In its legal defense for a $1 billion defamation lawsuit, fake news giant CNN is arguing that it did not defame plaintiff and Navy veteran Zachary Young by accusing him of criminal activity for rescuing women and children out of Afghanistan because what Young did is technically illegal under Taliban law, also known as Sharia law.
As we approach the three-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, CNN is taking the side of radical Islam by siding with the Taliban rule under which the women and children that Young reportedly rescued were being held captive.
Young worked "to have women smuggled out of Afghanistan," CNN said in its opening statements. And "discovery has indicated that those activities he orchestrated and funded, which involved moving women out of Afghanistan, almost certainly were illegal under Taliban rule."
Deanna K. Shullman, CNN's lead counsel, expressed enthusiasm about the fake news network's train of thought and approach in making this argument as part of its defense.
"Young cannot point to a single shred of evidence indicating otherwise that could somehow create a dispute of material fact as to that issue," Shullman wrote.
While recognizing that Sharia law is oppressive of women, CNN insists that it is still the law of the land in Afghanistan, which Young violated by helping women leave the country.
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Did CNN defame Young?
When the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban immediately took over and banned women from fleeing. Thousands of these women faced possible execution or enslavement at the hands of the new government, which Young fought against on his way out the door.
In trying to avoid having to pay out $1 billion for defamation, CNN says that Young and everyone else who participated in the rescue mission violated Sharia law.
"To get women out, the operators on the ground were required either to break the law directly or to find someone to break the law for them," the fake news network wrote to the court.
In addition to "avoiding the Taliban," the other alleged crimes CNN says Young and his colleagues committed include "mak[ing] it past the Taliban checkpoints" and keeping "people hidden from the Taliban," all of which was illegal in Afghanistan at the time.
Since the Taliban is not the officially recognized government of Afghanistan by the West, Young could see victory against CNN. The Taliban's laws can also change based on varying interpretations, reports suggest.
CNN seemed to acknowledge this in a filing from back in May when it admitted that "the market was operating in the absence of a functioning legal system" in Afghanistan.
The network also claims that its original reporting had "no intent to accuse Young of illegal conduct." Instead, the goal was to expose "war profiteers such as Young," not to determine "whether what Young and other private operators were doing was illegal under Taliban law."
The official legal filing states that "CNN vigorously disputes" all allegations that it accused Young of committing any crime in its reporting. Young simply violated Sharia law at the time of his actions, the network claims.
Furthermore, CNN's use of the term "black market" to describe what Young was doing was only meant "to convey that the private market for evacuation services was unregulated," meaning it was a gray market.
There were others besides Young who "t[ook] advantage of the chaos and desperation" by helping women and children to flee Afghanistan, but CNN only mentioned Young by name.
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