Posted by Damozel | Certain right-wing bloggers seem to have concluded that KBR needs their help and support against the
accusations of Jamie Leigh Jones, who claims to have been gang-raped
and falsely imprisoned by KBR's employees. (BN-Politics) For some reason---I wonder what it could be?---these bloggers feel fiercely protective of poor beleaguered KBR, which certainly does seem to have had more than its share of troubles. Despite the fact that the evidence shows that Jones was raped and despite the fact that her father had to have his Congressman (Republican) get the State Department to rescue her, they apparently have difficulty believing that events could possibly have unfolded exactly as she alleged. (BN-Politics).
My colleague D. Cupples---who knows a thing or two about government contractors---did a post on Jones' allegations here. Except for setting out the allegations and the circumstances, there really isn't much for anyone to say at this point.
Except, of course, for certain conservative bloggers who can't bear to give "the left" a chance to crow some more over the (alleged) general lawlessness of government contractors---"Toldjah so!" being the deadliest sneer in Blogland. Instead, they are taking a detached, objective, judicial view of the evidence available on the internet, which they find just a little too horrific to credit and too unlike life as they know it, one which depends on their setting aside the issue of how Jones could have, or why she would have, set the whole situation up and kept it in train sufficiently to fool Representative Poe and the State Department.
How can they be sure that this won't turn out to be another false accusation such as occurred against the Duke lacrosse team? After all, there's very little difference in the two situations. Lacrosse team: government contactors. College boys' beer bash at a premier university: alcohol-fueled party by hired contractors in a war zone. It's all pretty much the same, yeah?
And these guys see too good an opportunity for dangerous one-upsmanship from "the Left" to hold off from rushing to speculation, if not judgment. .
The Ace of Spades:
It feels all un-PC to call a woman alleging a gang-rape a liar but it sure seems convenient that there is no evidence whatsoever for this, all apparently destroyed by a large conspiracy of men who, for whatever reasons, feel a burning passion to cover-up and abet a brutal gang-rape.
'Cause that's what we men do. We help each other get away with gang-rape all the time.
I used to snark about liberals' strange beliefs about what someone's "Republican buddies" were willing to do for them. They always claimed George Bush invaded Iraq just to help his "Republican buddies."
So: A friend will help you move a couch.
A best friend will help you move a body.
But a Republican friend at Halliburton will illegally invade a country and help you gang-rape women. (Woman Alleges Gang-Rape Cover Up By US, Halliburton)
Curt at Flopping Aces:
This rape story seems just too movie like for me. It's sad but since the Duke case we should be a tad more skeptical when the alphabet media come up with these rape stories. Remember the outrage that occurred when Duke first hit the news. Everyone was aghast and calling for the students heads. Problem was that the whole thing was a lie....
You have the devil company itself involved, you have a cover-up involved, you have political intrigue involved and as Rusty said "throw in a crusading lawyer using civil law to find justice when criminal courts have let the victim down and you have the perfect John Grisham book."
Tooooo perfect. (A Story Too Perfect)
Though at least he does say:
.If it turns out to be true tho then off with their heads
The Jawa Report:
I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for this, but this story just sound so.... well.... er ... far-fetched.
Not the rape part--rape happens all the time (gang rapes, not so much, but occasionally). Not the cover up part--cover ups happen all the time. Not the corporation trying to cover ass part--CYAs happen all the time. Not the administration is covering up part--administrations cover things up all the time.
But combine gang rape + cover up + corporate malfeasance + political intrigue and you have the perfect story. Throw in a crusading lawyer using civil law to find justice when criminal courts have let the victim down and you have the perfect John Grisham book.
Now name KBR, Haliburton, Bush, & set the story in Iraq and you have more than a blockbuster movie pitch-- you also have the perfect conspiracy....
It's perfect. Too perfect.
