunited relatives in war zones for more than a century \u2014 had confirmed it was done properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Further, the federal government\u2019s attorneys described the Masts\u2019 custody documents from state court as \u201cunlawful,\u201d \u201cdeeply flawed and incorrect,\u201d and \u201cissued on a false premise that has never happened\u201d \u2014 that Afghanistan would waive jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judge Moon asked Richard Mast: \u201cYour client is not asking to adopt the child?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo sir,\u201d Mast responded. \u201cHe wants to get her medical treatment in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Department attorneys argued that the United States must meet its international obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attorney Alexander Haas put it simply: Taking another country\u2019s citizen to the United States \u201cwould have potentially profound implications on our military and foreign affairs interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judge Moon ruled against the Masts, and the baby stayed in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next day, she was united with her biological family. The Afghan couple wept with joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t think she would come back to her family alive,\u201d said the young Afghan man. \u201cIt was the best day of our lives. After a long time, she had a chance to have a family again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>An extra measure of tenderness<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the months passed in her new home in Afghanistan, the girl loved getting henna painted on her hands and dressing up in new clothes, the Afghan couple said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She always wanted to do her new mother\u2019s makeup, or brush her hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe knew about Allah, about clothes, about the names of food,\u201d the woman wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The couple cared for her as if she was their own daughter, but with an extra measure of tenderness because of the unimaginable tragedy she\u2019d already suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe never wanted her to feel she couldn\u2019t have something she wanted,\u201d said the young man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Mast continued to worry that the child was \u201cin an objectively dangerous situation,\u201d Richard Mast wrote in court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Masts asked Kimberley Motley, the attorney, to track down the family, saying he wanted to get the child medical treatment in the U.S, Motley said in court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Motley contacted the Afghan family in March 2020, about a week after the baby was placed in her new home. Motley is named as a defendant in their lawsuit, but her attorney, Michael Hoernlein, told the AP the claims against her are \u201cmeritless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In court documents, Motley\u2019s attorneys describe her role as professional and above-board, and asked that the claims against her be dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737807120.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737807120.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737807120.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737807120.jpg.jpg?resize=768,511 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22292737807120.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,682 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A student reads the Quran, Islam&#8217;s holy book, at a madrasa in Kabul in 2021. The American concept of adoption doesn\u2019t exist in Afghanistan. Under Islamic law, a child\u2019s bloodline cannot be severed and their heritage is sacred. Instead of adoption, a guardianship system called kafala allows Muslims to take in orphans and raise them as family, without relinquishing the child\u2019s name or bloodline. (Felipe Dana\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Motley originally had gone to Afghanistan in 2008 under an American-funded initiative to train local lawyers. She stayed, largely representing foreigners charged with crimes. She took on high-profile human rights cases, gave a TED Talk and wrote a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the course of a year, Motley called for updates about the child and occasionally asked for photos. In July, around the baby\u2019s first birthday, the couple sent Motley a snapshot of the child in swim trunks, smiling and splashing in a wading pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, the Masts\u2019 adoption case was still winding through the court system in Fluvanna County, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December 2020, the state court granted the Masts a final adoption order based on the finding that the child \u201cremains up to this point in time an orphaned, undocumented, stateless minor,\u201d according to a federal lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fluvanna County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Richard E. Moore did not respond to repeated requests for clarity on how the cases progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International adoption lawyers were baffled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you have relatives there who are saying, \u2018No, no, no, we want our daughter, we want our little girl,\u2019 it\u2019s over,\u201d said Irene Steffas, an adoption and immigration attorney. \u201cThere is no way the U.S. is going to get into a match with another country when it comes to a child that\u2019s a citizen of that country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Karen Law, a Virginia attorney who specializes in international adoption, said state law requires an accredited agency to visit three times over six months and