TheAgitator.com
Jamie Leigh Jones
Friday, December 21st, 2007What a horrible, appalling story.
The Justice Department’s initial refusal to even talk to the woman, much less investigate her allegations, is contemptible. As is their refusal to send anyone to the congressional hearings to answer for their indolence. Perhaps the U.S. Attorney’s office in Florida was too busy trying to through pain specialists and pain patients in prison.
KBR’s behavior in the matter is also abhorrent. And let’s not for get the idiot warbloggers, who started with the knee-jerk Swift-Boating of this woman the moment ABC News reported her story a couple of weeks ago.
“The Department of Justice has not informed Jamie or me of the status of a criminal investigation against her rapist if any investigation exists. It is interesting to note that the Department of Justice has thousands of lawyers but not one from the barrage of lawyers is here to tell us what if anything they are doing. Their absence and silence speaks volumes about the hidden crimes in Iraq. Their attitude seems to be one of blissful indifference to American workers in Iraq.”
Those are not the words of some lawsuit-happy trial lawyer hoping to make a killing off Jones’ case. They’re the words of Jones’ pro-Bush, pro-war, Republican congressman, who now says he believes there are other crimes committed by contractors in Iraq being covered up by the U.S. government.
The initial gang rape allegations, if true, are awful. But had KBR taken the allegations seriously, and conducted a thorough investigation, I’d have been the first to argue against the idea that the story in any way reflects on military contractors in general. I have my problems with defense contractors, and I do think the legal netherworld they traverse—in which they appear to be immune from U.S. law, Iraqi law, and military law—is troubling for lots of reasons. But the behavior of a few criminal employees in no way should have reflected on KBR as a whole, any more than the behavior of a few U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib reflects poorly on the military as a whole.
Until, that is, the company started covering the whole thing up—or at the very least refused to take the allegations seriously—and with what now looks like the assistance of the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of Justice. Now everyone looks bad.
KBR, did it once. The govt, claiming the right to grab anyone deemed a ‘terrorist’ and torture them, probably does it daily. KBR doesn’t have the rhetorical cover of “it’s OK for the State, which has a monopoly on power”. People who think it’s wrong for KBR will cover for the govt. I can choose not to work for KBR much more easily than I can choose to live under a different national govt, and that national govt claims the right to grab me wherever I live, so does it matter if I emigrate?
Give me a corp over a govt any time.
Rape and child-related crimes are two things I have no compassion for. If you’re found guilty of either, you should have the book thrown at you. Both are nothing more than acts meant to show power or dominance and to emasculate these criminals is the ultimate ironic ending and the perfect punishment.
I hope Bubba takes care of them.
check out overlawyered.com for more on this.
By covering this up, all they’re doing is making the wound fester. The allegations are already that contractors are not held responsible in Iraq. Great way to confirm that that be the case.
Personally, I hope that if the allegations be true, that if the government won’t get them, that an IED will.
On that note, one of the biggest mistakes we made with the rape laws was not maintaining life in prison or the death penalty for all bonafide cases of rape (ie cases that are forcible and not drunken buyer’s remorse the next morning).
Mike, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been a victim of more than my fair share of crime. One time my house was vandalized by some bastard middle-schoolers, and I requested leniency from the judge for two of the three (the other was a young psychopath). But a couple years ago, I was held up at gunpoint. Having my life literally in the hands of a crack fiend was probably the worst point of my life because I was completely helpless. Personally if I was going to rob someone, I’d have the courtesy to show them the gun without shoving it in their back. I think a crime that shows such a callous disregard for life deserves at least a few years in prison. How much worse is a rape? A hundred times? A thousand times? Whatever the answer, it’s at the very minimum life in prison.
I don’t agree with this statement by Alex:
“How much worse is a rape? A hundred times? A thousand times? Whatever the answer, it’s at the very minimum life in prison.”
The reason is because I don’t believe rape to be worse than murder. A victim of rape can always undergo counseling and has a very good chance of living a normal life again; a victim of murder does not.
So, should the punishment be severe? Absolutely! Should it be the same or greater than murder? Not in my opinion. Like I said, i have no compassion for these people but we should never have the punishment exceed the crime. 20-30 years I can live with, but life is too much (unless there are multiple counts, obviously).
20-30 years, if it was actually served, would be a vast improvement.
This woman is my new hero. I have never had the intestinal fortitude to follow through in this manner - not with my own EEOC complaint (to which the response was that I made it up out of a grudge), nor with my experiences as a victim of rape.
How she managed to read her statement with such strength, I don’t know. I have a lump in throat just listening, and know I couldn’t speak past it if I tried.
And to continue to fight this most personal fight - in the public eye and with little hope of success - my god, heroic is the only word I can think of to describe it.
Nando, I’m going to be away from the computer for the rest of the day, and I think this is an interesting conversation, so I’d like to take the opportunity to expound on what I said earlier.
First of all, I don’t think murder is necessarily worse than rape. A friend recently served on a jury where a guy got the crap beat out of him at a block party over some stupid neighborhood beef. He got in his car, waited at the end of the street, and shot of one of the guys as he was leaving about an hour later. My friend said everyone involved was a complete idiot. Taking him at his word, I would consider that murder to be a natural human reaction by someone without the wisdom to control his emotions. In other words, he’s not really a threat unless you beat him half to death over relatively nothing first. On the other hand, I think there’s a very small segment of our population that are complete sociopaths. They don’t possess normal human empathy, and there’s therefore very little hope for rehabilitation. I think people who commit true rape, not Genarlow Wilson rape, fall into that category. IMO socity can withstand the burden of repeat burglars in the name of fair and equitable justice, but releasing rapists back into society is a gamble not worth taking.
