Halliburton and other contractors immune to the law?
Posted By JC Carter on December 14, 2007
Again, hitting one of my pet causes, Stop Violence Against Women… this was sent to me by my friends at the much maligned-by-conservatives, but much appreciated-by-me MoveOn.org…
Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old woman working in Iraq for a subsidiary of Halliburton when she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by several co-workers.
The next day, Halliburton told her that if she left Iraq to get medical treatment, she could lose her job.
Jamie’s story gets even more horrific: For the last two years, she’s been asking the US government to hold the perpetrators accountable. But the men who raped her may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren’t subject to US or Iraqi laws. They can’t be tried for a crime in any court.
As horrific as that sounds (and to sign the MoveOn.org petition, click HERE), there’s more to the story…
Jamie’s attackers aren’t the only ones exploiting a legal loophole to get away with their violent crimes. Another female employee of Halliburton says she was raped by her co-workers in Iraq. Employees of Blackwater, another private contracting firm in Iraq, were accused of killing innocent Iraqi civilians, and that incident turned into an international scandal. Worst of all, they may never be punished.
Private contractors in Iraq are making massive amounts of money, operating above the law and are accountable to no one. This has to stop.
Ironically, that last quote could also be applied to our Vice-Occupier-in-Chief.
The Jamie Leigh Foundation has been set up to help United States citizens and legal residents who are victims of sexual harassment, rape and sexual abuse while working abroad for federal contractors, corporations, or government entities. It’s sad that such a foundation should have to exist. The crimes that have forced its existence are despicable and those guilty of the crimes, and those responsible for their protection should be brought to justice and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
We’ve kind of gotten used to the various foundations setup by Amnesty International to protect people from violence committed or sanctioned by their governments, but the fact that we are no longer talking about Burma or South Africa, but the United States of America is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
You’re right, it’s very sad there is even a need for a foundation like this.
I’m a most certainly a pacifist, but reading such things makes me want to be violent and bring justice to these women.
I feel nothing but shame to know that the nation I was taught always took the moral high ground has fallen to the standards of the countries we rebuke.
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