News & Politics - Female contractor gang-raped in Iraq by coworkers

TokyoNiGHTS · 12-11-2007, 01:35 AM

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A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

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Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

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"I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

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Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.

And it gets even worse.

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Legal experts say Jones' alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.

ABC News: Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR

This is one of the most disgusting stories i've heard all year. And it appears they're going to get away with it due to that loophole. All media outlets should be all over the story like there's no tomorrow to at least try to make something happen to those that did this.

ceilirose · 12-11-2007, 08:30 AM

This happened in 2005.

The rape kit was handed over to KBR security and then it disappeared?

I agree that every media outlet should be over this but most of them are still obsessed with Natalie Hollaway.

migamoo · 12-11-2007, 03:27 PM

Why was the rape kit handed over to KBR anyway? Am I missing something?

**sunnykerr** · 12-11-2007, 04:23 PM

I don't actually know the answer to that question, Ashley, but I'll bet it has to do with KBR being one of those private firms handling "security" in Iraq. If I'm right, then, since U.S. nationals in Iraq aren't subject to Iraqi law, KBR would be one of the law-enforcement bodies enabled to "control" U.S. nationals with a semblance of law-like authority.

In other words, someone didn't put 2 and 2 together very well and handed the kit back to who they normally, under normal circumstances, turn over criminal evidence, not realizing that it was the body accused of comprising criminals.

ceilirose · 12-11-2007, 04:45 PM

These companies can operate carte blanche over there. I'm guessing that the workers do sort of "sign their lives" away prior to accepting employment. This one seems a little over the top and I shudder to think what else has gone on that we haven't heard about.

In any case her Congressman and Rep. Conyers have written a letter to the Attorney General asking for an investigation. I doubt much will come of it though. Blackwater seems to have ridden out it's episode from last September.

**sunnykerr** · 12-11-2007, 08:23 PM

Well, the sad fact seems to be that things only get done when the media is looking in their direction. And, by "get done," I don't actually mean that anything is accomplished. I just mean that the only movement happening seems to be if someone's looking.

The second they stop looking... everything goes back to how it was before. Or, at least, that's how it seems to me.


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