BURLINGTON, Vt. — A major U.S. development contractor that is being sued by family members of American troops and contractors killed in Afghanistan has argued it should be dismissed from the lawsuit since its projects and activities were conducted in support of U.S. foreign policy goals.
Lawyers representing DAI, a Maryland-based international development company that has worked in more than 150 countries, filed a memorandum Wednesday calling on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the company from a lawsuit that involves a variety of U.S. and international contractors that operated in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion.
The lawsuit alleges that DAI violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by funneling protection payments — through subcontractors and sub-subcontractors — to terrorist groups, which then enabled those groups to carry out deadly attacks on U.S. personnel between 2009 and 2017.