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

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

abcnews.go.com

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.
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.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is absurd! How can they think they would get away with this. The feeling that is given is that they will most likely never face prosecution for the rape. And only a civil action twords the company will bring justice. They even have a Texas Senator working with them.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by Sinsear
This is absurd! How can they think they would get away with this. The feeling that is given is that they will most likely never face prosecution for the rape. And only a civil action twords the company will bring justice. They even have a Texas Senator working with them.

Whoa Whoa Whoa, who said they were trying to get away with it?

This case is borderline stupid in my opinion. She claims she was drugged, but no drugs apparently were found in her system.

She claims to be raped, and yet they do not mention what the results of the rape kit were, just that it was lost. Which begs the question, why did the Army release the entire rape kit to KBR in the first place? Shouldn't they have been able to provide them with a rep sample and copies of all the paperwork?

Did the reporters even attempt to contact the "rapists" and get their side of the story?

It seems like shoddy research to me.

BTW, I am not saying it did not happen or that these guys are not guilty. I am just saying that there are some weird things involved with this case.

I am confused as to why the Army turned over the rape kit to the KBR security guards. This doesn't make any sense to me and in my opinion, it really makes the company look guilty since the rape kit disappeared.

VV

Well there is one word that would answer all your questions and that is "Cover-Up". She was rescued by US Embassy agents from a container so we know that at the very least she is telling some truth.

More ugliness of mankind in all it's glory.



I had almost taken a job with KBR (Kin, Brothers, and Relatives) in Iraq for almost $130,000 dollars a year doing electrical. I'm glad I passed knowing that this seems to be commonplace among the major contractors.

reply to post by DeadFlagBlues


Rape commonplace? BS!

Originally posted by Sinsear
Well there is one word that would answer all your questions and that is "Cover-Up". She was rescued by US Embassy agents from a container so we know that at the very least she is telling some truth.

Unfortunately, the only fact we have is that she was kept in a container. Otherwise, all the evidence (currently) is he said/she said.

My only question is, if she is telling the truth about the first rape-kit, why wasn't another one administered after she was rescued by the State Department? She was in the container for only 24 hours, there would still be plenty of evidence for a second kit.

Things like this do not happen in a vacuum. If this really happened, she is unlikely to be the first and only victim. There have to be others, and therefore plenty of witnesses. If this really happened, someone has to be willing to come forward; not everyone with knowledge of this can be an evil bastard willing to stand-by and let it happen again and again.

I am not saying this didn't happen, or that she is lying. However, in our legal system those accused are innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of evidence is on the accusers. And unfortunately for Ms. Jones, it doesn't seem she has much evidence.

Originally posted by BlueRaja
Rape commonplace? BS!

There does seem to be a problem of women serving overseas, be it in the military or with contractors, being sexually assaulted. I do not know if I would go so far as to call it common-place, but the problem is there.

That being said, though the statistic is there we should not take it as hard evidence that Ms. Leigh was raped.

Rape is something that is very embarrassing and humiliating for a woman to talk about. Why then would Ms. Jones go public and become the center of attention about this? That would be the last thing most any woman would wanat, is publicity. A woman would only go public if they were raped, with the exception of a small minority that was doing it for nefarious reasons.
After 24 hrs, much of the evidence of rape would be gone. Just the fact that KBR lost the rape kit is suspicious, as well as the fact that they put her in a container.
Rape has been happening in the military and with military contractors, all over Iraq and is pretty commonplace.

reply to post by BlueRaja


I remember when I was in Iraq that they would order females at night not to walk alone in the camps. Thats military of course, this lady is a civilian so I dont know, apparently she got rape by her own people, meaning friends?! I dont know the article does not specify.

But I will say yes, rape is common in these overseas and deployed locations and this contractors are not subjected to our laws, if its hard to prosecute the U.S. contractors, how they going to prosecute, Pakistanis, Hindus, Africans, Turkish, Germans, French citizens that work also as contractors in U.S. camps across Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. It's when generalizations are made that draw my ire(i.e. all military are baby killers, contractors are all rapists, etc..)

reply to post by Bunch


Women would have to go to the showers in pairs at night, but otherwise there weren't other measures in place. This was as a result of some Iraqis who were on work crews, trying to assault some women, moreso than US servicemembers/contractors.

I wonder if we will ever get both sides of this story? It seems to me that releasing this information now, is more a publicity stunt than anything else.

I am curious as to whether or not KBR made an attempt to settle out of court, in the hopes of avioiding a PR nightmare?

Originally posted by forestlady
Rape is something that is very embarrassing and humiliating for a woman to talk about. Why then would Ms. Jones go public and become the center of attention about this? That would be the last thing most any woman would wanat, is publicity. A woman would only go public if they were raped, with the exception of a small minority that was doing it for nefarious reasons.

I do not think we should impune her character (I hope this is not what you are implying). Just as she seems to have little evidence, at least going by what the article details, we have no evidence she is doing this for other than noble reasons. Perhaps, if the rape did occur, she is looking for justice and to prevent it from happening to other women. Perhaps the only way she feels she can do that is to come out publically, and embarass KBR. And this will be embarassing for KBR; even if it isn't true, it is something that will follow them around for years.

Apparently, Ms. Leigh has sold the rights of her story to a movie studio. It sounds suspicious, but in all fairness, she did wait two and a half years...

reply to post by Sinsear


i think the government of singapore malasia has the right idea concerning criminals and punishment that acts as a deterent to the thought of being tempted to commit such crimes as these men have done---------the guards take the offenders and tie them to an x shaped cross----then they tie cushions around their kidney area-----------then the biggest weightlifting muscle bound marshall arts guy you could ever imagine in your wildest nightmares arrives with a bamboo cane like a tree trunk-----------and beats your a** etc. down to the bone-------------the criminals lie on their stomachs for 3 months and dont move for 3 days then crawl to get around that way before they can walk again.those interviewed say they never want to repeat the crime that brought this repercusion on themselves----apparently they never get any repeat offenders ---imagine that!----------so it works-------too bad our criminal justice system didnt have the same guts as they have in malasia.if parents cant/wont take the time to teach their kids right from wrong then someone else needs to do it.

reply to post by yahn goodey


I believe those criminals are likely to repeat those sexual-offenses, if they're not punished for doing so.

If the lady was indeed rape, this will end up on close doors with a nice undisclosed settlement and she will go her merry way and Haliburton and KbR will face no more scrutiny.

This is the way the powerful takes care of ugly complains.

The problem is proving a rape occured, if there's no physical evidence. At that point it's hearsay/he said she said. You don't want to blow it off, but you want to have some pretty solid evidence before you put someone in prison, and ruin their lives.