The Feminist Peace Network seems to be all over this, don’t they? Oddly, the Mississauga Muslim murder of a teenage girl and other Islamic outrages against women don’t get a similar rise.
Couldn’t be that anti-war politics have anything to do with this selective outrage, could it?
Normally I’m not one to leave anonymous comments or make inflammatory allegations under cover of one, but here I go. If Radley deletes it, I won’t quibble.
I have several family members in the Navy, thus I have quite a few friends who are Naval officers. Many of them have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in what are termed “Individual Augmentation” or “GWOT Support Assignments.” They spend six months in a crash course on soldiering before spending 6-12 months on the ground. Anything from training jobs to cubicle jobs to geting-shot-at-regularly jobs.
A female friend of ours was volun-told for a job at a FOB in Iraq. She received two pieces of advice from a friend who had just returned from a similar situation: 1. Make yourself as unattractive as you can. 2. Stay away from contractors. Note that she wasn’t using “contractors” as a euphemism for “Blackwater,” but as a generic term for all the American civilians employed by third parties such as K B R. Our friend gave us the impression that these admonitions are common knowledge over there.
I have heard worse rumors, but none of them reliable enough to mention. My guess is that if the whole truth came out, stories like Ms. Jones’s would be seen as appallingly common.
A Short video I put together showing George W. Bush’s indifference to contractors in Iraq and their abuse of people like Jamie Leigh Jones.
In the Video I attempt to show the real moral values of George W. Bush.
The video speaks for it’s self.
http://www.hillbillyreport.com/blog/2007/12/jamie-leigh-jon.html
“knee-jerk Swift-Boating of this woman the moment ABC News reported her story a couple of weeks ago.” Swiftboating huh. So they told the truth about her? They quoted her own words? Or are they sliming her? I guess if something is repeated enough times it becomes truth. When do you plan on picking up your million dollars?
“…who started with the knee-jerk Swift-Boating of this woman…”
Please do not malign the Swift Boat Veterans, who had perfectly good reason to gank that lying, opportunitist POS John Kerry by telling the truth about him in their videos, by adopting leftist cant.
I don’t know why people are so surprised by this; mercenaries have never had a very good reputation and just because they are working for our side doesn’t change their nature.
Kind of like govt employees pretending that the tens of thousands of various contractors working for the govt have the govt’s interests as their prime motivation.
All part of a general global raping. The US is raping Iraq, the DEA/IRS is raping citizens everywhere, and now some of the rapists are raping each other. Violence is about control.
redalert, please keep your shit in perspective.
If you want “global rape”, take a look at what Shari’a Islam is doing to Africa, Indonesia, the French subway system, etc, etc.
While it sucks what happened to her, what law was violated???
First of all Tracy Barkers attorney is Stewart Hoffer of Houston Texas not Morris, Kelly and Waldner. It’s also amazing that the media didn’t cover that Barker was locked in a living container 2 times while they escorted her to urinate the halliburton/kbr human resource EMPLOYEE Wesley Lane wrote a sworn statement that she had done this to Barker because she was ordered to by her employers. Wesley Lanes statement is filed in Texas court. The world was outraged by Jones being locked in a container which was horrific but didn’t acknowledge that Barker was locked in the same container 2 times sexual assaulted by State Dept employee and Supervisor of Halliburton/KBR. If this was acknowledged earlier and later maybe Jones would’ve been spared. Barker coming through the Jamie Leigh Jones Foundation is also inaccurate Barker was home for several months before Jones even went to Iraq for 4 days. I was told that is not true What is also horrible is that the public was not allowed to hear Barkers whole case therefore I took it upon myself to read the actual filing wondering why?? Barker is not represented by Kelly, Waldner, or Morris as of a few weeks ago filed in Texas Court motion to withdraw as counsel February 2008. Barker’s new attorney is Stewart Hoffer of Houston Texas . Barker goes to trial April 11th in Arlington Virginia but according to Federal Court Documents Arlington Virginia Attorneys Kelly, Morris, and Waldner never showed for court date against Ali Mokhtare Jan 13 2008, therefore the court had to reschedule. Maybe this is why Barker has a new attorney no more thumbs on this women’s head whose justice were these JUSTICE SEEKERS FIGHTING FOR??? According to Dave with Peoples Magazine and other affiliates interviews requested of Tracy Barker were turned down for Barker’s story to expose that she was also locked in a living container and sexually assaulted. Barker had no knowledge at the time of these request. After reading the details of the witness the statements that were handed in by Jones to the media Rodgers Surman were actual eye witness to Barkers abuse why wasn’t this handed in by Barker to the media and congress. Why the hell wouldn’t Barker testify to a Homeland Security Hearing and just hand in some statement when she was there for several years compared to 4 days???? What a freakin joke. According to the media the 2020 interview Barker just had twins but come on…. STOP ABUSING THIS WOMEN BETWEEN THE ATTORNEYS HALLIBURTON STATE DEPT JONES AND JUDGE MILLER AT WHAT POINT DOES THE INJUSTICE END?????. So you only recognize Jones as the victim or did you like others not know about Tracy Barker being locked up twice?????
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