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Your Vagina's Belong to Them - V.2
Author: Raine    Date: 04/10/2008 12:02:30

On February 7, I wrote a blog called "Your Vagina's Belong to Them"

This a continuance of that Blog. For those who have not read it, I humbly ask that you do, as it will explain my position about todays blog. Today, as before, it is graphic and contains strong language.

I said the following then:
We have a VERY serious problem. AMERICAN women are just another casualty in Bush's war on terror. In all the drama, the constant dribble of horrific stories we hear every day, the constant numbing down that we all feel, we are missing a VERY serious serial problem with one company in particular.

Halliburton/KBR ... They force employees to give up their civil rights in order to be employed. That means you as a woman have the right to be raped by your fellow workers.

No, I am not kidding. And YES, the Government is complicit.
In that post, I mentioned three women's stories. I also mentioned that these were just three woman and that for every three that speak up - I am more than sure - there are many others who will not. The following story proves this to be the case.

In the past week, we have learned of another rape. Another story of an American woman being raped with ties to KBR. This time, it is with a twist... This time it involves a soldier. In this Article from the Nation, she is Lisa Smith. It is a psuedonym. In this article, we read the following: "That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a U.S. soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: His gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand -- but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth." The article goes on to tell us more of the same type of cover-ups from KBR as I posted previously. A soldier did this to her.

Amy Goodman interviewed Lisa Smith and Jamie Leigh Jones (mentioned previously) and I want to share an excerpt of her interview:
AMY GOODMAN: Now, you worked, you believe, for KBR at the time. Did you, as a medic, have to treat one of your assailants?
LISA SMITH: Yes, I had.
[..]
AMY GOODMAN: Is it true your twenty-two-year-old son in the US military in the Middle East was the one who encouraged you to make a formal complaint?
LISA SMITH:Yes, he did. He served seventeen months in Afghanistan, and I wanted to discuss with him before I went to CID to find out his opinion. And I really was leery that he would be angry with me because I was naming people that were in his same military. And he was very definite, very much disgusted that somebody who wore his uniform would do that to anyone, let alone his mom, and he encouraged the report to CID.
In the interview both woman talk about what happened to them. Jamie Jones also revealed that 40 other women have come forward through her new foundation. Lisa Smith, however, Lisa Smith is a MOTHER of a SOLDIER... Her son is a hero to me. She testified yesterday in Washington DC.
says KBR then assigned full-time security guards to her which gave her no privacy to talk about the incident, and her movements around camp were restricted, yet her attackers' movements were unrestricted.

"KBR did little or nothing to restore my sense of safety after I reported being raped," said Leamon.

KBR release a statement today saying, "Ms. Leamon's allegations are currently under investigation by the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Therefore, KBR cannot comment on specifics of the allegations or investigation. The safety and security of all employees remains KBR's top priority. Any allegation of sexual harassment or assault is taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. As such, Ms. Leamon's allegations have been referred to law enforcement authorities and are being investigated accordingly."

Also at today's hearing, for the first time the Department of Justice is slated to answer questions on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one has yet been charged in Leamon's case.


Last December, the department declined to send an official to testify before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on law enforcement efforts to protect U.S. contractors in Iraq. The hearing featured testimony by Jamie Leigh Jones, a young Texan woman who also says she was gang-raped while working for KBR in Iraq.

Like Jamie Jones, Leamon believes she was drugged before her attack.
There is a whole lot that I can still say here. I have made it clear how disgusted I am at our Government and institutional rape... And this is what it is: Rape has been privatized.

And STILL... as I posted back in February... NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED.
As of today, April 10th, There are NO criminal charges pending in ANY of these cases.
NO one is being charged in a criminal court for the RAPE and SODOMY of American women by American men. Is this what we are fighting for? Is this OK? Is this legal?

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I say no. But this Department of Justice has said nothing... they have turned a blind eye to the EEOC, VII:
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Title VII applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government.

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
Has Rape become OK when a company sanctions it?
The silence from our government says yes. They decided FINALLY to send someone to this hearing, although I somehow find it suspect. Let me make this clear: Lisa smith was anally and orally raped by members of the US armed forces/and KBR. KBR told her to shut the f*ck up. The US armed forces have done nothing that we know of...

Lisa Smith had to testify in DC, because NO ONE was held accountable... If you don't think these stories are important, let me remind you of this from a month ago:
US military records 2,688 sexual assaults
The US military has recorded 2,688 cases of sexual assault involving its staff, 60 percent of which were allegations of rape, a study says.

No sexual assaults are acceptable to me, but 60% of those 2,688 cases were RAPE. In this war the message is being sent that woman are just a mere sacrifice for the good of the mission and the profit margin of the private corporations. With no one held accountable, it seems as though the message from KBR is "yes, rape is acceptable". As long as this administration does nothing, the silence from them makes then complicit in privatizing rape for American Women.

I say No.

OUR Vaginas belong to US
.
:peace: and :heart:
Raine
 

329 comments (Latest Comment: 04/11/2008 03:49:40 by AZ-Turq)
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