ThePoliticalCat: Women's Rights: KBR Rape Scorecard

So the House Judiciary Committee's appropriate subcommittee held a hearing today, CNN reports, on the complaints filed against KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been the recipient of so much American taxpayer largesse in the form of no-bid contracts in Iraq. Which, we understand, has nothing at all, nothing whatsoever (the point cannot be stressed firmly enough) to do with the fact that the current Vice-President of the U.S.A. was, in a previous incarnation, the CEO of Halliburton. Pure coincidence.

The Justice Department did not even bother to send an attorney to answer the Committee's questions and to look the victim Jamie Leigh Jones in the eye. Incidentally, some of the knuckle-draggier of the knuckle-draggers in that series of tubes comprising the Internets have claimed that Ms. Jones was filing a lawsuit against Halliburton/KBR because she hoped to get money from them.

We at this blog opine as how Ms. Jones would probably settle for beating each and every one of her rapists within an inch of their lives, followed by the administration of similar corrective measures upon each and every official at Halliburton/KBR who was involved in the decision to cover up this crime, up to and including Dick "Head" the Veep himself.

Apparently, Ms. Jones was only 19 at the time the crime occurred. Imagine, if you will, your tender teenaged daughter in the hands of these thugs and you will perhaps understand the simmering rage about this crime and its coverup. Imagine your kid being tossed into a shipping container with no food, water, or telephone because she committed the "crime" of being a girl, a naive young girl in her first job.

Ms. Jones lucked out when one decent human being surfaced among the subhuman slime assigned to guard her. He let her use a telephone, she contacted her father, her father contacted his Congresscritter, Texas Republican Ted Poe.

To his credit, Poe called the State Department and requested immediate intervention. The State Department complied, but turned over the rape kit with the evidence that might have been used to prosecute the rapists - to Halliburton.

Poe testified before the committee, saying:

It is my understanding that an Assistant US Attorney interviewed Jamie and that a State Department Special Agent investigated her case. However, the Department of Justice has not informed Jamie or me of the status of a criminal investigation against her rapists. It is interesting to note that the Department of Justice has thousands of lawyers, but not one from the barrage of attorneys is here to tell us what, if anything, they are doing. Their absence and silence speaks volumes about the hidden crimes of Iraq.

In early 2006, Ms. Jones filed a complaint with the EEOC. The EEOC examined the case and rendered a decision in her favour, writing a Letter of Determination that stated Jamie was sexually assaulted by one or more KBR employees, that physical trauma was apparent, and that KBR’s own investigation “was inadequate and did not effect an adequate remedy.”

Still no action from the Justice Department or the State Department. Two years have passed since the crime occurred, and Halliburton/KBR's only response to multiple allegations of rape (details on the other victim here) has been to attempt to force the cases into arbitration, which means, of course, that there will be no public record that other victims can use to assist their cases (depend on it, there are other victims); no discovery process that Ms. Jones can use to prove her case; and no right to appeal.

At today's hearing, Rep. Poe (a good Texas Republican, for those who are trying to allege that this whole thing is a smear by lefties on the purportedly good name of Halliburton/KBR and the Veep) stated that three other women have since contacted his office with similar allegations.

What, isn't it enough for KBR/Halliburton to be screwing the American taxpayer, the nation of Iraq, the Iraqi people, and deity only knows who else? They have to be raping their own employees too? And then screwing them over with arbitration hearings?

Take the bastards to court, establish their revolting practices, strip them of the right to arbitration, and render a judgment against them big enough for them to feel some real pain. The kind of pain these women, their families, and friends are feeling. That would be justice.