Employee contract developed under Cheney's tenure prevented Jamie Leigh Jones from pursuing justice
Jamie Leigh Jones made headlines two years ago when she alleged that, as a KBR employee on assignment in Iraq, she was raped by her co-workers, then imprisoned by her employer and threatened with firing.
Now, Jones has won the right to sue KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company once run by Dick Cheney.
As Mother Jones reports, an employee contract Jones signed -- developed during Cheney's tenure as CEO of Halliburton -- prevented her from suing the company. Instead, she was forced into binding arbitration, a process that had resulted in redressal for only three employees out of 119 who had pursued grievances against the company.
After Jones and her lawyer realized that the federal government would pursue no charges against the accused, and that the arbitration process would likely yield no results, they went to court to challenge the employee contract. On Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor, arguing that Jones' alleged rape did not fall under the auspices of the employee contract because "her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract," Mother Jones reports.
Jones' experience has become one of many examples of the dangers of the legal impunity given to military contractors in Iraq. As ABC News noted when the story first went public, "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."
Jones' story, made public in late 2007, shocked the conscience of news audiences. ABC News described her predicament:
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.
Jones told ABC she was able to contact her father, who in turn contacted their congressman, resulting in the State Department freeing her from the container.
"Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter," ABC News noted at the time.
Jones' lawsuit states that she was drugged and gang-raped repeatedly, "both vaginally and anally."
But, as Mother Jones notes, the former KBR employee's legal victory may have consequences beyond her own case, as binding arbitration comes increasingly under attack for being unfair to employees.
"Her case may bolster pending legislation that would ban mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and other consumer contracts," Mother Jones writes. "Jones' victory comes as yet another body blow to a practice that has come under serious fire in recent months as heavily rigged against consumers."
-- Daniel Tencer
when George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, David Addington, Lewis Libby, Steven Cambone, Elliot Abrams, and Condolezbian Ricebowl are getting porked in some hoity toity federal penitentiary someday.....who'll defend those rapists who serially will boink these mass murdering, war profiteering piles of crap?
Johnny Cochrane is dead, so which ambulance chaser will step up to the slimy plate then???
I'm glad this woman is going to get some justice. in Amerika, it's spelled JUST US.
GO 5th CIRCUIT!!!
Just goes to show you, America is anti-woman, anti-diplomacy, anti-privacy, anti-peace, anti-justice, anti-citizen, anti-worker, and anti-human. Great... so this is what it's come to. America has become truly anti-American.
Your tax dollars at work.
If President Bush and the Vice President Cheney, et. al. are above the laws enacted by and in the US Constitution and their actions are beyond the reach of common law or any court of justice, what's a few hundred thousand armed male mercenaries in Iraq (or any where on earth) going to do with the same impunity? The casual rape of men, women and children is only the beginning of what has been done in the name of oil by America's shadow government and corporate oligarchy.
Brave lady. May justice be done.
America has been turned upside down and inside out by the right wing. Maybe, just maybe she will get justice and not only the rapists but management of KBR will be brought to court and exposed.
I'm not sure how you compensate someone who was debased like she was but I'd like to see her own Cheney's retirement fund.
If laws are made By the rich, For the rich, then the only justice is in the street.
Thank God--and thank you the caring congressmen and brave non-self-serving attorneys who listened. Jamie Leigh Jones is one of a great many women, who not only had the "normal" war zone experiences, but also the extreme additional stress of the very real and imminent danger being the few very dangerous contractors. It was not possible to protect ourselves from our own contractors--thanks to arbitration only clauses and Henry Kissinger and Associates' former Managing Director Paul Bremer adding mandates that no U.S. Contractor could be tried even under Iraqi law plus certain upper management being interested in bonuses and contract money, only laughing at reports of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching from those in authority positions, and stalking. Even DOJ did not return contact when pleas for help in this hourly terror of fearing for our lives were sent or called in. The danger of mortars and insurgents paled in comparison to the ever-present contractors, the few who did indeed intend harm. What does one expect when so many felons are hired (and in fairness, some of the many felons were very hard-working, good examples of our nation) given easy access to guns and vehicles with no accountability. Many women will be scarred for life because of the callousness and greed of certain "Good Ol' Boy" nepotism management. I applaud you, Jamie Leigh Jones, for your bravery in pursuing this relentlessly. God knows, it only brought further harm to report things of this nature in Iraq.
Let's hope she gets millions from this scummy outfit. Too bad Prick Cheney can't be brought into play on this.
Love those GOP / Conservative 'Family Values'.
KBR has no place in America.
marinessuck
Let's hope she gets millions from this scummy outfit. Too bad Prick Cheney can't be brought into play on this.
