Secret Documents Expose US Government's Internal Conflict Over Afghan Orphan Adoption
Thousands of pages of previously classified court documents have been released, revealing a remarkable story of how federal officials and a Virginia court worked against official United States government policy to facilitate an American Marine's adoption of an Afghan war orphan. The Associated Press fought for three years to obtain these records, which detail how the country's fragmented bureaucracy enabled Marine Joshua Mast and his wife Stephanie to adopt a child who was being raised by a couple designated as her family by the Afghan government.
The Battlefield Orphan and Conflicting Government Actions
The infant was orphaned on an Afghan battlefield in 2019 when American soldiers rescued her from rubble and transported her to a military base hospital. During President Donald Trump's first administration, the U.S. State Department collaborated with Afghan authorities to locate her biological family. However, the Masts were determined to bring the child to America, successfully persuading a Virginia judge to grant them adoption rights for the girl located 7,000 miles away.
These adoption documents were subsequently used to remove the child from her Afghan family during the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal in summer 2021. The released records show that both federal agencies and the court have blamed each other for what has escalated into an international incident. Government officials argue this situation threatens America's global standing and appears to endorse child trafficking practices.
Virginia Court's Unprecedented Adoption Proceedings
The documents reveal that the adoption granted by Fluvanna County Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore bypassed numerous legal safeguards designed to protect vulnerable children. Virginia law contains no provision allowing judges to approve adoptions of foreign children without consent from their home country, yet Judge Moore proceeded based on Mast's declaration that the child was "stateless."
Legal representatives for the government, the Afghan family, and the child herself identified multiple procedural defects. The attorney advocating for the child's best interests described these flaws as "glaring" violations of standard adoption protocols. The child had never been formally placed for adoption by any parent or agency, and the court waived essential requirements including the child's presence during home visits, investigation of her background, and notification of current custodians.
Even Judge Moore acknowledged deficiencies in his ruling, writing in a 38-page opinion published before his retirement that there was "procedural irregularity, defect or deficiency in the case." During a hearing, he reflected: "I'll probably think about this the rest of my life whether I should have said, sorry, that child is in Afghanistan. We're just going to stand down. I don't know whether that's what I should have done."
Critical Information Withheld from the Court
Judge Moore stated he lacked crucial information when granting the adoption in December 2020, when he declared the child "an undocumented, orphan, stateless minor." The newly released records indicate federal authorities received no notification about Mast's adoption petition. Government lawyers confirmed they would have informed the judge that the child was not stateless, that authorities were actively searching for her family, and that she would soon be officially recognized as Afghan rather than the child of foreign fighters.
Medical evidence further contradicted claims of urgency. Just one month before the adoption proceedings, the child's physician described her as "a healthy healing infant who needs normal infant care," indicating no medical crisis necessitated emergency intervention. The judge also remained unaware that a federal court had already rejected the Masts' attempt to prevent the U.S. government from reuniting the girl with her Afghan relatives.
Government Agencies Working at Cross-Purposes
The documents reveal a deeply inconsistent approach within federal agencies. An Army colonel declared in court that military leadership had determined Mast was "attempting to interfere inappropriately," with both military and State Department officials working to distance him from the child. Yet simultaneously, other personnel within these same organizations actively assisted his efforts.
At Mast's request, military authorities evacuated the Afghan family during the 2021 withdrawal, placing them alongside Afghans who had assisted U.S. forces despite having no such history themselves. Their inclusion on evacuation lists stemmed solely from Mast's determination to bring the baby to America. Government employees at a Virginia refugee resettlement center accepted Mast's adoption documents without question, unaware their own government had already dismissed these papers as "flawed" and rejected Mast's custody claims.
In a particularly dramatic moment detailed in the records, a State Department employee received orders from supervisors to physically remove the child from her Afghan caretakers and deliver her to the Masts, while the Afghan woman collapsed to the floor weeping. This incident encapsulates the profound human cost of bureaucratic conflict and competing agendas within the U.S. government.
