Afghan baby mess
Not a happy case: Military Times paints a fairly damning picture of USMC Major Joshua Mast, who is pictured as adopting an Afghan baby illicitly. The article is hardly impartial, painting the Major in an extremely bad light, so keep that in mind while reading. In short:
Mast became enchanted with the child while on temporary assignment in Afghanistan in late 2019. Just a few months old, the infant had survived a Special Operations raid that killed her parents and five siblings, according to court records.
As she recovered from injuries in a U.S. military hospital, the Afghan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross identified her relatives (Ed -The child’s cousin and his wife — young newlyweds without children yet of their own) , and through meetings with the State Department, arranged for their reunification.
Nonetheless, Mast — in spite of orders from military officials to stop intervening — was determined to take her home to the United States. He used his status in the military, appealed to political connections in the Trump administration and convinced the small-town Virginia court to skip some of the usual safeguards that govern international adoptions.
Finally, when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in summer 2021, he helped the family get to the United States. After they arrived, they say, he took their baby from them at the Fort Pickett Virginia Army National Guard base. They haven’t seen her since and are suing to get her back.
This has involved the US and Afghan governments, the Red Cross, and worked its way through four different courts at various levels. The little girl is now 3 1/2 years old.
The toddler’s future is now set to be decided in a sealed, secret court case in rural Virginia — in the same courthouse that granted Mast custody. The federal government has described that custody order as “unlawful,” “improper” and “deeply flawed and incorrect” because it was based on a promise that Afghanistan would waive jurisdiction over the child, which never happened.
Sure sounds like an international snafu, and as I mentioned, does not paint a very sympathetic picture of MAJ Mast. It’s kind of hard to tell, though, since a lot of negatives are denoted in the MT article. No matter what, though, sure seems like that little girl is getting the short end of the stick. Hopefully it will be resolved before she’s old enough to realize what a mess into which she has been thrown.
Category: Afghanistan, Marine Corps, Politics
“Afghan Baby Federal Complaint”
40 page legal document.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23132333-doe-v-mast-complaint-9222
Interesting October 2022 article about Major Mast to include family background information and pictures.
You Be The Judge.
“PICTURED: Marine and his wife accused of stealing Afghan orphan, three, by luring her to the US with her cousins when the Taliban took over then ‘snatching her from refugee camp'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11335195/Afghan-couple-accuse-US-Marine-abducting-baby.html
Boy, does this story sound familiar…
“Federal Agents Seized 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez At Gunpoint. A Custody Battle Raged For Months.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/11/25/federal-agents-seized-year-old-elin-gonzlez-gunpoint-custody-battle-raged-months/
The kid will be better off as a US citizen, there’s no benefit to being a woman in a Taliban run shithole, and there’s little benefit to being a woman in a family from Afghanistan where the tradition of being a second class piece of chattel instead of an equal partner and citizen remains a component of the family.
Yeah I know that’s a very narrow minded view…
So be it.
I agree wholeheartedly with your view. I disagree with the actions of MAJ Mast just as strongly. That’s not the way.
I didn’t mean to imply I found the Major’s actions acceptable…I meant in my view when compared to the know value of US citizenship and being raised in the US as a female who is legally equal to her male peers is a far better outcome than being returned to an Afghani family where she’s not going to receive that benefit.
I agree VOV. A very convoluted case, indeed. I dug thru the linkys, including the ones that our ninja provided. There may be some facts/background that we don’t know all the details of. We know how King Solomon would possibly decide. I’m thinking the Tally Bans are getting involved just to poke at us. We do know how they view females. I don’t think I’d like to be the one making this decision. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I also agree that the little girl is getting the short, smelly end of the stick.
I didn’t think you implied that at all. You’re absolutely right about the kid being far better off here, raised under better values. MAJ Mast needs a serious adjustment, however.
Perhaps he was unduly influenced by the comic strip “Dondi”.
https://heykidscomics.fandom.com/wiki/Dondi
“Finally, when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in summer 2021, he helped the family get to the United States.”
Looks to me like the Afghani family is in the US, too, so the kid is going to grow up in the US.
100% concur, SFC D
SFC D – as others have pointed out there is a lot more to this story.
The actions of MAJ Mast seem to have been motivated by altruism. The desire to save every true innocent- the babies-from that hell hole are laudable…but nonetheless misguided.
But his are the only good intentions. The “cousins” used the baby as their passport. Now, they need to use the baby again to improve their lot here.
Reading that Federal complaint is everything we need to know. These “cousins” of an HVT-turned suicide/familicide bomber are no better. “He was just an innocent farmer”. We haven’t made those kinds of mistakes often, and certainly not as late as 2019.
We are where we are with this, unfortunately. How do we move forward?
Well, not to worry, the wokesters will accept the BS in that complaint and will step in and make everything right. Starting with character assassination of MAJ Mast. For the children.
