Demand Justice for Jamie Leigh Jones

Twenty-year-old American citizen Jamie Leigh Jones was drugged, assaulted, and viciously gang raped at her work place by coworkers. Learning of the attack, her employers placed her under armed guard in a shipping container for 24 hours without access to food or water. She was only rescued after her Member of Congress demanded action from the State Department.

Two years later, these acts of violence, as well as the unbelievable reaction by the employer have gone unpunished and justice has not been served. Not only has the Justice Department not brought any criminal charges, but ABC News recently reported that they could not confirm that any federal agency was investigating the case at all.

Jones was in the Green Zone of Baghdad, Iraq, working as a government contractor with KBR, Inc. (Kellogg, Brown and Root [NYSE: KBR]), which is an American engineering and construction company, formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton, based in Houston, Texas. Army doctors performed a medical examination that showed she had been raped both anally and vaginally. But the rape kit was turned over to KBR and portions of the rape kit have vanished.

More than 20,000 Americans are employed by US government contractors in Iraq. These individuals have the same right to treatment, services, and proper investigations when they are the victims of violent crime as they would at home. The offenders, who are paid with American taxpayers’ dollars, should be held accountable.

Since Jones went public with her story, it has become clear that hers is not an isolated incident: many women working for US Government contractors face sexual assault and harassment. Yet, the perpetrators are not held accountable and justice is not served. It is obvious that the departments of Defense and of State are not taking the issue seriously. The current state of affairs is absolutely unacceptable. Action is required.

Please call your Member of Congress as soon as possible and ask him or her to contact Louise M. Slaughter (Rep—D). Along with Congressman Ted Poe and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Slaughter plans to demand accountability by sending letters to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling for answers in the KBR rape cases including a clear definition of the steps they are taking to ensure that what happened to Jones will ever happen again.

Slaughter wants the signatures of at least 50 members of the US House of Representatives on letters to Rice and Gates demanding action. And she needs those signatures this week. Your call asking your Representative to sign will make the difference. Here is how to get your Representative’s phone number: Go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ and enter your ZIP code and click on the relevant photo.

Otherwise call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Please make the call as soon as possible. Copy this request to your blog and forward it to everybody in your address book.