compile a report before an adoption can be finalized. The child must be present for the visits \u2014 but this baby was thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 10, 2021, around the baby\u2019s second birthday, Motley facilitated the first phone call between the Afghan couple and Joshua Mast, with the aid of translator Ahmad Osmani, a Baptist pastor of Afghan descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast told the Afghan couple that unless they sent the child to the United States for medical care, she could \u201cbe blind, brain damaged, and\/or permanently physically disabled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Afghan man now raising her, who had worked in the medical field, did not think her burn scars, a leg injury and mysterious allergic reactions amounted to a life-altering condition in the way Mast described. The couple declined sending the baby to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The woman was pregnant, and worried about the risk of such a long flight. They said they asked Mast: Could they take the baby to Pakistan or India for treatment instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer was no, their lawsuit says. The conversations continued for months. Osmani, the translator, vouched for the Masts and described them as kind and trustworthy, according to the lawsuit, which names him as a defendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Osmani did not respond to requests for comment. He asked a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit, and said he never deceived anyone. He was only a \u201cmere translator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His attorneys wrote: \u201cNo good deed goes unpunished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>\u2018Living in a dark jail\u2019<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In late summer 2021, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast said he contacted the family to bring the baby to the U.S.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/08\/23\/1-year-later-after-the-abbey-gate-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\"> \u201cbefore the country collapsed.\u201d<\/a> He said he was \u201cextremely concerned that they may not get another chance.\u201d The couple agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast applied for special visas for the Afghan family and for relatives of Osmani, the translator, according to court records. They characterized the Afghan couple as an escort for a \u201cU.S. military dependent\u201d \u2014 the baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an email to U.S. officials filed in court, Mast wrote that Osmani was \u201cvery instrumental to helping a U.S. Marine \u2026 adopt an Afghan child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/07\/22\/marines-actions-during-afghanistan-exit-bring-bronze-star-with-combat-v\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hkia-evacuation.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Marine\u2019s actions during Afghanistan exit bring Bronze Star with combat \u2018V\u2019<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">As the bomb went off Cpl. Wyatt J. Wilson was thrown into the air as shrapnel filled his body.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soon, the Afghan family began their days-long journey to the U.S. Joshua Mast told them to say he was their lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf anyone asks to talk about your documents, show them this text: I am Major Joshua Mast, USMC. I am a Judge Advocate \u2026 \u201a\u201d Mast texted them detailed directions for how to deal with U.S. authorities, their lawsuit says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the family arrived in Germany for a stopover, Joshua Mast and his wife greeted them at the air force base. It was the first time they had met in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Germany, the Masts visited the Afghan family\u2019s room three times to try to get the baby to travel separately with them, \u201cinsisting that it would be easier for the toddler to enter the United States that way,\u201d the Afghan couple recalled in their lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They refused to let the girl out of their sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the Afghans finally landed in the United States, they began explaining that the child was too young to have Afghan documents. That\u2019s when they claim Joshua Mast pulled out an Afghan passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inside was the same photo of the child in the wading pool, but altered to change the background, add a shirt and smooth her hair. Mast told the Afghans to \u201ckeep quiet\u201d about having his name on her passport, their lawsuit alleges, so it would be easier to get medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Afghan couple asked to be taken to Fort Pickett Army National Guard base, a location specified by Mast, according to the lawsuit. Thousands of Afghan refugees were temporarily housed there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soon after, they said, soldiers came to their room and told them they were moving. A strange woman sat in the back of the van next to a car seat, according to court records, and the baby fussed as she buckled her in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The van pulled up to a building they didn\u2019t recognize, where a woman who called herself a social worker said the Masts were the girl\u2019s legal guardians. Confused and frightened, the child cried and the couple begged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it did no good. Mast took the baby to his car, where his wife was waiting, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They had lost her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In their heavily redacted response to the lawsuit, the Masts acknowledge they \u201ctook custody\u201d of the child; they said their adoption order was valid and they