The work of the 1208 Foundation is now the subject of major story in the Washington Post

In January, I outlined to Congress how Afghan Allies under the care of the 1208 Foundation were subjected to Taliban reprisals and a revenge killing as a result of the opportunistic indifference of The Walt Disney Company, National Geographic, and director Matthew Heineman in 2022’s documentary, Retrograde. The Washington Post has now exposed the full extent of the malfeasance.

This article does not bring justice, nor does it bring accountability. Negligence has been exposed, but not rectified, because Disney, for all its limitless resources, has not moved to assist or provide safe passage for those affected. Neither has its subsidiary, National Geographic. Matthew Heineman, whose creative decision was played to Omar by the Taliban as they beat him to death, seems to have moved in opposition to accountability. By providing a statement from an NMRG member that uses suspiciously fluent English, he seemingly steered an Afghan refugee into contradicting a previous statement he made via voice recording. This recording was provided to me by Retrograde’s own producer, and in it, his fear on behalf of his colleagues is explicit.  

An astounding level of effort has been spent to avoid doing the right thing. 

I will not deny for a moment that I supported and even promoted Retrograde for a time, lured by the promises of assistance for our mission. Before Omar was detained, I put faith in the National Geographic brand name and basic human decency, assuming that the film crew and its distributors had done their due diligence and that the majority of those in the film were safe. However, like millions of others, I was duped. We paid the price for our faith, and for the past sixteen months, a ragged bunch of Green Berets and Afghan Allies have sought justice for a young father unfortunate to have walked across the path of the rich, powerful, and uncaring. 

We all intuitively know why these Giants of Hollywood ignored the calls to conceal faces, and why they eschewed responsibility when someone was killed as a result: the subjects were Afghan. And because they were Afghan, they assumed nobody would notice, and if somebody did, nobody would confront them. And at the very last, if someone had the gall to face them, these Giants assumed that they would get away with it, because that’s the way things have always been.

We haven’t achieved justice for Omar. I hope we’re close, but I don’t yet know where this ends. I do know that despite the gross asymmetries of facing off with one of most prominent and litigious multinationals on the planet, we find ourselves with a momentary upper hand: “the right thing” is indefatigably clear and for the first time, the numbers work in our favor. This is where our role diminishes, and where we need your support.

So join us. Call your representatives. Contact Disney. Volunteer to sponsor an NMRG Family via the Welcome Corps. Donate to support Omar’s family and his NMRG brothers. We’ve done everything we can to get justice for Omar. 

Now we need your help.

Thomas Kasza

Executive Director

On behalf of the veterans (Afghan and American) of the 1208 Foundation