KBR employee says she was gang raped by coworkers and detained in Iraq

Brian Ross and Justin Rood have broken an explosive story of rape and false imprisonment in the Green Zone that raises questions about the contractor Halliburton/KBR, the US government, and the military.

A 22-year-old former Halliburton/KBR employee says she was gang-raped by her coworkers and imprisoned by the company in a shipping container. According to papers filed in a lawsuit against KBR and its former parent company Halliburton, the victim was only released from the container after intevention by the US State Department.

KBR issued a statement that the US authorities called off the company's internal investigation. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who helped get his constituent out of the shipping container, says that the State and Justice Departments are stonewalling his investigation.   

KBR has mysteriously "lost" the rape kit after receiving in from US military doctors.

No criminal charges have been laid and KBR wants the civil suit heard in closed-door arbitration.

HT: Eric

Comments

[Eric Jaffa]

The ABC News article says,
=================
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.
==================

Maybe KBR said they wanted the rape kit to help their own investigation, and the US military agreed to that. I don't know if the military gave the rape kit to KBR out of naivety, or as a coverup. It seems like a violation of medical privacy laws (at least it should be illegal for the military to give medical records to a third party without the patient's consent.)

Anyway, something else which bothers me about this case is how NOT ONLY is no one being prosecuted, but the woman will probably be denied even civil justice, since her employment contract says she must use an arbitrator chosen by KBR in the case of a claim.

I don't want my tax dollars going to any corporation which puts clauses against lawsuits in its employment contracts. Congress should pass a law in that regard.

[milo]

Well, I have two friends who were raped by african-american men. why isn't the Cong. Black Caucus holding hearings? Sad to say, rape is a common crime. So it happened in the Green Zone. On a KBR facility. I daresay women have been raped on the grounds of Harvard. Actually, in law school I saw profs (always leftish for some reason) shamelessly hitting on (i.e. harrassing) female students, and the administration considered it pretty much OK. Closing ranks etc. So Dr B what is your point? I beg you, write something insightful someday, ask a relevant question, say something interesting. Surprise me.

[Cass]

"...the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers."

I guess it would've been a little obvious just to hand it over to the rapists themselves. DynCorp, another major contractor in Iraq, had employees trafficking children in Bosnia eight years and no one paid a price for that, least of all the corporation itself:

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/06/26/bosnia/index.html

Its not just the Iraqi population who's been demoted to serfdom; in the end, its more or less the plan for all of us.

[mudkitty]

The spoils of war...

[scott]

This is what empires do. Do you like it? I don't, and I don't like the empire.

[togolosh]

Dear milo - the issue isn't the rape. The issue is how it was handled. KBR isn't being accused of raping the woman in question, they are being accused of grossly mistreating her after she reported it, and of mishandling the evidence, and of being horribly callous to a victim of a violent crime.

[perianwyr]

awesome troll milo high fives brah

[Michael Hussey]

The State Department may do what they did with Blackwater and grant the contractors immunity. It's a sleazy thing to do, but the Bush administration is obsessed with protecting contractors. Someone explain to me how Halliburton and Blackwater is helping America spread democracy?

[The Phantom]

--This is what empires do.--

Stupid, faux world-weary comment about what sounds like an awful event.

-mudkitty 4:00--
About what you'd expect from her.

Let the chips fall on this. All those guilty of such an act or any coverup deserve severe punishment.

--milo--
Did you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?

[Pennant]

The point is that if Halliburton do this to their own people, what do you think happens to all the thousands of Iraqis that don't have at their disposal even the limited resources that this woman had?

If they get in the way (or own anything desired) by well-connected employees of the company, they get stomped on and you never hear about it, of course. As Scott said, "This is what empires do." Your tax dollars at work making friends and influencing people.

[russell]

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, rape by a service person is punishable by death. Not a few service people have hung for it, and a larger number have done years of prison time.

Civilian contractors are accountable to noone. They murder and rape with impunity. They make multiples of what comparable folks in uniform make. Eric Prince is a rich man. We pay the bill.

"milo" is troll for "troll". DNFTT.

Thanks -

[The Phantom]

russell

Contractors working in combat zones, or on military facilities, need to be accountable under the UCMJ. Period.

If its good enough for the military, its good enough for contract employees.

[Cass]

"Let the chips fall on this. All those guilty of such an act or any coverup deserve severe punishment."

Nobody's likely to get punished, Phantom; that's been the point of entire thread. There's no mechanism to do it, just as there was no mechanism to punish Blackwater guards who murder for fun, or the DynCorp men who openly fucked little girls. And just as in those cases, the rapists/ killers behaved with obvious confidence that they didn't really have to put much of an effort into hiding their crimes at all; everyone around them participated, or at least showed the expected moral cowardice.

And its no oversight, or accident here that no one is accountable under any law, just as its no accident that these same firms have found it so easy to scam billions from the Iraqis and ourselves. This was the design of privatization from the beginning; these corporations are as inaccessible to us as any feudal lord to his serfs. And anyone with the most basic grasp of human nature could've seen the nightmare coming.

And with all this out in the open now, still, nobody in power shows us a sign of giving a good goddamn. DynCorp fired the two whistleblowers on its pedophile ring, and only seven of the rapists- after the media got involved- were even fucking FIRED! And eight years later, the company (needless to say) is now richer than ever, thanks to two ongoing wars, tens of millions of dollars flowing without oversight, and lots of friends in just the right places.

No law, no justice, no oversight, no real possibility of redress for this woman that won't involve being figuratively raped again by corporate lawyers. If the national media pays attention for more than a day or two (unlikely, of course) some of the perpetrators may lose their job, though history suggests not even to count on that. That's the reality.

[Dock Miles]

Book review really worth reading.

[freelunch]

Halliburton/KBR and Blackwater are sufficient evidence that we should never again hand over military matters to private corporations. That is truly a war crime of the Bush Administration.

[scott]

Phantom:

OK, is this non world-weary enough for you: I don't like our government murdering, maiming, and raping in my name, all the while claiming immunity for its contractors. I think it's imperialist and immoral and sickening. Also, bite me.

What Cass said.

[Count Zero]

milo: I daresay women have been raped on the grounds of Harvard. Actually, in law school I saw profs (always leftish for some reason)

For some reason I'm having a very hard time believing you went to Harvard Law School, but I find it more ironic in your time there you didn't learn that it's not only 'leftish' people who rape women, but 'rightish' as well, since rape is politically ambigious.

[Lawrence Krubner]

"Dear milo - the issue isn't the rape. The issue is how it was handled."

Don't feed the trolls. Their only motivation for posting is to win a reaction from someone.

[The Phantom]

Cass

Please send links to stories about those incidents.

I'm not questioning the truth of what you say ; I would like to read more.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Here's an article about the DynCorp sex-slave scandal in Bosnia.

[Eric Jaffa]

The ABC News article says, "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."

But Sam Seder seems to think the Justice Dept. has jurisdiction.

Anyone want to weigh in with a third opinion?

[mudkitty]

Phantom's just trying to get attention.

[Witt]

It's my understanding that civilian contractors ARE now subject to the UCMJ. However, perhaps it is not retroactive to 2005 when this incident happened?

[The Phantom]

-when this incident is alleged to have happened-

[cfrost]

-when this incident is alleged to have happened-

Is there a process whereby which a formal allegation can be made? It seems there isn’t.