The story of 22 year old Jamie Leigh Jones, front paged on Tuesday by Miss Laura continues to (very slowly) build and get air time.
Yesterday Keith Olbermann spoke about the rape and the apparent lack of any sort of investigation on Countdown, rightly broadening the discussion into one about the lawlessness of US contractors.
There appears to be cross-party support for hearings into this matter with both Republican Congressman Poe and Democrats (including Hilary Clinton) calling on the Justice Department to update them on the status of this case. Another woman has apparently contacted Democratic Senator Bill Nelson about her sexual assault while she was a KBR employee. Congress has asked the JD to respond by next Friday.
However, the right is already spinning this case.
KBR is apparently already disputing her allegations via a memo stating Jones claim of rape is full of inaccuracies.
Note that they don't say she wasn't gang raped, but rather that she was provided with food and had access to the outside world. The woman who was named as having attended to Jones claims she provided food and toiletries and believes that Jones had a mobile phone. What she also says, however, is that her memory "might not be accurate." Her reason for not remembering?
Keep in mind, this happened several years ago.
Excuse me? How many times in the past two years has this KBR employee attended to women who've been gang raped -- hurt so severely that their pectoral muscles were torn and their breast implants punctured? Over the past 10 years I've worked with 14 college students who were raped and I can remember my time with them at hospitals, in their rooms, in my office almost minute-by-minute.
From Jones' journal:
July 28, 2005 US/ July 29 Baghdad- I awoke the next morning in the barracks to find my naked body battered and bruised. I was still groggy from whatever had been put in my drink. I was bleeding from between my legs and my breast implants were severely disfigured. (I found out later that my attackers tore my pectoral muscles due to the brutality of the attack). One of the men who had raped me was brazen enough to be lying in the bottom bunk of my assigned bunk bed. After getting to the clinic and having a rape kit performed, and pictures taken of my bruising, I was locked in a container with no food, no way to call my parents, and was placed under armed guard by Halliburton. I did not have access to soap, toiletries, a tooth brush, or any of my belongings. I was unable to leave, therefore I was imprisoned. After some time, one of the guards allowed me to use his cell phone out of sympathy. I called my father back in Houston, who quickly contacted Congressman Ted Poe, who then initiated a Congressional Inquiry to get me out of Baghdad . At this point I was in a state of shock, severely traumatized, and was scared for my life.
That Jones was not the only woman raped while under Halliburton / KBR employ seems quite clear -- and this isn't just a meme by those of us on the woolly left.
Interviewed by Lou Dobbs (yes, I know but still) Republican Congressman Poe said
We do not think this is an isolated case of sexual assault against American citizens in Baghdad by coworkers. We want the other victims to notify my office immediately.
Poe interview can be viewed here.
Further evidence of this comes from http://www.jamiesfoundation.org/... where she reports (after having contacted the doctor who examined her about her missing rape kit):
The doctor stated to both of us that “I have no idea which rape victum you are because so many young contractor girls were raped after drinking with the guys” she also stated that “I performed so many rape kits in the six months that I was stationed there that there would be no way to recall whom yours was.”
Websites like Overlawyered are using the fact she's suing for monetary damages and has ::gasp:: gone public with her story as signs that she's just using this as a way to make money and/ or as evidence that her story isn't true. For even stronger views on that, see the comments on over a Pajama Media. There the fact that she has implants and dared to associate with the firefighters she worked with justifies this comment:
It just all unraveled for me when I read on her blog that "I started associating with .... and 4 firefighters", and the comments on the fake breasts. So a 19 year old fake blond with silicone implants goes to Iraq, starts "associating" with all the hunky guys, then 2 years later plays the victim of Halliburton, for profit.
This pegs the BS meter.
She was asking for it. The fact Jamie can talk / write about it (thus bringing into into the public eye) is given as proof that she can't have been raped because everyone knows that if you're raped you're supposed to be too ashamed to talk about it. Plus it was two years ago -- why has she waited so long?
[Note: after I wrote this, I found this diary by aironlater which updates us on the wingnut spin.]
There have been many terrible crimes in Iraq. Perhaps there will be some who point out that we seem to care more about one US woman than all the citizens of Iraq who have been the victims of untold horrors. But the fact is that however horrible everything else may be, this was horrible too.
Jamie Leigh Jones, at only 22, is being amazingly brave to tell her story in public and demand justice.
[edited due to lame spelling and to make it clear title wasn't blaming the victim.]