A Nat Geo documentary caused my husband's murder, widow says in lawsuit
Omar Khan — whose good looks earned him the nickname 'Justin Bieber' — was among a group of Afghan mine-clearers who appeared in the film, 'Retrograde.' The documentary, which chronicled the final chaotic months of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan, debuted on National Geographic channel and Hulu in December 2022.
Soon after, a TikTok video circulated in Afghanistan showing scenes from the film and then Khan was seized by the Taliban and tortured for over two weeks, according to the widow's lawyer, John Uustal, and two former Green Berets who remain in touch with other Afghans who were close to Khan.
He died of his injuries in April 2023 at the age of 25. His ordeal was detailed at a congressional hearing on the threat of Taliban reprisals in 2024, as well as in a Washington Post story that was published months later.
The lawsuit names as defendants several companies behind the film, including Disney, National Geographic and Hulu.
The film showed close-up images of Khan and other mine-clearers even though its director and producer had been warned that doing so would jeopardize their lives, according to the lawsuit and the two former Green Berets who spoke to NBC News.
'Military personnel warned defendants about safety concerns regarding the identities of individuals who had assisted U.S. operations appearing in the film,' says the suit, which was filed last month in Superior Court in Los Angeles.
'Despite these warnings, defendants did not take appropriate measures to protect the identities of individuals appearing in the film.'
Representatives for Disney, Nat Geo and Hulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The director, Matthew Heineman, and producer, Caitlin McNally, also did not respond to requests for comment.
National Geographic had previously said in a statement to The Washington Post that it took down the film in "an abundance of caution."
'We were devastated to learn of the death of one of those brave Afghans and our heart goes out not only to his family but to all those still in danger as they fight against a brutal terrorist organization," it added.
Heineman and McNally told The Washington Post in a statement that they 'have no recollection' of receiving specific warnings about the showing the Afghan bomb-clearers in the film. They called Khan's death "a heartbreaking tragedy."
The film won three Emmy awards in 2023, as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award for feature documentary. But it was pulled from its platforms last year after The Washington Post began inquiring about whether certain scenes may have placed some of the subjects in danger of retaliation.
'This man was a hero,' said the lawyer representing Khan's family, Uustal of the Kelley | Uustal Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 'He trusted that those documenting his bravery would take the most basic steps to protect his safety. But they didn't even blur his face.'
Khan was part of a specially trained unit, known as the National Mine Reduction Group, tasked with identifying and disabling the insurgents' weapon of choice against American soldiers: improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
It was an exceptionally dangerous job that put the Afghans in harm's way on a daily basis, said Dave Elliott, a former Green Beret.
'Special operations soldiers are often referred to as the tip of the spear,' Elliott said. 'These guys were the tip of the tip.'
'I don't know how many lives can be attributed to them,' added Elliott, 'but it's gotta be in the thousands, and that's just U.S. forces.'
Elliott is now the deputy director of the nonprofit 1208 Foundation, which provides assistance to Afghans who worked with U.S. Special Forces.
The group's executive director, Thomas Kasza, said there are still several Afghans whose faces were shown in the film and remain in danger in Afghanistan due to bureaucratic delays in a special visa program designed to help Afghans who worked with the U.S. military.
Kasza testified at a congressional hearing on the dangers of Taliban reprisals in January 2024. He urged lawmakers not to turn their backs on the Afghans who risked their lives for the U.S.
'As Retrograde became a hit in Hollywood, it became a hit list in Afghanistan,' Kasza told a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'A hit list which the Taliban used to identify, abduct, torture and kill one who my organization pledged to protect: a [25]-year-old father named Omar.'
Kasza told the lawmakers that an Afghan member of his foundation spoke to Khan while the man was on his deathbed and recorded his account.
