Women tell of brutal assaults in Iraq that go unpunished

April 9, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government hasn’t tried any cases involving sexual assaults against women who work for contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan, despite a 2000 law giving that authority to the Department of Justice.

That information emerged this morning in often-emotionally charged testimony before a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations panel headed by Florida Democrat Bill Nelson.  Since last fall, Nelson has been pressuring federal agencies about unpunished sexual assaults in the war zones, following a Florida woman’s report that she was attacked while working in Iraq for a defense contractor.

Another disturbing piece of information that emerged in testimony this morning was that the victims of sexual assault in the war zone felt pressured to sweep the incidents under the rug.

“I am unaware of any measures to date being taken against the KBR employee or the member of the U.S. military who attacked me,” Dawn Leamon said in remarks presented to the subcommittee.  “I hope that by telling my story here today, I can keep what happened to me from happening to anyone else.”

Leamon, who has two sons who served as soldiers in the war zones, worked for Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR.  She says she was sexually assaulted just two months ago by a KBR coworker and a U.S. soldier at a remote military base near Basra, in Iraq.  Her testimony marked the first time she has identified herself in public.  Leamon was one of two victims to testify today.

Another KBR employee, Mary Beth Kineston, said in her testimony, “I also expected that when I made a complaint about such activity, it would be thoroughly investigated in good faith, that is, with an intent to resolve the problem immediately, and that I would be protected from the perpetrator in the meantime.  I can assure this committee that none of my expectations about KBR were fulfilled.”

“I’m in a war zone – and, I have to worry about being attacked by my coworkers,” Kineston testified, recounting how she was raped in the cab of her truck by the driver of a vehicle that was parked behind her tanker as they waited one night to fill up with water from the Tigris River.

According to figures supplied by the Pentagon, more than two dozen U.S. civilians have reported sexual assaults.  The Defense Department's inspector general said it has investigated 742 sexual assault cases during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Most involved members of the military and at least 26 involved American civilians.

But the Justice Department has only sparingly used the 2000 law intended to protect Americans working as contractors in the war zone.  In fact, there have been no convictions in a sexual assault of a U.S. civilian in Iraq or Afghanistan.  In prepared testimony, Sigal P. Mandelker, deputy attorney general of the Justice Department's criminal division, said officials have brought charges in five sex cases, with four successful convictions.

The convictions were for sexual abuse of a minor by a Defense Department civilian employee in Japan; child pornography crimes by defense contractors in Iraq and Qatar; and, abusive sexual contact by a Pentagon contractor against a soldier in Iraq.  An indictment has been delivered in the fifth case, but Mandelker in her testimony did not provide details on that case, citing privacy, confidentiality and court-ordered restrictions.

“The bottom line is that American women working in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to be assaulted while their assailants continue to go free,” Nelson said.  “Either the U.S. government has the authority to prosecute contractors for sexual assault and is failing to do so, or it doesn’t have the authority or resources it needs and hasn't come to Congress.  Either way, it is a travesty.

“We’ve got a problem that justice is breaking down here,” said Nelson, who chaired Wednesday’s hearing of the International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights Subcommittee.

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