If you just read the headline - read the article. From the headline you could assume that it might be some grey area thing - but based on the article "could be seen as abduction" is a very friendly phrase to describe what has happened.

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.

They kidnapped the child. Full stop.

could be seen as international child abduction.

"Could be"??? Having read the article and the linked article I can't imagine any metric by which this is anything other than an international child abduction.

He literally kidnapped her from the family members who were raising her.

Edit: and for anyone who had reservations about her going back to Afghanistan, that's not at issue here as her real family are now in the US as well.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

But in earlier court filings, Mast’s attorneys have written that the Marine and his wife acted in good faith and worked at “great personal expense and sacrifice” to protect the baby and “provide her a loving home.”

Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a cable to the embassy in Kabul that described Mast’s custody order from Fluvanna County as “flawed in a number of respects,” and questioned how any American court could have jurisdiction over an Afghan child.

Later, in the summer of 2021, when U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over, Mast reiterated his offer of assistance, “misleading” the couple into believing the child would receive specialized medical treatment, the Justice Department wrote.

When the Afghans arrived at a refugee resettlement camp in Virginia, the Justice Department wrote, Mast presented the adoption order to federal employees, who didn’t know that the U.S. government had already deemed his claim to the girl to be flawed.

Mast is assigned to the Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and the agency is fully cooperating with federal law enforcement investigations, according to a spokesperson.

In the meantime, the Biden administration argued in the filings that ongoing delays and “a narrative that a U.S. servicemember stole a Muslim child” are harming America’s standing on the world stage, particularly in Afghanistan, where the U.S.’s withdrawal left a fragile nation behind.

The original article contains 1,372 words, the summary contains 233 words. Saved 83%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!