'When the Taliban had me, they showed me the 'Retrograde' movie and said you have worked with foreign forces and also worked in the movie,' Khan said, according to Kasza. 'They found me through the 'Retrograde' movie and are still asking villagers and my family members about me."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nicole Kidman hails explosive finale of Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 as beginning of something deeper
Nicole Kidman has described the explosive finale of Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 as the beginning of something deeper. "It's like it's only just beginning," the 57-year-old said of the combative final moments between her character, Masha Dmitrichenko, and billionaire David Sharpe, played by 61-year-old Mark Strong. Set in the Austrian Alps, the second season of Hulu's psychological drama ended on 2 July, with the guests of Masha's retreat confronting their traumas through a series of intense therapeutic sessions, often involving psychedelic drugs. According to Variety, the finale saw fractured relationships mended and new bonds formed. Among those attending were Wolfie, played by 32-year-old Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tina, portrayed by 25-year-old King Princess, who ultimately broke up, although Tina rediscovered her passion for music. Murray Bartlett, 53, appeared as disgraced former children's TV host Brian, who parted ways with the puppet that defined his past and struck up a new friendship with Agnes, a former nun played by 55-year-old Dolly de Leon. Christine Baranski, 72, and 38-year-old Annie Murphy portrayed Victoria and Imogen, a mother-daughter pair who reconciled, with Imogen later arranging a meeting with Peter, played by 37-year-old Henry Golding. However, the relationship between Masha and David took a darker turn. Earlier in the season, Masha had revealed that her deceased daughter Tatiana was also David's child. Mark said: "It's a fascinating premise that Masha has arranged this group of people knowing that all of them, as you find out in the final episode, have been affected by this guy." In the final episode, David attempts a gesture of reparation, promising to remove his company from the weapons industry. But Masha discovers this is a lie and uses an AI-generated video to publicly force his hand. The last scene takes place in a McDonald's outside Berlin, which Nicole confirmed was a real location. "Yeah, we absolutely were. Just outside of Berlin," she said. Nicole added: "Yeah, chocolate," when asked whether she was drinking a real milkshake. Mark said: "Come lunchtime, everybody just tucked into the McDonald's. It's on a kind of estate outside of Berlin, like a drive pass near a motorway." Filming took place across multiple locations in the Austrian Alps. Nicole said: "We were definitely up in those Austrian Alps." She added director Jonathan Levine and Anthony Byrne helped coordinate the complex schedule.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
King Princess Unpacks ‘Nine Perfect Strangers' Character Tina's Trauma And Creating 'The Most Toxic Lesbian Relationship Possible'
Nine Perfect Strangers. Musician King Princess' acting debut in Season 2 of Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers comes to the forefront of the series in the latest episode, which marks the halfway point. More from Deadline 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Cast Through Both Seasons: From Tranquillium House To Zauberwald 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Ray McKinnon, Margo Martindale & Donal Logue Among 5 Rounding Out Guest Stars In Elgin James' 'Prison Break' Pilot As one of the nine new cast visiting Masha Dimitrichenko's new wellness retreat Zauberwald, this time set in the Austrian Alps, Princess' character Tina comes to the retreat at the invitation of her girlfriend Wolfie (Maise Richardson-Sellers), who hopes to help the stifled artist work through some trauma surrounding playing the piano. The ennui becomes more significant and apparent when viewers learn that Tina was a child prodicy musician. 'For Tina, it goes back, deep. This is not just about piano. This is about identity. This is about feeling like you don't have any self-worth aside from one skill, like this skill determines everything that's important about you,' Princess told Deadline ahead of the show's launch. 'So our goal was to make a really flawed relationship between these two characters [where] you're rooting for them, but you kind of aren't.' Episode 4, titled 'The Major Lift' specifically shines the spotlight on Tina's backstory in a concert-like hallucination she has from the mushrooms that flows into a montage of memories from her past from her trajectory to performing and how she met Wolfie, who Tina blames for hovering and not giving her enough space while she works through her pain. 'Maisie and I worked tirelessly to create the most toxic lesbian relationship possible. It was important to us that that these characters are both likable and unlikable in certain ways,' Princess said. 