A Good Reason Not to Invest in Halliburton/KBR

This story, as reported by ABC News, is simply horrifying beyond belief:

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.

"It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."

Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.

"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,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

"We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer.

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."

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.

A spokesperson for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security told ABCNews.com he could not comment on the matter.

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.

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.

"It's very troubling," said Dean John Hutson of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. "The way the law presently stands, I would say that they don't have, at least in the criminal system, the opportunity for justice."

Congressman Poe says neither the departments of State nor Justice will give him answers on the status of the Jones investigation.

Comments

[six17:]

what no mention of a chart,split,buyback,na... ratio,cash flow,not so fast this sounds like the missing bride case a while back besides we are dealing with Texas who leads the world in lethal injections and to quote the late almost great Clayton Williams likening bad weather to rape, quipping, "as long as it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it."

2007 Dec 12 09:06 AM

[goodiedr:]

Having worked for KBR for 32 years, as a woman in many "tough" places, including Iraq, I am astonished to read these accusations. The company is intolerant of even mild harrassment, and the penalty is termination. In all the years of working in the arctic, in the desert, on offshore platforms, in Iraq, and on other assignments, at times as the only woman on the project, not only did the company provide a protective environment and strict policy, but also I found the men at the project sites to be extremely protective and totally respectful. I can not know what happened to this young woman, and I hope the investigation and conclusions will be made public.

2007 Dec 12 11:10 AM

[jonreagan:]

I've never been a fan of HAL, either politically or as an investor. But I think the important take-away here is that in an irrational market (understatement), any whiff of scandal will trash a stock pretty quickly. And even if it's eventually proven not true, the retraction is rarely heard. There are enough other strong companies in this sector that there's no need to choose HAL.

2007 Dec 12 12:41 PM

[MikeC:]

More HAL bashing. Just another in a long list of people going after deep pockets. Halliburton is one of the most ethical, health and safety conscious, and employee friendly companies in the world. I'm proud to work for them. Anybody notice that the bashing started when Cheney got on the ticket with Bush. Probably nothing political about it though. Just ask 20/20 or ABC. Do you think ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case because it was determined to be bogus from day one. Just because someone says it, doesn't make it so. Start thinking for yourself people.

2007 Dec 13 12:37 AM

[ColeMan:]

Unbelieveable --you bet! Any reasonable proof that HAL condoned such an event would be a part of every Democrat's talking points. You Democrats keep selling and us Republicans will keep buying--hee hee!

2007 Dec 13 07:35 PM