Texas Woman Accuses U.S. Gov't, Halliburton/KBR Of Gang Rape Cover-Up

December 11, 2007 5:57 a.m. EST

New York, N.Y. (AHN) - A former employee of the energy and construction firm Halliburton/KBR has accused the U.S. government and her employer of covering up her rape by co-workers in Iraq, where the American company is doing projects for Washington.

The gang rape of Texan Jamie Leigh Jones, 22, happened two years ago but apparently the Justice Department has not filed corresponding charges and no federal agency is investigating the case.

ABC News quoted Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) as saying that neither the departments of State nor Justice will give him answers on the status of the Jones investigation.

Jones is suing her employers in civil court. However, KBR, which has separated from Halliburton, has motioned for the conduct of a private arbitration hearing instead of a judge and jury trying the case in a public courtroom.

KBR cited a provision in Jones' job contract requiring the arbitration, where no public record nor transcript of the proceedings will be made and an arbitrator will decide the case.

Medical evidence of her rape was also reportedly lost after being handed to KBR.

According to ABC News, Jones claimed in the lawsuit she was drugged before being raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, a heavily guarded diplomatic/government area of closed-off streets in central Baghdad where U.S. occupation authorities live and work. She alleged that KBR later detained her inside a shipping container for a day without food nor water with armed security guards preventing her from leaving.

A sympathetic guard lent her a phone enabling her to call her dad, who sought help from Poe for her rescue and return to the U.S.