{"id":551,"date":"2010-01-27T02:48:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=551"},"modified":"2010-01-27T02:48:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T10:48:00","slug":"haliburtonkbr-slime-jamie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/27\/haliburtonkbr-slime-jamie\/","title":{"rendered":"Haliburton\/KBR Slime Jamie"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a story I keep coming back to revisit, because it keeps getting worse.  The last time I talked about Jamie was here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"jamieleighjones\"<\/a> In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton\/KBR in Baghdad. The attack occurred while she was out with a \u201c<\/font>small group of Halliburton firefighters<\/a>,\u201d just four days after her arrival in Iraq. After taking a few sips of her drink, she later woke up in the barracks, \u201cnaked\u201d and \u201cseverely beaten.\u201d Her \u201cbreasts were so badly mauled that she is permanently disfigured.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

In an apparent attempt to cover up the incident, the company then put her in a shipping container for at least 24 hours<\/font> without food, water, or a bed<\/a>, and \u201cwarned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she\u2019d be out of a job.\u201d Even more insultingly, the DOJ resisted bringing any criminal charges in the matter.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jones<\/font> tried to sue the company<\/a> for failing to protect her, but KBR argued that Jones\u2019 employment contract \u2014 created for the company under the tenure of then-CEO Dick Cheney \u2014 warranted her claims being heard in private arbitration, without jury, judge, public record, or transcript of the proceedings. Basically, KBR argued that Jones\u2019 brutal rape was a workplace injury \u2014 nothing more. But in September, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals<\/font> ruled in favor of Jones<\/a>. \u201cJones\u2019 allegations<\/font> do not \u2018touch matters\u2019 related to her employment<\/a>, let alone have a \u2019significant relationship\u2019 to her employment contract,\u201d wrote the court. <\/font><\/p>\n

\"war<\/a> KBR is now<\/font> petitioning the Supreme Court<\/a> to reverse the ruling. The contractor is personally going after Jones\u2019 integrity to argue that she shouldn\u2019t have a fair and open hearing. Stephanie Mencimer from Mother Jones<\/font> reports<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

On Jan. 19, it petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing Jones to press her case in a civil court rather than in arbitration. Among its many arguments in favor of a high court hearing: that Jones is a relentless self-promoter who has \u201csensationalize[d] her allegations against the KBR Defendants in the media, before the courts, and before Congress.\u201d \u2026 KBR also suggests that much of Jones\u2019 story is fabricated.<\/span> The company says in a footnote, \u201cMany, if not all, of her allegations against the KBR Defenandants are demonstrably false. The KBR Defendants intend to vigorously contest Jones\u2019s allegations and show that her claims against the KBR Defendants are factually and legally untenable.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 signed into law by President Obama in December contained<\/font> an amendment by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)<\/a> \u2014 inspired by Jones\u2019 story \u2014 that prohibits defense contractors from restricting their employees\u2019 abilities to take workplace discrimination, battery, and sexual assault cases to court\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to vent my anger over this case at you today.  You\u2019ve seen it several times before.  But I want you to consider something.  Given Al Franken\u2019s heroic role in this affair, how good a chance do you think he will have in 2014 when ChickenHawk Cheney\u2019s corporate criminal cronies are allowed to take vengeance against him by pouring $millions into ads against him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a story I keep coming back to revisit, because it keeps getting worse.  The last time I talked about Jamie was here. In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton\/KBR in Baghdad. The attack occurred while she was out with a \u201csmall group of Halliburton […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}