KBR calls Jamie Leigh Jones a liar. She was raped by their employees... allegedly.

By GottaLaff

I got an e-mail from Jamie Hammon, the Press Secretary for the American Association for Justice.

It's about a subject I've posted about over and over again. And I will again.

Leave it to Halliburton to try to prevent a rape victim... of theirs... to have her day in court. Leave it to them to smear her after they've already destroyed her life.

Leave it to them to confirm what cowards they are:

Halliburton Asks High Court to Block Trial

Halliburton asks Supreme Court to block trial over claim of rape in Iraq

WASHINGTON January 25, 2010 (AP)

The Associated Press

Halliburton Co. is asking the Supreme Court to block a Texas woman's lawsuit alleging she was raped by military contractor co-workers in Iraq. The company wants the justices to reverse a lower court ruling that Jamie Leigh Jones' case can go to trial. Jones sued Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR, saying she was raped while working for KBR at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005.

KBR Calls Jamie Leigh Jones A Liar

By Stephanie Mencimer | Mon Jan. 25, 2010

Ever since its contract employee Jamie Leigh Jones [1]went public with allegations that in 2005, she was drugged and gang raped by some of her co-workers in Iraq and then detained in a storage container, KBR/Halliburton has fought her efforts to sue in a public courtroom. Jones had been forced to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement as part of her employment contract, which required her to bring any work-related claims before a private arbitrator hired by KBR rather than a jury. [...]

But last week, KBR signaled its intention to continue fighting Jones, no matter how bad it makes the company look. [...] Among its many arguments in favor of a high court hearing: that Jones is a relentless self-promoter who has "sensationalize[d] her allegations against the KBR Defendants in the media, before the courts, and before Congress." In its petition, KBR is clearly miffed about the Franken Amendment, which it credits Jones with getting passed. KBR also suggests that much of Jones' story is fabricated. [...]

[W]ouldn't it be better off fighting the charges someplace it could be publicly vindicated? And if Jones' story is really false, why has KBR waited five years to respond? KBR must be pretty worried that lots of other women are getting in line to sue now that Jones has made it easier for them, a potentially expensive disaster. [...] At this point, even if it wins the court battle, the company is going to lose the PR fight.

Blame the victim. Good tactic. This is a disaster for them and they know it.

So what do they do? Rape her all over again.

Franken's anti-rape amendment in trouble?

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Remember those 30 Rushpublic senators and Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment (video here)? They have company. My Twitter pal David Waldman brings us some potentially bad news. :

An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.

Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.

Yes, as Jed noted earlier, this amendment could actually be gutted.

Why? Lobbying from defense contractors, of course!

Go here for more from David.

Here's an excerpt from HuffPo:

Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.

Inouye's office, sources say, has been lobbied by defense contractors adamant that the language of the Franken amendment would leave them overly exposed to lawsuits and at constant risk of having contracts dry up. The Senate is considering taking out a provision known as the Title VII claim, which (if removed) would allow victims of assault or rape to bring suit against the individual perpetrator but not the contractor who employed him or her.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/frankens-anti-rape-amendm_n_329896.html

KBR would skate.

Lobbyists, special interests, Big Everyone: They own us. It's time to replace these so-called lawmakers with people who actually care about Americans. This is stomach-turning.

Unacceptable.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

We have some hard work ahead of us. Need some motivation? Reread this post and watch the video above.

H/t: Pigboy

PhotOh! Rape enabler KBR's ads appear on DC Metro

By GottaLaff

Rapists and their enablers are advertising on the DC Metro now. This photo was taken by one of my Twitter pals, Rizzz:

"We're with you every step of the way!" Yesireebob.

KBR: The stellar group that made stories like this, this, this, and this possible.

This is off the rails... literally.

Here are the 30 Republican Senators Who Voted to Enable Rape

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, via my buddy Mark Karlin (please also see yesterday's prequel):

Rape is a horrific crime. So is the American corporate news media, which so skews the news between entertainment and GOP hit jobs that serious public policy discussions, with real information, are largely missing from public discourse.

