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Halliburton and CNN Categorize Gang Rape Allegation as a “Dispute”

Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network at 4:07 AM on December 14, 2007.


Memo to CNN and Halliburton: A gang-rape should never, ever be described as a "dispute".
jaimejones
Jones

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Memo to CNN and Halliburton: A gang-rape should never, ever be described as a "dispute". According to Raw Story, Halliburton is claiming that the civil suit brought by Jamie Leigh Jones alleging that she was gang-raped while working for Halliburton in Iraq must be heard by an arbitrator of Halliburton's choosing rather than in a court because of an employment agreement to settle disputes in this manner.

""She signed an employment contract and there is a mandatory arbitration clause in that contract," CNN legal analyst told Kiran Chetry on CNN's American Morning Tuesday. "It says if there's any dispute arising out of your employment or related to your employment, that dispute doesn't go before a jury, doesn't go before trial judge, goes before an arbitrator."

Of course, if the case had been properly investigated as a criminal matter in the first place, Jones would not be in this position in the first place. This case is about as seriously FUBAR as you can get and should immediately be subject to Congressional inquiry.

"The bottom line is I am surprised that the Justice Department and that the prosecutors have not investigated this to its completion and brought charges and I have to say I think that is coming," Hostin said. "I think after all the press that we've seen, that is going to come, but this is a civil action, an action that she is bringing and typically when you bring a civil action, you can bring it according to The constitution or according to your rights you can bring it in a court of law. She signed that right away with her employment contract and people do it all the time."

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Tagged as: rape, halliburton, kbr

Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the Founder of the Feminist Peace Network.


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There's nothing "civil" about rape
Posted by: CJC on Dec 15, 2007 6:59 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Jones's claim that she was confined to a trailer and raped by several men over a period of days is NOT an employment complaint.

Rape is a crime everywhere, although often not investigated or prosecuted. In any case, it can't hold up in a court of law - at least I hope not! - that if you work for a U.S. government contractor in Iraq you forfeit all your rights. What employment contract includes making yourself sexually available to your co-workers at their demand? And how did the CNN interviewer not look appalled?

The establishment, of course, hates the kind of crimes Jones is accusing her fellow workers of so they try to sweep them under carpets or bury them in the ground.

While some accusations of rape may sometimes turn on a misunderstanding between a man and a woman no one willingly confines herself to a trailer for days so a bunch of guys can have sex with her. You have to wonder why other Halliburton employees or other Americans in the Green Zone didn't know what was going on and put a stop to it at once.

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Who is Hostin?
Posted by: Tombo on Dec 15, 2007 7:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The very idea that Haliburton can defend holding the victim to the arbitration clause nauseates me. We need to start taking rape more seriously. This isn't some "dispute", this is an obvious crime. We need to disband all contractors if they are not liable for their or their employees actions.

That said who is Hostin that the author refers to? Just a pet peeve, but I hate when writers just throw references to people in the middle of an article without clarification.

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» RE: Who is Hostin? Posted by: Declan
KBR...
Posted by: TJ-stars4peace on Dec 15, 2007 10:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
~KBR...Kinky Bastard Rapists~

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Criminal actions by some employees against another
Posted by: thekidde on Dec 15, 2007 11:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
are not, under the law, "disputes" to be settled by arbitration. Whomever counselled this woman to hold off for 2years, and then settle for a civil suit, is not a very good lawyer. Time to kick ass, take names and drag out the tar, feathers and nooses.

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Your damn right rape is a crime
Posted by: graffen48 on Dec 15, 2007 12:46 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are people serving long prison sentences and rightfully so for the crime of rape in this country. How the hell could this be characterized as a dispute? Give me a break!! Get this CNN idiot off the air!!

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This could go to the supreme court.
Posted by: Gaubladt on Dec 15, 2007 2:39 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is a classic example of why an employment contract that forces mediation in a lawsuit is unconstitutional. It denies the employee her right to due process. It also makes the employee a slave.
In the case of KBR, the mediators would be tied economically to the employer. But, even if they were appointed by an "impartial body", they could not, by any stretch, be called the "peers" of the employee. So, the employee is denied a fair trial by her peers when she seeks legal redress.
Also, the creation of a "NO LAWS" zone for U.S. citizens & companies in the Green Zone by the administration is unconstitutional. In a place where there is no law, we are denied "equal protection under the law".

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Nail these creeps to the wall!
Posted by: Susan Kipping on Dec 15, 2007 6:03 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is this what we have been reduced too? Screw this.

Hanging is to good for these jerks. They would have left her there to die. Thank God that guy lent her a phone to call her dad.

If and When we have martial law in this country, we will feel the full blunt of our weakness to control our messed up government officials. There will be rape everywhere and everyone will be a target.

We need to take control of this country. Look you daughters, wives and sons in the eye and know that they are at risk. Now is the time to do something.

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burningman
Posted by: wcox on Dec 15, 2007 10:09 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I just finished Jeremy Scahill's book, "Blackwater". Halliburton, Blackwater and many other corporations can work outside the law in war zones with impunity under governement contracts paid with your tax dollars. Blackwater even did so in New Orleans after Katrina. Rape and murder, not to mention graft, will become common place the more these corporations get no-bid contracts from the US government through cronyism. These corporations are all in bed with the Republicans and we all know that will doom any chance this young women might have of being treated fairly.

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If you play with sharks...
Posted by: Mycos on Dec 21, 2007 4:42 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While I must stress that I in no way endorse the actions of the KBR employees and those involved in the subsequent cover-up, I think it's important to keep in mind that this woman was a paid employee of the worlds most notorious war-profiteers. Her employment was to assist KBR in it's destruction of innocent Iraqi's property, the rape and killing of Iraqi women at the hands of various agencies and individuals enlisted by KBR to facilate their profiteering. In short, she chose to associate herself with possibly the most ruthless group of self-serving war profiteers in existence. Their involvement in engineering the war that destroyed everything it had been contracted to rebuild is common knowledge. As such, those who seek out employment with KBR have ethical standards consistent witgh the far-right conservatives who head it. She almost certainly laughed at left-wingers, scorned those who insisted on showing some pity to Iraqi women and chilcdren suffering worse fates than her. At the very least, she was happy to take HBRs blood-money while ignoring how it came to be in their coffers. She was with sharks engaged in a hunt for fresh meat, and got bit herself. Feeding frenzies always produce such bites on other sharks, which is why she can expect little sympathy from her predatory peers at KBR.

If she wants to work for people who advocate for wars as a bussiness opportunity, she should have expected treatment consistent with that attitute. Despite their mistaken attribution of "survival of the fittest" to be man's survival strategy, we evolved a group, socialized strategy (wolves et al) rather than solitary (cats, bears). People who exhibit the latter strategy are lower-brain oriented, pre-socialization misfits *by definition*. As such, evolution had their removal well underway. But we must insist that militants go back to killing other militants only, as per the Geneva accords. So mote it be.

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