Department of Defense Inspector General Claude Kicklighter has refused to investigate the allegations of gang-rape made by former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones. He stated that since the Justice Department has claimed that its investigation is still open, “no further investigation by this agency into the allegations’is warranted,” reports ABC News.
Jones filed a federal lawsuit against her former employers in May stating that she was drugged and gang-raped by a group of her co-workers in the Green Zone KBR camp in Iraq in 2005. No charges have been brought against Jones’s alleged attackers. According to ABC News, legal experts say they might never even have to stand trial: A loophole in US law effectively leaves contractors working in Iraq out of the jurisdiction of US courts.
Jones also testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terror, and Homeland Security that her experience while working for contractors in Iraq was not an isolated incident. Representative Ted Poe, R-TX, testified that that several women have now come forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault while employed by Halliburton’s former subsidiary, KBR. The case received national attention in December following a report by ABC News.