And the names of 30 GOP Senators who stood up for rape remain largely unknown to anyone who wasn't in the Senate chamber at the time of the vote.

Much more here.

30 Republican Senators Voted to Sanction Rape

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, via my pal Mark Karlin:

Last week, Senator Al Franken proposed an amendment that would prohibit the Pentagon from contracting with firms that force women employees to agree not to sue companies if they are raped as a result of their employment. [...]

So, as [Jon] Stewart caustically noted, 30 Republican Senators -- 30 -- voted in favor of denying recourse to rape victims in order to protect corporate America.

It, simply put, is beyond belief in a civilized society that 30 Senators -- all Republicans -- voted in favor of rape, gang rape, in the precipitating case that caused Franken to try and end governmental sanctioning of this outrage.

As Stewart, once again, did the work that corporate media should be doing, he showed the hypocrisy of the Republican Senators, many of them who just the week before went on a successful partisan rampage to revoke government funding of ACORN, an organization that had been entrapped by a right wing wannabe pimp, but did not have any employees raped on the job. [...]

That is unspeakably horrifying, and yet the mainstream media was more absorbed with right wing attacks on Obama [...]

That's 30 Republican Senators who voted for gang rape.

The Franken amendment passed because every Democrat voted for it and a few Republicans who haven't yet descended into Dante's Inferno. [...]

It's beyond disgraceful. It's 30 U.S. Senators who are accessories to a brutal crime.

More here, including the Daily Show video.

My previous posts on this subject here and here.

VIDEOS: Franken's for protecting women v. 30 Republican Senators who aren't

By GottaLaff

Remember this post about how proud we were of Al Franken's legislation reining in KBR's treatment of sexual assault? That's because it would be unthinkable to ignore such a horrific crime... unless you're a Rushpublic senator.

So. Who would you rather be associated with? Al...



... or these schmucks, who would apparently prefer to pal around with rapists:



Oof! That hurt.

Good.

VIDEO: Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR’s Treatment Of Rape

By GottaLaff

Here's a video of someone who should have been an sworn in as senator months before he was:



I've written about Jones over and over again, distraught over what she was forced to endure and the treatment she got (unfortunately, the archives were lost when we moved to this site). This is very, very welcome news:

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” [...]

On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”

In the end, Franken won the debate. His amendment passed by a 68-30 vote, earning the support of 10 Republican senators including that of newly-minted Florida Sen. George LeMieux. [...]

Appearing with Franken after the vote, an elated Jones expressed her deep appreciation. “It means the world to me,” she said of the amendment’s passage. “It means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it.”

This was long overdue. Thank you, Senator Franken, Take a look at the 30 Rushpublic senators who voted against his amendment. They include Vitter, Sessions, DeMint, and, well....

... one of the stellar "'Family Values'-rape's-okay-if-it's-committed-by-special-friends" senators (h/t: John Amussen):

GOOD NEWS: Court ruling on KBR gang rape favors victim

By GottaLaff

Photo of Rep. Ted Poe and Jamie Leigh Jones testifying before Congress on December 19, 2007 (c) Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

I did a lot of reporting on this story, but sadly, my posts were unable to be archived when we moved to Blogspot, so I can't link back. Let me summarize my overall commentary: #%@!~&**@!!

In 2005, Jamie Lee Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. In an apparent attempt to cover up the incident, the company then put her in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” Even more insultingly, the DOJ resisted bringing any criminal charges in the matter.

Are you getting angry yet? Good. But guess what? A ray of sunshine, a silver lining, a moment of sanity... an actual victory:

KBR argued that Jones’ employment contract warranted her claims being heard in private arbitration — without jury, judge, public record, or transcript of the proceedings. After 15 months in arbitration, Jones and her lawyers went to court to fight the KBR claims. Yesterday, a court ruled in favor of Jones.” Mother Jones reports:

Jones argued that the alleged gang rape was not related to her employment and thus, wasn’t covered by the arbitration agreement. Finally, two years later, a federal court has sensibly agreed with her. Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2 to 1 ruling, found her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract.

