The Department of Defense Inspector General considers an alleged gang-rape of an American woman in Iraq an open case and won’t look further into the matter.
In a letter to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Pentagon Inspector General Claude Kicklighter said there is no need for him to look into the case, but he will pursue other questions the senator raised.
“The U.S. Justice Department has issued a statement that they are investigating the allegations,” wrote Kicklighter. “No further investigation by this agency into the allegations is warranted.”
“We’re not satisfied with that,” a Nelson spokesman said. Jones’ attorney Stephanie Morris asked, “How could the Department of Defense refuse to help (Jones)?”
Nelson is looking into the case after a constituent told him she was sexually assaulted in June 2005 while working for contractor KBR/Halliburton in Iraq.
The case followed the allegation of Jamie Leigh Jones of Texas that she was raped and held against her will for a day by co-workers in Iraq while working for KBR in July 2005.
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) said last month that 13 women had come forward with similar cases, the Associated Press reported. – AP
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says
Jones of Conroe, Texas, the wife of Joseph Daigle, a member of the United States Armed Forces currently stationed at Coronado, California, began working for KBR as an administrative assistant in 2004 when she was 19, and started her contract of employment with Overseas Administrative Services, Ltd. in Houston, Texas on July 21, 2005, at the age of 20.
In her initial civil complaint, Jones claimed that she was forced into a sexual relationship with Eric Iler, her immediate supervisor, while working in Houston before July, 2005. Jones claimed that she had to choose between sex and the loss of her job.
Later, Jones was transferred to Iraq. In the civil filing, Jones claims that this transfer was due to sexual harassment. Upon learning about Jones’s transfer, Jones claims that Iler first attempted to transfer himself to Iraq as Jones’s supervisor. When operations manager Frederick Heard assured Jones that Iler would not be transferred to her department, Jones claims that Iler wrote William Tompkins, Jones’s subsequent supervisor in Iraq, a bad reference in order to block her transfer.
Jones alleges that on July 28, 2005, firefighter Charles Boartz, and his co-workers slipped her a date rape drug. She alleges that Boartz and his co-workers then engaged in unprotected anal and vaginal gang-rape with her while she was unconscious. According to Jones, the result of the “severe injuries” inflicted by Boartz and his co-workers on Jones included the following:
(1) disfigurement of chest, (2) bruised thighs, (3) bruised chest, (4) bleeding between legs.
Further, the lawsuit filed by Jones’ attorneys cites the following: “When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants were ruptured, and her pectoral muscles torn – which would later require reconstructive surgery.
Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again.”This was confirmed by U.S. Army physician Jodi Schultz. The rape kit utilized by Schultz on Jones then went missing after being transferred to KBR/Halliburton security forces by Dr. Schultz.
Jones was allegedly confined by armed guards under orders by her employer, KBR, to a shipping container containing only a bed. She was allegedly denied food, water, and medical treatment. Jones used a borrowed cell phone to contact her father Tom, who in turn contacted Representative Ted Poe (R, TX) who contacted the State Department. Agents were dispatched from the US Embassy in Baghdad and removed Jones from KBR custody.
In May 2007, a State Department diplomat recovered the kit from Haliburton and KBR. However, notes and photographs taken by Dr. Schultz (of Ms. Jones the morning following her rape) were missing undermining any chances of bringing the case through the criminal courts.
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