This is what my dad called “doing the right thing the wrong way”. He’d also say, “MAJ Mast’s heart is in the right place, but his head is firmly up his ass”.
the relatives have a younger blood daughter and the child’s cousin with them, why would they need both for funds and support
But the Masts were trying trying to pull this stunt before the family even had custody as it was shown as the Governments and red cross was seeking the family for custody, the Mast’s were making a forged adoption under false claims the Afghan president agreed to it, which was never proven and highly unlikely as they would never let someone of another religion adopt their kids, and were fighting for custody against the relatives when they were still intending to stay in Afghanistan, what benefit would they have had for the first year in an half before fleeing the taliban
By no means narrow-minded. Very realistic and much better solution.
The child will not be going back to Afghanistan, this is not a case about what Country she will be sent to as the relatives that she was taken from are living in Texas which is where she will be sent to when they get custody back, The part of her staying in Afghanistan was when the Mast’s first attempted to get her into America for Medical reasons knowing that as soon as she touched soil their forged adoption would take effect but the Charity and Afghan government found reletives before she left the Military base and gave them custody, upon fleeing to U.S. to flee the Taliban the Mas’s furged a fake transport with their last tname as her and took her from them in the States, giving the child back to the Relatives is not giving her back to Afghanistan, she will still have the benefits of living in the States
Edited to protect PII.
AW1
Why is it fair the family gets to stay in the United States? Mast lied and said they were SIVs when they weren’t, and according to Masts own telling their cousin was a Taliban member?
Why is it fair the family gets to stay in the US? Mast lied and said they were SIVS when they weren’t, and according to his own telling their cousin was a member of the Taliban?
At 3.5 years old, she has already suffered long-term damage, developmentally, emotionally, psychologically.
She is, in short, a victim of abuse.
USMC Major Joshua Mast has been complicit in that, it appears, and should be held fully accountable for that in the courts. He will certainly be held accountable before God.
((not to make light of this sorry situation, but just wanting to put a small smile on faces…))
Sounds like MAJ Mast needs to stand before the Captain’s Mast for some fitting UCMJ punishment. (walk the plank? keelhauled? hung from the nearest yardarm?)
And the child has already been punished enough with Two Years Before The Mast.
Keelhauling gets my vote. Off the Nimitz.
Marines don’t go to the mast, they have “office hours.”
Here’s another take…
VA court agreed as long as the Afghan government agreed. Well, there was no functioning Afghan government, then the Tally Whacks took over. And they would never agree.
How did they get involved?
“Perhaps” the young couple need the baby so they can go to the top of the list for resettlement into better digs. Perhaps when they figured out their part of the bargain – certainty of getting evacuated to the US – didn’t immediately mean an apartment of their own, etc., without the baby, they reached back to the beasts they were supposedly in terror of and fleeing.
So, who is acting in the best interest of the child, which is supposed to be the only determinant? The poor, young refugee couple who “need” the child to better their circumstances?
OAM,
There is a group of volunteers in the GB AO known as CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates.
Volunteers are screened and trained, then appointed by a judge to speak on behalf of a child/children before the court in a judicial proceeding which affects that child.
If the child is old enough, the CASA volunteer speaks with the child to determine what is in that child’s best interests (it may not be what the child thinks they want) – then advocate for that child before the court.
This child needs an advocate who speaks for her good before the courts.
GB, yep, well acquainted with CASA, we have it here too. I have turned down that job, and the job as court-appointed therapist. Too heartbreaking and enraging.
Besides being enraged over the actions, attitudes and entitlements of “loved ones”, it is a fundamentally broken system. Best interests of the child are only a consideration, second to family reunification policies. But the crack head is clean (for now), is sorry for beating the infant, and has taken parenting classes!
If a stranger did the things to children that supposed “loved ones” do, they would be locked up and never have access to that – or, ideally, ANY – child ever again. Instead, because of some mythical blood bond, we give them another and another and another chance.
Sociology/Psychology 101-How To Build A Sociopath or Psychopath-
abuse, neglect, use a child as a means to the adults’ end. Rinse, repeat.
The relatives have another child with them (their blood daughter and the child’s cousin) why would they need both kids for funding or aid?
Also the Masts were fighting against them for custody a year prior to this by making a forged adoption behind the organization’s back and attempting to get her into the States for medical reasons so the adoption papers could take effect while the Groups where seeking and setting up custody of the child with the relatives, which they won at that time,This shows the Masts were fully intentioned to get her to The states at any cost in order to claim custody of her
The child was stolen from her blood relatives and should be returned.
Muslim countries would never have agreed to letting a non Muslim family adopt a Muslim child, it is a part of their religion that children are to be placed with the closest of kin of their religion, there is no way the Marine could have got an adoption agreed upon with out forging something