One of the judges who ruled in her favor, Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, is a West Point grad, Vietnam vet, and one of the court’s most conservative members, a sign, perhaps, of just how bad the facts are in this case. It’s a big victory, but a bitter one that shows just how insidious mandatory arbitration is. It’s taken Jones three years of litigation just to get to the point where she can finally sue the people who allegedly wronged her. It will be many more years before she has a shot at any real justice.

A sigh of relief... for now.

Surprise! Major problems found in war spending

By GottaLaff

Instead of Sarah Louise Palin whinin' about all those cuts in spendin', sayin' they're a "sign of weakness" and such, too, also... maybe she should take a little look-see at this:

Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork.

The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.

The report is coming out Wednesday. And what a report it is:

U.S. reliance on contractors has grown to "unprecedented proportions," says the bipartisan commission, established by Congress last year. More than 240,000 private sector employees are supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Maybe they can stand down as the Iraqis stand up.

But the government has no central data base of who all these contractors are, what services they provide, and how much they're paid. The Pentagon has failed to provide enough trained staff to watch over them, creating conditions for waste and corruption, the commission says.

Gee, there's a name for that. Lack of something... overhaul? No. Overweight? Nah. Ah! Got it! Oversight:

In Iraq, the panel worries that as U.S. troops depart in larger numbers, there will be too few government eyes on the contractors left to oversee the closing of hundreds of bases and disposal of mountains of federal property.

There are big question marks in Afghanistan, too. See that? The U.S. is capable of waste and fraud in multiple countries! That's called progress! Want an example of how the Nation of Dick's favorite thugs fared? Why, here's one now!

KBR Inc., the primary LOGCAP contractor in Iraq, has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. The commission says billions of dollars of that amount ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.

In one example, defense auditors challenged KBR after it billed the government for $100 million in costs for private security even though the contract prohibited the use of for-hire guards.

KBR says the commission is biased. Of course they are, dear, Laffy said sarcastically. You just keep believing that.

There is so much more. Take a look, then find a good, strong wall to pound your head on.

KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths

By GottaLaff

From the Department of WTF? Paging ObamAdministration oversight, spill on aisle KBR:

Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground." [...]

KBR announced last week it won a new $35.4 million contract from the Army Corps of Engineers to design and build a convoy support center at Camp Adder in southern Iraq. It will include a power plant, electrical distribution center, water purification and distribution systems, wastewater and information systems and road paving.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the new KBR contract was inappropriate. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said he has formally asked the Corps of Engineers whether it was confident KBR could accomplish it and whether the Corps had any alternatives.

"This is hardly the time to award KBR a new contract for work they've already failed to perform adequately, and which put U.S. soldiers at even greater risk," Dorgan said in a statement. "Ultimately, contractors must be held accountable, and so should those who continue to award these contracts." [...]

Separately, court papers filed in Houston on Friday show KBR is preparing to plead guilty to federal bribery charges for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004.

And they were re-hired... why?

H/t: Babzter

KBR gave troops ice tainted with ‘traces of body fluids and putrefied remains'

By GottaLaff

Support the troops:

A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.” Joshua Eller’s suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR’s indifference to proper sanitization and the disposal of human remains:

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”

Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.

“Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains,” the lawsuit states. “The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces.”

What does it take to throw these putrid little sadistic slugs at KBR into prison, serve them the same quality of food and water as they've given our military, and then finally, throw away the key?

Disastrous fires. KBR contract. Coincidence?

