Republicans Continue to Humiliate Themselves by Voting Against ANTI-Rape Amendment!

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.

This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." You'd think that this would be a no-brainer and all senators would vote in support of this ANTI-RAPE amendment. WRONG! 30 Republicans VOTED AGAINST IT!!

In fact, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) argued that it's NOT the GOVERNMENT's place to DECIDE who the GOVERNMENT does business with. UNBELIEVABLE!! And these Republican Senators are the same ones who went absolutely cross-eyed with white-hot, impotent rage when 4 Acorn employees were hoodwinked by a fake prostitute and pimp and Voted to STOP Funding to ACORN. Duplicitous!

Here are the names of the 30 Republican Senators who voted AGAINST the ANTI-RAPE Amendment. Remember to VOTE AGAINST THEM when they are up for re-election:
Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL) , Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS)

Good News: Jamie Leigh Jones' Rape Case against Cheney's Halliburton is Finally Going to Trial!!!

Jamie Leigh Jones (22), the Halliburton/KBR contractor who was gang raped by her Halliburton co-workers in Iraq and then imprisoned in a shipping container after she reported the attack to the company, is finally going to get her day in court.

Jones, a Houston, Texas woman, was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad. She said the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. Jones was just 20-years old and in Iraq for just four days, when she was drugged and viciously gang-raped in 2005 by Halliburton/KBR co-workers, leaving her severely bruised and bleeding, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn. She required reconstructive surgery to repair her injuries, which left her breasts permanently disfigured and she will require additional operations.

When the effects of the date rape drug began to wear off, she found herself in her bunk, naked and in pain, finding one of her rapists, Halliburton firefighter, Charles Boartz sleeping at the bottom of her bed, unconcerned about suffering any consequences. When she asked him what happened, he admitted to having unprotected sex with her.

What happened next, illustrates how corporations and the government behave when they know they can operate outside the law and virtually get away with murder. Laws put in place primarily under the Bush administration, provided contractors in Iraq with immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law and by extension, U.S. law.

The Halliburton firefighters who raped her in the Baghdad Green Zone that day, realized the actions of their employer as well as their own actions, while working in Iraq, were completely outside the law. When they saw the pretty young Jones, they took what they wanted, unconstrained by criminal laws, which may have worked to curb their behavior. An examination by Army doctors showed multiple men raped her repeatedly, both vaginally and anally. Instead of offering assistance and medical treatment to the frightened Jones suffering from severe physical and emotional trauma, Halliburton/KBR only offered her threats and intimidation.

When her Halliburton/KBR employers learned of the rape, they went into damage control mode, essentially imprisoning Jones, placing her in a sparse shipping container, under armed guard, without medical treatment, food or water and did not allow her to leave, refusing her access to a phone.

Finally, after at least 24 hours without food or water, a guard let her use his cell phone and she was able to reach her father, “Dad, I’ve been raped. I don’t know what to do. I’m in this container, and I’m not able to leave,” said Jones. Her father was able to get help for his daughter and bring her home.

However, Halliburton/KBR failed to take any action against her attackers, and the Justice Department and military also failed to prosecute. Jones then tried to sue the company for failing to protect her. But thanks to an employment contract created during the tenure of former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, Jones was forced into mandatory binding arbitration, a private forum where Halliburton hired the arbitrator, ensured all the proceedings were secret, and she had no right to appeal if she lost.

After 15 months in arbitration, Jones and her lawyer realized they were getting nowhere and went to court to fight the arbitration agreement in the hopes of bringing her case before a jury. Finally, this Tuesday, two years later, a federal court has sensibly agreed she can take her case to court. Let's hope that Jamie will finally receive the Justice she deserves!