How Dare You!
First off. Any part of The US. Military Protecting Our Great Nation is innocent. They were just following orders from the Actual Criminals mentioned in previous posts.
Second, there's no Stature of Limitations on War Crimes.
Third, the Nuremberg Excuse. Enough said.
Question:
Are We now a Nation of Men and Not Law?
"Employee contract developed under Cheney's tenure prevented Jamie Leigh Jones from pursuing justice"
Does anybody think that this might have been premeditated? Could Cheney have developed that "Employee contract" with the intention of getting away with rape, murder, plunder and anything else they wanted to do in a country where an illegal war is started and KBR/Halliburton receive no-bid contracts? No? I guess I'm just being paranoid then...
The only guy she's been able to name so far is Charles Boartz, the rest were apparently KBR firefighters. Any ideas on where he is? Where's he live? What does he do? The guy won't name his co-rapists, wipe the fucker off the face of the planet and his mom too.
On behalf of the brave men and women that fight here in Iraq or any other armpit that gives us grief, I am floored by the lack of accountability in this whole thing. I cannot believe that they could get away without any criminal prosecution. They expect us to kill, but jail us for murder. We continue to fight. They put us in harsh climates, they take us from our families, and put us in harms way. We continue to fight. They bring EVERYTHING we do under public scrutiny and show no mercy criticizing every step we take. We STILL continue to fight. NOW, one of our OWN citizens, working to support US, has such an absolutely awful thing happen, and we stand idly by??? my only wish is that i was nearby, and she brought that to one of US. There would be only post-humous charges, and it would NEVER happen again. I implore ALL my fellow Americans, justice is blind, and FOR SALE, death to all who oppose freedom in ANY form.
[...] RAW STORY reported last month, Jones recently won the right to sue KBR over her [...]
I did not know Jones, I am not employed or have any connection with KBR. In reading comments it is clear a lot of you want to talk and condem a company but obviously have no knowledge of the incident. I do have, can commit on what I know about and of all that I read none of it is true. It is a fabrication. Incidents that occurred with Jones and the men I cannot commit on. Consumption of alcohol at Camp Hope was permitted at the time. Jones was observed in the street kissing the primary accused the following morning ; subsequently she told her story to a co worker who directed her to security and or HR. In only a minute or two the KBR leadership and HR were informed, the US Embassy RSO office and the Special Agents were informed as quickly as the cell phones could be speed dialed, Jones was taken to a military doctor by KBR Security. The hospital was outside of the embassy walls and was a US Army facility. The US Army examined Jones and provided a sealed Rape Kit to security who delivered the kit to the Special Agents who signed for the concealed kit. The kit contained among other things portions of Jones's clothes. Ths Department of State told KBR "Hands Off we will handle the investigation". Jones was taken to KBR HR and provided female support for anything she wanted to include phone, food, water or escort. Escort to protect her from the alleged asailants or having to unwantingly expose herself to others, not in any way to restrict her from any comforts. She was placed in a normal living container with bathroom, and all conveniences that any employee had. She was provided any food she wanted. She was never in a shipping container. She was never under armed guard. KBR had no armed guards. The State Department had armed walking guards that walked the living area. If they did anything out of their normal routine I did not notice it. They were probaly told to prevent anyone but HR from accessing walk way to the living container. I did make a few trips to the living container to support HR. KBR covered up nothing. KBR only supported the DOS investigation and moved Jones to Houston. I cannot speak for what the attorneys and the leadership did after Jones left Iraq but the incident was reported to everyone at the time. The Special Agents isolated the area near Jones' room, I provided security of the stairs and hallways to prevent any contamination of the area. The agents spent several hours in the room and in the area with a mulititude of detection chemicals, detection lights etc and they could only place one man and Jones in the room. Jones was provided a KBR HR Female to escort her home and provide her the very best care possible. Everything possible was done with Jones' welfare foremost in mind. The two were escorted to Kuwait by a Department of State Special Agent and then the KBR HR female escorted Jones to Houston and to her parents. In the days following, the agents conducted hours of interviews, KBR had no authority to investigate and was prohibited by the DOS. For a year following the incident the KBR Project Manager on several occassions ask me to check with the Department of State and I checked many times on my own to try to learn anything about the investigation. I was told "this is a federal case and that is all we can tell you. It has been turn over to the Department of Justice". The DOS was very strict of what happened on their grounds and would direct us to fire someone for the most minor infraction. They would tell me, "we have not removed anyone from the DOS grounds, we have not told you to fire anybody, we have not arrested anybody, this should tell you all you need to know". On one occassion one agent told me "we did not have a rape committed". So all of the remarks about KBR cover up at the project level is false, the shipping container is false, the armed guards is false, the deprivation of anything Jones wanted is false.