'At certain moments, you're like, 'Oh, just break up.' That was important to us because, again, it's complex, it's weird. We're finding these people — they don't like each other. They love each other, but they don't like each other, and we're meeting them six years in.' In he below interview, King Princess discusses her character's relationships with other strangers at the retreat, the collaboration for Episode 4's opening outfit and her thoughts on Tina and Wolfie's relationship as their arc picks up mid season. DEADLINE: KING PRINCESS: They sent me a character description, and I knew that she was a concert piano player, that she had grown up doing that, and that she was gay. I knew those things to be true. They gave me pretty generous scenes to audition with. I got a lot of context from what was going on within those scenes, and I could tell that [this] girl was troubled. There were chunks, I think it was like two or three scenes of me being bitchy, but it was fun. It was nice to get to play with that. DEADLINE: At least in the first four episodes, we see your character form bonds with Murray Bartlett's character and Dolly De Leon's Sister Agnes. What was it like working with those two, and what you wanted to get across with those relationships? PRINCESS: When I got the role and then I read the scenes with Murray, immediately, my heart sank, because it was so beautifully done. I loved that there was this intergenerational friendship that forms. Tina is a person who I don't think was shown a lot of kindness and a lot of empathy when she was a child. She spent a lot of time in the practice room practicing, honing her skill, probably in a pressurized environment. And think about it, a kid on a TV show… What type of parents put kids on TV shows? I was thinking about that, and then in the context of this scene where this kind man is like, 'Tell me about yourself, not just your skill or your ability or the reason why you're on my TV show, tell me about you.' It's a little thing, but I think it was really impactful for Tina, and then to see this man again in the middle of her quarter life crisis, I feel that all the time when I see somebody that I knew when I was a kid, like, 'You showed me kindness.' So I think that's exactly what that dynamic was. And obviously, in real life, Muzzy and I are, that's my special man. And then same with Dolly. That scene with her in the snow was the first scene I shot. She was incredible as a first scene partner. I told her, I was like, 'Girl, I'm nervous. I've never been on camera like this. And also it's cold, we're in the snow.' We just sat there vaping, talking sh*t, and she just made me feel calm. A really generous actor. It's such an interesting dynamic. A lesbian and a nun, in the woods. Very special I think. DEADLINE: PRINCESS: I was like, 'So you're a funky nun.' DEADLINEL: PRINCESS: Wolfie is looking at Tina like, 'Why would you throw this away? Don't you know how many people would want this opportunity?' She thinks it's f*cking privileged and annoying and she thinks it's off-putting that Tina is having this crisis in the first place. We thought it would be really amazing to play into all those moments that we were given in the script of like, when Wolfie is overbearing, she really believes that she's doing the right thing. She really believes that she's just doing what she's supposed to be doing, and Tina is furious about it. DEADLINE: PRINCESS: The team of people who worked on this are so incredible. Me and Lizzy Gardiner and Anthony Byrne had a conversation about — we knew there was going to be a flashback scene of young me, or young Tina, and we wanted her to be in this hyper-feminine, frilly type situation, JonBenét [Ramsey] type situation. We thought for the nightmare that, how fitting would it be for Tina, who's like, all black-clad, fitted vibes to, in her nightmare, be back at 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, in one of these dresses, which obviously a parent or a guardian was, like, 'You're wearing this. That was a super deliberate choice by us. We tried on a bunch of dresses, and we settled on that one, but it was great. I mean, that was what was so fun with working with his team, is there was input. They gave us input. They allowed us to investigate these characters deeper than what was even written. And then if we had a thought or an idea, it was best idea wins. That was a pretty epic scene to film. DEADLINE: PRINCESS: Okay, so when I was watching it, my friend had the same question, but I have no idea at all. That's above my pay grade. My friend was like, 'Are you pregnant in this?' DEADLINE: PRINCESS: I think the vibe is that when you're hyper-sensitive to everything around you, from the shrooms, everything is interconnected, kind of like the shrooms themselves, the mycelium. See what I did there? When the characters get really high, everything starts blending together and and they show, I think they did a fantastic job of showing that experience through some of the camera work and Frank's DP work and the direction, but yeah, totally. I think in that moment, Sister Agnes is like,' I can help. I can help you.' And I'm like, 'No touching, no touching zone.' DEADLINE: PRINCESS: I like that our arc is in episode four, because obviously there's more than four episodes, and I think it's interesting to see that these people hit their