did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard Mast is also named as a defendant in the Afghan family\u2019s lawsuit. He wrote in legal documents that his brother\u2019s adoption of the child was \u201cselfless;\u201d it saved both the child, and the Afghan family fighting to get her back, \u201cfrom the evils of life under the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Afghan couple believed that their baby was stolen, and they immediately sought help at Fort Pickett to get her back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut the playing field was not level,\u201d their attorney, Ashai, told the AP. The couple \u201cwere forced to navigate a complex and confusing system in a foreign country in which they had just arrived, after having survived the greatest trauma of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the couple says in court documents, Osmani warned them not to contact a lawyer or the authorities, and suggested that Mast might give them the baby back if they dealt directly with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so they tried to maintain contact with Mast. They also were scared of him. If he could abduct their child in broad daylight, they worried he might hurt them too, their lawyers wrote in legal filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Afghan woman plunged into a deep depression and, despite being nine months pregnant, stopped eating and drinking. She could not sleep. Her husband was afraid to leave her alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSince we have come to America, we have not felt happiness for even one day,\u201d the Afghan man told the AP. \u201cWe feel like we are living in a dark jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His wife gave birth to a girl on Oct. 1, 2021. The young mother\u2019s grief became overwhelming. A month later, she considered suicide and was hospitalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soon the couple sought legal help; by December 2021, the Afghan couple had asked the Fluvanna, Virginia, judge to reverse the adoption. But those proceedings, almost one year in, have been opaque and slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Feb. 27, when the Afghan baby was 2 \u00bd years old, the Masts traveled to the Mennonite Christian Assembly in Fredericksburg, Ohio, to share their joy during a special church service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a video advertising the event called \u201cWalking in Faith,\u201d the pastor apologized to congregants that it would not be online, because the Marine would share \u201cvery confidential, classified information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnforeseen events gave the couple an unexpected opportunity to stand up to protect innocent life,\u201d read the program flyer. \u201cCome hear how God\u2019s mighty hand allowed for a remarkable deliverance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor John Risner told the AP that the Masts had requested the service be confidential, and he didn\u2019t want to betray their trust by disclosing any details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All he would say is that their story is \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>No happiness here<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><u>The fate of the Afghan child is now being debated in secret proceedings in a locked courtroom in the village of Palmyra, Virginia, home to about 100 people.<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier in October, Joshua Mast arrived at the Fluvanna County, Virginia, courthouse along with his wife and his brother Richard. Mast was dressed in his starched Marine uniform, holding his white and gold hat in his hand. The hearing stretched on for roughly eight hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proceedings have been completely shielded from public view, mandated by presiding Judge Moore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AP was not allowed inside the courtroom. Court clerk Tristana Treadway refused to provide even the docket number, saying she could \u201cneither confirm nor deny\u201d the case existed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than a dozen lawyers streamed into the courthouse, carting boxes of evidence, and each said they were forbidden from speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mast remains an active duty Marine, and has since been promoted to major. He now lives with his family in North Carolina. The Afghan toddler has been with them for more than a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Texas, the Afghan couple continues to grieve the loss of the child. The baby the woman gave birth to shortly after arriving in the U.S. just turned 1. The young mother had planned to raise the girls as sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But they\u2019ve never met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is nothing to celebrate without her. There is no happiness here,\u201d the Afghan man said. \u201cWe are counting the moments and days until she will come home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">___<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Retired Associated Press Afghanistan and Pakistan Bureau Chief Kathy Gannon, AP researcher Rhonda Shafner and AP Pentagon reporter Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow the authors on Twitter @julietlinderman, @clairegalofaro, @mendozamartha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The little girl, now 3 \u00bd years old, is at the center of a high-stakes tangle of at least four court 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The little girl, now 3 \u00bd years old, is at the center of a high-stakes tangle of at least four court cases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The little girl, now 3 \u00bd years old, is at the center of a high-stakes tangle of at least four court cases.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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