Jamie Leigh Jones & Arbitration Fairness

Jamie Leigh Jones is taking Halliburton to arbitration. Jones served as a contractor for KBR/Halliburton at Camp Hope. She was drugged and raped by an unknown number of men. Jones' father called Rep. Ted Poe to rescue Jones from her own employers.

"We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer.

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.

Jones' contract forbids her from suing Halliburton or KBR in court. State Department rules, during the Bush administration, exempts contractors from being prosecuted of crimes committed in Iraq.

Jones was recently interviewed by on All Things Considered how Halliburton is using arbitration. The difficulty with arbitration is employees rarely win against their employers. Information about the rulings is not made public. Arbitration was designed to protect corporations. The little guy doesn't even enter into the equation.

Arbitration is a closed, private process, often with little or no written record. But one state, California, changed its law to require that arbitration results be publicly recorded. Public Citizen staff reviewed 34,000 California cases, and Arkush says the results speak volumes.

"Overall, consumers lost 94 percent of the time," he says.

The arbitration industry disputes that number. But it does not disagree that corporations win more of the time. The disagreement is about whether this is evidence of bias or a reflection that corporations bring stronger cases.

Mike Kelly, spokesman for the National Arbitration Forum — one of the country's largest arbitration firms — says it's the latter.

"You're not going to bring a case that you're going to lose," he says. "Frankly, you're not going to bring a case that you think you have a chance to lose."

A judge ruled Jones is allowed to take her case to court. There are many other female contracters that have been sexually assaulted. Their legal options are less certain.

"Unfortunately, my case is not an isolated incident," she said Tuesday. "With the misuse of arbitration, we have made corporate entities in this country above the law."

Rep. Hank Johnson is sponsoring the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009. Jones has endorsed the bill. Russ Feingold has introduced an arbitration reform bill in the Senate.


Jones spoke in Washington for the Abitration Fairness Act.



Transcript of Jones' speech.

Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies

Proof that the Bush administration doesn't care about the allegations of rape and sexual harassment against Iraq contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, the Justice Department did not send a representitive to the House Judiciary Committee hearings.

"I'm embarrassed that the Department of Justice can't even come forward," said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich.

"This is an absolute disgrace," said Conyers. "The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we're going to straighten out the system right away."

Jamie Leigh Jones testified in front of the committee and reports widespread abuse from KBR employees.

"The problem goes way beyond just me. Through the Jamie Leigh Foundation, numerous other people have contacted me who have been assaulted and raped, then retaliated against for reporting those attacks," Jones said.

Congressman Ted Poe testified before the committee. Poe testified that Jones is not the only victim.

"Since Jamie has gone public with her experience, my office has heard from 3 other women. Of course, my office will furnish the names of these women to the Judiciary Committee if needed."

The reason Halliburton is named in the lawsuit is because the company will not let Jones take the men who attacked her to court. Jones signed an arbitration agreement, Halliburton can not allow her case to be heard in a public court. Halliburton would rather be sued and face negative publicity than have the case go public.

Below is a video of Jones's opening statement.

Jamie Leigh Jones Update

Hillary Clinton calls for an investigation of Jamie Leigh Jones's raped by KBR employees.

"These claims must be taken seriously and the U.S. government must act immediately to investigate Ms. Jones's claims," Clinton said in the letter released Wednesday.

Here is the Clinton letter to Condoleezza Rice and Michael Mukasey.

The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the matter for December 19th.

Now Congress is going to get involved in this in the public forum and find out what’s going on? What’s happening to these employees," said Congressman Ted Poe. "Is their corporation involved in securing their safety or looking the other way?"

Now there is new four women have filed lawsuits against Kellogg, Brown & Root. These woman alleged they were raped or sexual harassed. A Houston attorney will file lawsuits six new lawsuits for women against KBR.

Jason Whitely did some muckraking a found a disturbing pattern of sexist behavior from KBR employees.

Searching through a federal database, we found a second federal lawsuit in Oklahoma, another in North Carolina, and a fourth in Florida, all from women who said they were either sexually harassed or raped while working as contractors for KBR in Iraq.

In a sworn affidavit in the Jones case, SSG Kevin Rodgers, a Texas National Guard Soldier said:

“During my tour in Basra I encountered many unprofessional acts by the employees of KBR and the U.S. State Department.”

Several others concur.

“During my time as an HR (Human Resources) supervisor, I was aware that a lot of sexual harassment went on - it was our major complaint,” admitted Letty Surman, a former KBR employee.

Finally, here is what Linda Lindsey, a former KBR employee said in her affidavit: “There was a lot of promotion based upon who was sleeping with the boss.”

This story is blowing up. KBR has much to answer for.