breaking point pretty early, and then that's the question, right? And we didn't know what was going to happen to them when we were filming it, which also informed a lot of the acting we did. It was scene to scene, it was like, there are moments of kindness, and then all of a sudden it pulls back. So we also didn't know, and I can't tell you, according to Hulu, but it's a really interesting, complex relationship. We wanted to put a lot of our own experience into it, a lot of our having so many friends who have had breakups and get togethers and situationships and long relationships. Me and Maisie really dug into our community and like who we knew and things we could pull into this to make it feel real. DL: PRINCESS: Totally, because, honestly, it's done nothing but make my music and my performance better. Acting has been this incredibly cathartic experience where I am silly and investigating myself and playing, and that's all you can ask for as an artist, right? It's like you got a tool belt and you're sharpening these different tools. And that's what I feel like is happening. I went and shot a music video the other day, and I've noticed watching it back, I'm more comfortable, I'm standing a little taller standing taller. I got back from Germany, my friends were like, you're standing taller. This experience was so incredibly moving. I met so many people who chaperoned me through it, who gave me grace and kindness, even though I was a first-timer, and a lot of them are veterans, and it's really just made everything better, including the music. I feel a lot less self-conscious about anything, really, because it's really revealing to be on camera acting. So once you do that, you're like, 'Oh, I'm ready. Girl, let's lay it down in the studio.' RELATED: { pmcCnx({ settings: { plugins: { pmcAtlasMG: { iabPlcmt: 1, }, pmcCnx: { singleAutoPlay: 'auto' } } }, playerId: "32fe25c4-79aa-406a-af44-69b41e969e71", mediaId: "4b64946c-7f10-40c6-b37d-f948b9b08fe0", }).render("connatix_player_4b64946c-7f10-40c6-b37d-f948b9b08fe0_2"); }); Best of Deadline 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Ending Explained: It's All About Connections
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers has come to an end on Hulu. More from Deadline 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Cast Through Both Seasons: From Tranquillium House To Zauberwald King Princess Unpacks 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Character Tina's Trauma And Creating 'The Most Toxic Lesbian Relationship Possible' Hulu Lands 'Best Offer Wins' Book Adaptation With Greta Lee Starring & Suzanne Heathcote Writing The show's first season arrivd in 2021, based on Liane Moriarty's novel and the nine characters within it that visited Nicole Kidman's Masha Dmitrichenko in fictional Cabrillo, California at Tranquillum House. Season 2 departed drastically from the novel, which told the singular story of characters played by Melissa McCarthy, Samara Weaving, Michael Shannon and more. Arriving nearly four years after its first installment, Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers watched nine new guests come to Masha's wellness retreat at Zauberwald, which included new technology she was working on and mysterious connections between the guests. For a recap of the finale and insights into how Season 2 wrapped up as well as speculation about a potential Season 3, read on. It's All About Connections Mark Strong's David Sharpe, a billionaire and the father of Henry Golding's Peter Shah who was late to the retreat in the first episode, turned out to be at the heart of the whole experience, at least for Masha's plan for ultimate healing. David's company Signal Op had military contracts, and through his multimillion dollar decisions, he made big ripples in the lives of all the other guests. Signal Op's 'smart bomb' affected Sister Agnes' (Dolly De Leon) former life as a nurse because she worked in war zone hospitals, and it also killed Matteo's (Aras Aydin) entire family. Signa Op's broadcast news channel also repeated aired the video of Brian's (Murray Bartlett) meltdown on set of his talk show Crabapple Clubhouse. He also pulled funding for a program to foster talented young musicians that left Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) in a lurch. Once Victoria (Christine Baranski) caught wind of what Masha was doing, she demanded audience with the guru in a separate room to try and persuade her to stop, because Victoria realized that once Imogen made the connection that her father had worked for Signal Op and made the technology behind the bombs, she would put together why he took his own life — an experience that Victoria and Imogen revisited together under influence of the mycelium. Dosing David with what looked to be 100% of mycelium, Masha conducted a trial of sorts where she pointed all of this out. While on the drugs, David vowed to stop manufacturing these bombs so that the tragedy would stop. Masha Lets Go of Tatiana After a Near-Death Experience & Leaves Zauberwald To Martin In the middle of this confession, Martin (Lucas Englander) stumbled down the stairs of the mansion also extremely high on mushrooms in an attempt to see his dead mother Helena (Lena Olin), who was Masha's health mentor and helped her after she lost her daughter Tatiana. Viewers learn of the connection between Martin and Helena in later episodes, and Helena's feelings toward her son were complicated, but she wanted Masha to take over Zauberwald, feeling like she couldn't leave it to him. Both of them summoned her with the mushrooms, and after Martin tried to shoot Masha in a raging blizzard when she was following David outside as he tried to get cell signal to cancel bomb manufacturing, she still decided to leave the land and retreat center to him. After her jarring fall to the snowy ground, Masha also said goodbye to her daughter, whom she had been conjuring with hallucinations through the mushrooms. The Nine Strangers Brian parted ways with his teddy bear puppet Jesse, who had been popping up hear and their to voice subconscious thoughts. He used to imbue Jesse with curiosity to talk to children and get them to open up on his television show. He didn't give up the antique marionettes with Sister Agnes though. The pair left the retreat in a car together, seeing headlines about David. Wolfie and Tina (King Princess) didn't make it through the retreat together. Described by star King Princess as one of the most toxic lesbian relationships, their romance started to unravel within the first few episodes. It was Wolfie, though, who called it quits ultimately by moving her own flight up earlier once the roads had cleared. Later on, Masha watches Tina finally play piano — something she was struggling with since before Zauberwald — in a healing moment. Christine Baranski'sVictoria survived her adverse reaction to the drugs which was due to her ALS diagnosis, something she had withheld from Martin and saved her daughter and Peter a lot of time by saying that Imogen would make herself available to Peter whenever she could if he would just send a private jet. This provides opportunity for the pair to keep their romantic spark going. Mother, daughter and mother's nurse-turned-lover Matteo leave in the same car. The Fallout From David's Trip & Confession As the guests left the retreat, they each get cell service back and are bombarded with text messages as well as the headlines that show Masha has leaked video of David promising he would stop making bombs to the world. Wolfie sees a CNS banner in the airport that reads 'Billionaire Aquires Conscience?' It is assumed that the other strangers see this news alert on their phones and show it to each other on their way home from Zauberwald. 'Starting immediately, Signal Op is getting out of weapons production,' David says in the grainy surveillance footage from the other night as Peter shows him the video on his phone. 'Completely out, we will not spend another penny on hurting anyone.' The other guests laugh and celebrate, with Agnes saying 'Masha, you little devil' and Brian declaring 'Eat shit, Satan!' David wastes no time dialing Masha, telling her she has no idea how badly she's f*cked herself. One Month Later After a time jump, David pulls up in a nice Mercedes to a McDonald's wearing blue-tinted sunglasses, second guessing the address when he sees the golden arches. He is there to meet Masha, who is sipping on a soda or shake. He dryly states that she 'dragged her all the way back to Bavaria' to take her to a McDonald's, to which she responded that he wanted a neutral location. David told Masha that she destroyed nearly a billion dollars of his net worth. He brags that he still has six left to correct her for saying five. He slides a Nondisclosure Agreement across the table, revealing that he wants to open a new wing of his company focused on psychedelic therapy, wanting her to be involved. She would get $100,000 out of the deal, to which she responds 'That's it? That's what you think I'm worth?' She refuses to sign without equity or any other meaningful controls, but David brought his black mail, showing her footage he secured of some of the therapy of Masha's experiments going wrong, like when Victoria had a small seizure from her dosage as well as Carmen's (Regina Hall) moment from Season 1. David hacked Masha's personal servers through a payment to Martin, who complied with the request because he needs to keep the lights on at Zauberwald. David says the public won't see those videos if Masha signs the NDA that day. She threatens to make it very ugly for him and fight, and he says he's got a whole army behind him versus her debts. Masha ultimately signs the agreement, sinisterly proclaiming that they are family and that they share a daughter. Viewers learned this season that David was the father of Tatiana. 'You may not love your family, but you can't get rid of them.' Then she reaches across the table to kiss David, saying 'I do' as they both smile at each other. This cliffhanger of sorts leaves room for a third season with Kidman's Masha and Strong's David continuing on. They do, after all, have a romantic history, their dead daughter and that mysterious night in Prague they shared, to unpack should a new round of guests come their way in the future. RELATED: Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'The Gilded Age' Season 3 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