By GottaLaff

Well, well. Look what the Santa Ana winds blew in:

KBR Awarded Disaster Relief Contract by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Under Initiative for Emergency Power 11 Nov 2008 KBR today announced it has been awarded a disaster relief contract, valued at up to $75 million over a five-year period by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Pittsburgh District, for its advance contract initiative for emergency power for the Western region of the United States. The disaster relief contract was created by the USACE to respond immediately to power emergencies resulting from a natural or manmade disaster. KBR will provide all labor, transportation, equipment, materials, supervision and required internal logistics support to perform generator set activities in the Western Region, Geographic Area 3. KBR services will mobilize immediately upon activation by USACE to the "disaster" area. The company will work to quickly provide emergency power to the critical public facilities designated by the State and FEMA as directed by the USACE.

Timing is everything.

Los Angeles fears blackouts as wildfire burns --"The fire is threatening the power of the city of Los Angeles. We may have to move to rolling blackouts." 15 Nov 2008 A wildfire whipped up by hurricane-force gusts raged through northwestern Los Angeles foothills on Saturday, burning some 165 homes and threatening the power supply of California's largest city. More than 10,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as the fire, which has burned more than 2,600 acres, spread westward fanned by dry winds. A separate fire burned a second day in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, where 111 homes have been destroyed. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the fire in the foothills at the edge of San Fernando Valley near Sylmar had destroyed more than any other in the past decade and that flames could take down power lines.

13 Americans, not 12, electrocuted in Iraq

By Paddy


Oh gee, so what's another life lost to incompetence when our best buddies the contractors are raking in the big bucks? Can't have them held to any standards now can we.

PITTSBURGH—Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, says 13 Americans were electrocuted in Iraq since September 2003 and a contractor has been ordered to inspect the facilities it maintains there for electrical safety hazards, a Pennsylvania senator said.

The military had acknowledged that 12 Americans died in Iraq from accidental electrocution. Sen. Bob Casey said he learned last week from Petraeus that 10 soldiers, one Marine and two private contractors died. Casey said he was not given details on the 13th fatality.

(snip)

One of the soldiers killed was Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh, who died Jan. 2 in his barracks in Baghdad. An Army criminal probe blamed improper grounding of an electric pump that supplied water to the building.

Maseth's family has sued KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor responsible for maintaining Maseth's barracks.

Petraeus said KBR received $3.2 million for maintenance services as part of a February 2007 contract modification. According to Petraeus, KBR had previously provided "only limited technical inspections" at Maseth's barracks.

KBR: Shoddy, substandard, and still at it

By GottaLaff

KBR, what a fine, praiseworthy, upstanding, respectable little company. Let's take a look-see at what they're up to these days. What luck! The Pentagon's inspector general just reported everything in an audit!

After Hurricane Ivan struck the Gulf Coast that September, and Hurricane Katrina a year later, KBR was given a number of tasks. They included removing water-damaged carpet and drywall; applying temporary roofing; removing debris; and building trailer parks for displaced families at naval air stations in Pensacola, Fla., and Gulfport, Miss., the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi and other facilities in the region. The inspector general reported that its audit of KBR's work found:

· The Navy entered into an illegal "cost-plus-percentage-of-cost" contract with the company. Higher costs meant more profit for KBR, which rewarded the company for "inefficiency and non-economical performance," the report said.

· KBR paid $4.1 million for services and meals that should have cost $1.7 million, and it awarded sole-source or limited-competition subcontracts that overpaid hourly rates to roofers.

· The company was paid nearly all contract amounts despite "marginal-to-average performance."

The inspector general recommended that the Navy try to recoup about $8.4 million in "excessive" equipment lease payments and material profits, and another $1.4 million for more than 110,000 meals that were paid for and thrown away over a 34-day period.

What stellar patriots! Why, they're nearly as trustworthy and effective as Blackwater U.S.A.! The article goes on and on. Please read it, because I wouldn't want anyone out there to forget about them. After all, KBR's former chief executive is the U.S. of A.'s very own Vice President, the Nation of Dick himself.