I did not know Jones; I am not employed nor have any current connection with KBR. In reading comments it is clear a lot of you want to talk and condem a company but obviously have no knowledge of the incident. I do have and can commit on what I know about. Of all that I have read none of it is true. It is a fabrication. Incidents that occurred with the female and the men I cannot commit on. Consumption of alcohol at Camp Hope was permitted at the time. Jones was observed in the street kissing the primary accused the following morning; subsequently she told her story to a co worker who directed her to security and or HR. In only a minute or two the KBR leadership and HR were informed, The US Embassy RSO office and the Special Agents were informed as quickly as the cell phones could be speed dialed, Jones was taken to a military doctor by KBR Security. The hospital was outside of the embassy walls and was a US Army facility. The US Army examined Jones and provided a sealed Rape Kit to security who delivered the kit to the Special Agents who signed for the sealed kit. The kit contained among other things portions of Jones's clothes. There was no mention of injuries or broken implants. Jones was completely self mobile with no visible physical injuries. The Department of State told KBR "Hands Off we will handle the investigation". Jones was taken to KBR HR and provided female support for anything she wanted to include phone, food, water or escort. Escort to protect her from the alleged assailants or having to unwantingly expose herself to others, not in any way to restrict her from any comforts. She was placed in a normal living container with bathroom, and all conveniences, the same that any employee had. She was provided any food she wanted. She was never in a shipping container. There were no shipping containers in that area. The living containers were like mobile homes without wheels. They were placed on concrete blocks. She was never under armed guard. KBR had no armed guards. The State Department had armed walking guards that walked the living area. They did not walk with machineguns. If they did anything out of their normal routine I did not notice it. They may have been instructed to prevent anyone except HR from traversing the walkway that the living container housing Jones was in. I did make a few trips to the living container to support HR. KBR covered up nothing. KBR only supported the DOS investigation and moved Jones to Houston. I cannot speak for what the attorneys and the leadership did after Jones left Iraq but the incident was reported to everyone at the time. The Special Agents isolated the area near Jones' room where the incident was alleged to have occurred. I provided security of the stairs and hallways to prevent any contamination of the area. The agents spent several hours in the room and in the area with a multitude of detection chemicals, detection lights etc and they could only place one man and Jones in the room. Jones was provided a KBR HR Female to escort her home and provide her the very best care possible. Everything possible was done with Jones' welfare foremost in mind. The two were escorted to Kuwait by a Department of State Special Agent and then the KBR HR female escorted Jones to Houston and to her parents. In the days following, the agents conducted many hours of interviews and investigations, KBR had no authority to investigate and was prohibited by the DOS. For a year following the incident the KBR Project Manager on several occasions ask me to check with the Department of State and I checked many times on my own to try to learn anything about the investigation. I was told "This is a federal case, it has been turned over the US Department of Justice and that is all we can tell you”. The DOS was very strict of what happened on their grounds and would direct KBR to fire someone for the most minor infraction. They would tell me regarding this case, "we have not removed anyone from the DOS grounds, we have not told you to fire anybody, we have not arrested anybody. This should tell you all you need to know". On one occasion one agent told me off the record "we did not have a rape committed". So all of the remarks about KBR cover up at the project level is false, the shipping container is false, the armed guards are false, the deprivation of anything Jones wanted is false.
[...] -- then a subsidiary of Halliburton -- when the company responded to Jones' allegations of rape by locking her in a shipping container and refusing to give her access to medical treatment or contact with the outside [...]
So now their is some dip trying tho say it never happened... You people and whoever said "how dare you" is a dingbat Halliburton IS EVIL. We already knew that and they are not defending US, they are defending their interests their bank accounts, their ability to continue selling us dirty oil! All I want to know is, who wants to rape a republican, I wouldn't, couldn't but it looks like after the crap they just pulled it won't be to hard to get away with or at least justify. I truly believe if you are going to vote on an issue like GANG-RAPE you should know what it feels like. Women everywhere everyday are raped and assaulted. Now we have a bunch of virgin asses voting on it, what do they know about rape? Well except for the women they raped in this vote, I truly believe they don't know a thing about it. THIS IS NOT OKAY, THEY SHOULD ALL BE PUNISHED! HALLIBURTON WHEN WILL YOU FALL, FAIL, STOP KILLING, STEALING..... WHEN WILL BUSH AND CHENEY REALLY BE OUT OF THE PICTURE?????
[...] won the right to sue when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found in Sept. that her assault was not in any way related to her employment, therefore nullifying [...]