Related items:

Jamie Leigh Jones

John Conyers and Ted Poe Information Request On Jones Case

Pajamas Media Embarrasses Itself On Jamie Leigh Jones Story

John Conyers and Ted Poe Information Request On Jones Case

John Conyers and Ted Poe have requested the Justice Department give them information on status of the Jamie Leigh Jones case. Jones has gone through State Department channels for two years and has little idea of what (if any action) has been taken on her behave. The Justice Department refused to comment to ABC News about the case. That is hardly a confidence builder.

The Conyers and Poe letter:

December 11, 2007

The Honorable Michael Mukasey
United States Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

We are writing to follow up on the letter sent yesterday by Representative Poe concerning the Department’s response to American Jamie Leigh Jones’ report that she was assaulted and raped by fellow employees of Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad, and that in the aftermath of this assault she was imprisoned under armed guard for over 24 hours without food or water.1

Ms. Jones further states that she was told she would be fired if she sought outside medical care and that the results of a medical examination documenting the alleged rape were given by U.S. Army personnel to KBR security and have now “disappeared.”

This report of criminal misconduct directed against a U.S. citizen at the hands of employees of an American-based corporation working in Iraq at the behest of the U.S. Government, as well as a possible cover-up and destruction of evidence, is deeply troubling.

It also raises broader concerns, which the Judiciary Committee has already been investigating, about the Department’s role in enforcing laws protecting Americans who are working in Iraq.

In addition to the general questions in yesterday’s letter, we ask that you provide answers to the following specific questions as soon as possible, and no later than Tuesday, December 18, 2007:

1. Based on the facts as reported by Ms. Jones, does the Department believe that it has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute in this matter under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, 18 U.S.C. § 3261, or section 804 of the USA Patriot Act, 18 U.S.C. § 7(9)? Please explain.

2. Has the Department investigated Ms. Jones’ claims?

a) If not, why not?

b) If so, please describe the course and current status of the investigation and whether it includes the apparent destruction of evidence described above.

c) If so, what offices of the Department have participated in the investigation? Which Assistant Attorney General is responsible for this and other investigations of alleged crimes within the Department’s jurisdiction committed in Iraq?

d) If so, is the investigation limited to events alleged to have occurred in Iraq, or is the Department investigating events that may have occurred in countries other than Iraq, including the United States?

3. ABC reports a statement by KBR that “it was ‘instructed to cease its own investigation by U.S. government authorities ‘because they were assuming sole responsibility for the criminal investigations.”

a) Did the Department issue such an instruction to KBR?

b) If so, please describe the exact terms of the instruction and explain when, why, and by whom it was issued.

c) If not, do you have any information regarding whether any other component of the US government issued such an instruction? Which one?

d) If some other agency issued the instruction, what is the basis for an assertion that an agency of the US Government other than the Justice Department can have “sole responsibility” for all related criminal investigations? Do you agree that the Department should be involved from the outset of an investigation into a serious criminal matter such as this one?

If the State Department's handling of the Blackwater shooting is any indication, they will stonewall. Worse case scenario is the accused will be granted immunity for testimony. That will effectively destroy what little chance there is for procecution.

What is interesting is the rats are jumping ship. Halliburton is trying to pass off accountability on KBR.

Halliburton says it is improperly named in the matter and expects to be dismissed from the case. "It would be inappropriate for Halliburton to comment on the merits of a matter affecting only the interest of KBR," the oilfield services company said in a statement.

The State Department is passing the Jones case off to the Justice Department.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined Tuesday to comment on specifics of the case, but he confirmed its Bureau of Diplomatic Security had responded to and investigated the incident. He said the results were turned over to the Justice Department.

The State Department freed Jones from imprisonment at the request of Rep. Poe. Jones details the State Department's bumbling handling on her diary.

February, 2007- I spoke with the state department and was told that my case had still not been presented to the AUSA for prosecution

March, 1, 2007- I contacted the state department and asked when my case would be presented to the AUSA- I was told my investigator was on vacation.

March 16,2007- I was told that my case was sent via FedEx to the AUSA in Florida . I was told that the AUSA was out but would review my case the week of 3/26

April, 25, 2005- I called and asked the state department what the status of my case was or who I could call that would know. I let them know that I was quite concerned since I hadn't heard back from anyone in over a month.

April 26, 2005- The state department told me there s no update. “It is with the AUSA and I will call today but it is my experience that this is the time we want to be patient as their decision is the final one.”

Conyers and Poe are right to question the Justice Department's actions. What needs to be taken into account is why the State Department didn't suspend the contractors involved in the alleged crime and immediately launch an inquiry. A rape case is harder to prove as time elapses. How are we to believe these diplomats can run a country if they can't handle one criminal investigation?