The US Marine, accused of kidnapping an Afghan war orphan, has spoken out to defend his adoption of the three-year-old girl who is at the center of an international custody battle.
Marine Major Joshua Mast and his wife Stephanie currently have custody of the girl, identified as “Baby L,” who survived a special operations raid in 2019 at the age of two months that killed her parents and five siblings.
But an Afghan couple related to Baby L, who raised the girl, claimed in court filings that the Masts lured her to the US under false pretenses in August 2021 and took her into custody without her permission.
In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, the Masts staunchly denied the claims, saying they’ve been open about their intentions and only want what’s best for the girl.
“From day one, we’ve been honest about who we are and what we care about the child,” said Stephanie Mast.
“I don’t think I used the word adoption,” Joshua Mast admitted of his conversations with the Afghan couple. “We tried again to explain it in a way that they would understand, because they don’t have an adoption concept in Afghanistan.”
Marine Major Joshua Mast is seen with “Baby L”, the Afghan war orphan he adopted. Family members who raised the girl accused him of taking her without permission
Marine Major Joshua Mast and his wife Stephanie spoke out to defend their adoption of the three-year-old girl who is at the center of an international custody battle
The case is currently in court, and in November the US Department of Justice filed a motion to intervene in the litigation, arguing that Mast’s adoption violated Virginia law and should never have been granted.
The government also said that Mast’s attempts to adopt the child directly contradicted a US foreign policy decision to reunite the orphan with her Afghan family.
The Masts claim in court documents that they legally adopted the child and that the Afghan couple’s allegations are “outrageous” and “undeserved.”
The dispute over Baby L has its origins in a US raid on a remote Afghan compound in September 2019 that killed both of her parents.
Unclassified military reports say Baby L is believed to be the orphaned daughter of a foreign Al Qaeda fighter who entered Afghanistan via Turkmenistan, according to CBS.
The girl was rescued by US special forces, allegedly because of protests from Afghan military partners, who advocated letting her die or drowning, a former Army Ranger who was present told the network.
“They wanted me to throw the baby in the river because they thought she was a terrorist,” said the former ranger, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
Baby L is seen shortly after her parents were killed in a special forces raid in Afghanistan. The operators constructed an ad hoc car seat for the girl to bring her back to base
Stephanie and Joshua, seen with one of their sons, are accused of trying to use US courts to force the girl into their care instead of complying with Afghan law
Instead, the girl was returned to base and treated for significant injuries. It was there that Joshua Mast, a Marine attorney who was not involved in the raid, first learned about the child and called his wife to discuss the adoption.
“The moment we heard about it [Baby L] For the first time, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make,” Stephanie Mast told CBS. “It was just that an innocent child was put in an unfortunate situation and we wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help, and we could.”
While she was recovering from injuries in a US military hospital, the Afghan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross identified her relatives and, through meetings with the State Department, arranged for her reunification.
The child’s cousin and his wife – young newlyweds with no children of their own – cried when they first saw them, they told the Associated Press, saying taking in and raising them was the greatest honor of their lives.
But Mast — reportedly despite orders from military officials not to intervene anymore — was determined to bring baby L home to the United States.
According to the AP, he used his military status, appealed to political connections in the Trump administration and convinced a small-town Virginia court to skip some of the usual safeguards that govern intercountry adoptions.
In court filings, Mast says he acted “admirably” in bringing the child to the United States and caring for her with his wife
Mast with other members of his family. His father, Dick (far left) is a professional golfer who used to play for the PGA. His mother, Roberta (second from left), is a realtor in Virginia
When the US military finally completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, he helped the Afghan family get to the United States.
When they arrived, they said, he took their baby from them at the US Army National Guard base at Fort Pickett, Virginia.
They haven’t seen her since and are suing to get her back, saying in court documents they believed they were taking baby L to the US for medical treatment and never agreed to give up custody.
The Afghan woman said she fell into a deep depression and stopped eating and drinking despite being nine months pregnant. She couldn’t sleep. Her husband was afraid to leave her alone.
“We haven’t had a single day of happiness since we came to America,” the Afghan told the AP. “We feel like we’re living in a dark prison.”
The Afghan gave birth to a daughter just weeks after losing custody of baby L.
The Afghan couple, identified in court documents as John and Jane Doe, asked not to be known out of fear for their safety and concern for their relatives in Afghanistan, which is now under Taliban control.
Hundreds of people gather near a US Air Force C-17 transport plane on the outskirts of Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the US withdrawal in August 2021
Although the former Afghan government determined that the Afghan man was baby L’s first cousin, there has so far been no DNA evidence to support their blood relationship, with court records suggesting he defied DNA testing.
In court filings, Mast says he acted “admirably” in bringing the child to the United States and caring for her with his wife.
They say they gave her “a loving home” and “did nothing but ensure she received the medical care she needed, at great personal cost and sacrifice.” Mast celebrated the adoption of the child, whose Afghan family is Muslim, as an act of the Christian faith.
In court, Mast, still an active-duty Marine, questioned whether the Afghan couple were even related to her.
The Masts argue that the little girl is “a war orphan and victim of terrorism rescued from the battlefield under tragic circumstances.”
They say she is a “stateless minor” because she was recovered from a compound Mast says was used by foreign fighters who were not from Afghanistan.
The case has become so significant that the White House has issued a statement.
“We are all concerned for the welfare of this child who is at the center of this matter,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after the AP first reported on the case in October.
On the other side of the world, the Taliban issued a statement saying they will “seriously pursue this matter with the American authorities to have the child in question returned to her relatives.”
The case is currently being tried under wraps in a Virginia state court and in a parallel federal lawsuit brought by the Afghan couple.
Two days after the CBS News interview with the Masts was taped, a gag order was imposed on both families, preventing them from speaking to the press.