Gang Raped
Jamie Leigh Jones was 20 years old, working in Iraq for Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, when several co-workers drugged and brutally gang raped her at her quarters in the Green Zone.
She has stated: “I awoke the next morning in the barracks to find my naked body battered and bruised. I was still groggy from whatever had been put in my drink. I was bleeding... After getting to the clinic and having a rape kit performed...I was locked in a container with no food, no way to call my parents, and was placed under armed guard by Halliburton.”
In a lawsuit against KBR, she claims the attack never would have occurred, but for the “boys will be boys” attitude at the work place in Iraq. After, she reported the incident to her bosses at KBR, they held hostage in a large sea-going steel shipping container, without food or water for 24 hours. The lawsuit also alleges KBR did not let her call anyone, but she convinced one of her guards to let her call her father, who frantically called his congressman, Republican Ted Poe of Texas.
Rep. Poe called the State Department, who sent people to get Jones out of the container. KBR officials claim: “the holding area was a secure unlisted living container where she could rest.” The company denied her claim of sexual harassment prior to the alleged rape and disputes her allegation that they allowed a sexually charged environment. State Department says it investigated and passed its findings on to the Justice Department, but despite more than “two” years passing since the alleged rape, no criminal charges have been filed. Kellogg, Brown and Root claims that it began to investigate the case on its own, but were instructed to stop, because our government was taking over the investigation.
The men who raped this young woman, may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren’t subject to US or Iraqi laws. They can’t be tried for a crime in any court. Two days before Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, Paul Bremer left Iraq, he signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because he wanted to make sure our civilian contractors were protected from Iraqi law. Thus, the ambiguity of jurisdiction.
Congress must bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of our laws so this can’t happen again. The attackers of Jamie Leigh Jones aren’t the only ones exploiting a legal loophole to get away with their violent crimes. Another female employee of Halliburton says she was raped by her co-workers in Iraq. Blackwater guards killed 20 Iraqis at a traffic stop, including a woman and a child. That incident turned into an international scandal. Private contractors in Iraq, who have received no bid contracts are making massive amounts of money, operating above the law and are accountable to no one.
She has stated: “I awoke the next morning in the barracks to find my naked body battered and bruised. I was still groggy from whatever had been put in my drink. I was bleeding... After getting to the clinic and having a rape kit performed...I was locked in a container with no food, no way to call my parents, and was placed under armed guard by Halliburton.”
In a lawsuit against KBR, she claims the attack never would have occurred, but for the “boys will be boys” attitude at the work place in Iraq. After, she reported the incident to her bosses at KBR, they held hostage in a large sea-going steel shipping container, without food or water for 24 hours. The lawsuit also alleges KBR did not let her call anyone, but she convinced one of her guards to let her call her father, who frantically called his congressman, Republican Ted Poe of Texas.
Rep. Poe called the State Department, who sent people to get Jones out of the container. KBR officials claim: “the holding area was a secure unlisted living container where she could rest.” The company denied her claim of sexual harassment prior to the alleged rape and disputes her allegation that they allowed a sexually charged environment. State Department says it investigated and passed its findings on to the Justice Department, but despite more than “two” years passing since the alleged rape, no criminal charges have been filed. Kellogg, Brown and Root claims that it began to investigate the case on its own, but were instructed to stop, because our government was taking over the investigation.
The men who raped this young woman, may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren’t subject to US or Iraqi laws. They can’t be tried for a crime in any court. Two days before Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, Paul Bremer left Iraq, he signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because he wanted to make sure our civilian contractors were protected from Iraqi law. Thus, the ambiguity of jurisdiction.
Congress must bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of our laws so this can’t happen again. The attackers of Jamie Leigh Jones aren’t the only ones exploiting a legal loophole to get away with their violent crimes. Another female employee of Halliburton says she was raped by her co-workers in Iraq. Blackwater guards killed 20 Iraqis at a traffic stop, including a woman and a child. That incident turned into an international scandal. Private contractors in Iraq, who have received no bid contracts are making massive amounts of money, operating above the law and are accountable to no one.
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:01 AM
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