IPOD
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You Make Me Sick
THURSDAY JANUARY 31 2008 6:00 AM
Submitted by FearTheReaper. Edited By erin_broadley.
TAGS: Private Contractors, Iraq, Justice Department, State Department, Bush, Rape, Jamie Leigh Jones
Yes, you. I think you are fucking disgusting. Wait, I take that back. I only think you're disgusting if you are an American citizen; you Brits and Scots can rest easy. Now, you may be wondering why it took me so long to realize that you are lazy, filthy, awful creatures. Turns out I didn’t know so many of you were okay with gang rape.
Last month a woman came forward to reveal she had been gang raped while working for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq. I cannot fathom the strength it would take to tell the nation you were gang raped by fellow employees of a company working under a government contract.
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.
I guess we can be happy they didn’t kill her; because that is the only thing worse I can think of in this situation. The story is truly horrifying and it sounds like they may have actually planned on killing her, but she managed to call her FATHER.
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. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp.
Yeah, I’m sure they were just keeping her in that container until she calmed down from the gang rape. No way they were discussing killing her. Jones managed to convince a sympathetic guard to give her a cell phone, which she used to call her father.
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.'
Just the kind of call a father wants to receive. Dad called his local Congressmen, who called the State Department, who then sent agents from the US Embassy to the base, where they freed Jones from the container. Army doctors examined Jones and determined she had been raped "both vaginally and anally." Then they gave the rape kit to Halliburton/KBR security officers, who made sure it disappeared.
That was two years ago. During those two years it became apparent our State Department and Justice Department are not going to do anything about a young woman being gang raped by other Americans while working in Iraq.
Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.
Why? Because private contractors operate outside of the law in Iraq. Apparently, they can rape at will, without expectations of any punishment. Without any criminal prosecution forthcoming, Jones sued Halliburton/KBR in civil court. But that might also be a problem.
KBR has moved for Jones' claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom. It says her employment contract requires it.
In arbitration, there is no public record nor transcript of the proceedings, meaning that Jones' claims would not be heard before a judge and jury. Rather, a private arbitrator would decide Jones' case. In recent testimony before Congress, employment lawyer Cathy Ventrell-Monsees said that Halliburton won more than 80 percent of arbitration proceedings brought against it.
Politicians, like Hillary Clinton, then demanded hearings and asked why there was no justice for this woman. Of course, through all their blustering, our lawmakers failed to mention that they are partially at fault. Congress left these giant private contractor legal loopholes open. Congress has not created proper oversight in regards to Iraq, and that created the environment that led to a woman being gang raped by her fellow employees.
The press dug up more instances of overseas rape, which the Justice Department ignored.
The Department of Justice declined to prosecute a State Department employee who allegedly sexually assaulted a female Halliburton/KBR worker in Iraq, despite a recommendation from the State Department that he be charged
Then Congress had a hearing on December 19th, but the Justice Department decided to take a pass and refused to send a representative to answer questions.
I'm embarrassed that the Department of Justice can't even come forward," said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich.
“This is an absolute disgrace. The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we're going to straighten out the system right away."
So, here we are over a month later. The State Department and Justice Department are stonewalling Congress.
A Republican lawmaker wants Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to answer questions in person about the high-profile rape case of Jamie Leigh Jones, after lower State Department officials failed to provide information that satisfied him.
One branch of our government is asking another branch of our government why they are blowing off the gang rape of an American citizen. The answer is simple: The gang rape is the result of the Bush administration’s total lack of oversight of private contractors in Iraq. At the same time, the Justice Department has been turned into a political wing of the White House and the case of Jamie Leigh Jones is a glaring example of what happens when our system of law is usurped by politics. The rule of law crumbles as it caters to political interests. This is the sort of case that can explode and shine a light on the entire system.
Now, why do I think you are disgusting, filthy animals? Because, what the fuck have you done? I immediately wrote my Senators and Congressman, explaining my disgust. The fact that America is quietly sitting around, after a woman was gang raped, while her rapists are protected by our government is sickening. The fact that the system is set up to allow something like this to happen is repugnant. But what is more repugnant is that we sit on our fat asses doing nothing, while women are gang raped and people are killed.
If we put massive pressure on our government to answer for this injustice, there would be action. That is sort of how a Democracy works. And you fuckers are silent. Which makes us complicit in the gang rape of an American citizen. Or you, anyway. At least I managed to take time out of my day to write an email and make a phone call. But don't worry about it, after all, you've got that Lost message board to get to.
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