David Edwards and Jason Rhyne
Published: Friday December 14, 2007


The former Halliburton/KBR employee accusing the company of attempting to cover up her gang-rape in Iraq is now speaking out about her ordeal -- saying she felt "imprisoned" after reporting the incident, and was told by her superiors to keep quiet or lose her job.

Appearing in an interview with ABC's Brian Ross, Jamie Leigh Jones spoke about what she describes as horrifying circumstances surrounding her rape and it's aftermath as handled by officials at KBR, a then-subsidiary of private security contractor Halliburton.

"I was worried about being in a war zone. I was worried about insurgency," said Jones, who didn't anticipate danger from her own coworkers.

But on her fourth night in a Green Zone barracks in Baghdad, Jones says she accepted a "special drink" from male KBR employees.

"Then I don't remember anything at all after that," she said. "I woke up naked, I was bruised. And then when I sat on the toilet, that's when I realized my inner thighs were very bruised and I was bleeding pretty bad. And then I knew I had been raped."

After a US Army medic confirmed that she had been raped by multiple men, Jones says she was placed under armed guard in a metal shipping container -- outfitted with a bed and a sink -- and told to keep quiet about the rape or lose her job.

"I felt imprisoned," she told Ross. "I wasn't able to call my parents until one of the KBR guards felt sorry for me and let me call."

Ross reports that no investigation is currently underway in the case. The Crime Victims Office at the Department of Justice indicates it has closed it's probe of the rape, citing a lack of jurisdiction over the private contractors in Iraq.

"It's a boys will be boys culture," said Jones' attorney, Todd Kelly. "The men who are there believe they live without laws, they live without restrictions."

Jamie Leigh Jones talks to ABC about being raped while working for Halliburton in Baghdad.

This video is from ABC's Good Morning America, broadcast on December 14, 2007.


Raw Story News Link