The kind of story the Left can rally around. The kind of story we aren't allowed to question because, well, questioning the veracity of the claims made by a rape victim makes one worse than pond scum. Automatically. (The Perfect Victim Meets the Perfect Villains)
You've got to hand it to conservatives for their touching solidarity and their sweet, naive, reflexive trust in anyone they perceive as "in their corner." It's so precious and childlike. I love it that Shackleton doesn't find it far-fetched at all to believe that Jones not only made the whole thing up. The perfect fiction---perfect for "the Left" to rally around.
Of course, some of us feel that it's a bit hard on Jamie Leigh Jones---a private citizen, not a government official or celebrity---to have her credibility attacked in advance of the facts. After all, a young woman who has been gang-raped and one who hasn't been gang-raped are going to tell very similar stories. Assuming arguendo and for the present that she was raped and imprisoned as alleged, what could she have done at all different from what she has done? What could she have said different from what she has said?
Luckily for Jamie Leigh Jones, "sensible conservative"/satirist Jon Swift is also in the far right's corner. And Swift quietly proceeds---bizarro-world style---to put his no doubt sensibly shod "conservative" foot right through the tenuous web speculation on which their "arguments" are founded. It is a masterly piece of satire.
Of three of the skeptics, he writes:
Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report, Curt at Flopping Aces and former humor blogger Ace of Spades (who recently won the Weblog Award for Best Conservative blogger) are three of the most respected conservative bloggers in the blogosphere. They will stop at nothing to protect America from terrorists. If they gave medals for bravery in a war you are not actually fighting in, these guys would win hands down. (Jamie Leigh Jones Undermines the War Effort)
Here's Swift's reaction.
Jamie Leigh Jones, a contractor for Halliburton/KBR, says she was gang raped by her co-workers, locked in a shipping container and threatened by her bosses. She was finally rescued by the State Department after she got word to her father who contacted Republican congressmen Ted Poe. If true, the story makes Halliburton/KBR look really bad and the fact that a Republican congressman and the State Department got involved lends some credence to her story. But Shackleford, Curt and Ace did not let that stop them from reflexively defending the military contractor and accusing this woman of being a liar in order to support the war effort.
Although Shackleford, Curt and Ace don't know anything about the case other than what they have seen on the Internet, they apparently do read mystery stories. Anyone who has read detective novels knows that when all the evidence seems to be pointing one way, you can be sure that what the evidence is telling you is the exact opposite of the truth. Usually, the detective reveals this twist at the end, but Shackleford, Curt and Ace decided to skip right to the last chapter instead of waiting to see what other evidence comes out before drawing any conclusions....
Indeed, if the terrorists wanted to undermine the war effort and destroy Western Civilization as we know it, this would be the perfect way to do it. Find an intelligent, attractive young woman to claim she was gang raped by contractors who work at the Vice President's company, and then get a Republican congressman and the State Department to back up part of her story. It's brilliantly evil and almost foolproof! There was just one thing these clever terrorists didn't count on: bloggers like Shackleford, Curt and Ace who would see right through their fiendish plan...
The more you learn about her story the more difficult it is to believe. Although there was a rape kit that confirmed she was sexually assaulted, it was lost and found again and the doctor who performed it doesn't remember doing it. "I have no idea which rape victim you are," the doctor told Jones, "because so many young contractor girls were raped after drinking with the guys…. I performed so many rape kits in the six months that I was stationed there that there would be no way to recall whom yours was." It seems to me the testimony of the doctor alone casts doubt on her allegations and exculpates Halliburton/KBT. Case closed.
Even if her story is true, you have to wonder why Jones doesn't just keep her mouth shut like all the other women the doctor says have been raped in Iraq. Doesn't she realize that such an incendiary charge just gives aid and comfort to the enemy?.(Read more: Jamie Leigh Jones Undermines the War Effort)
There's quite a lot more. Swift administers a sharp reverse kick to bloggers who believe that Jones is telling the truth but who historically care only about injuries to Americans. He heaps "praise" on the "courage" of milbloggers who overcome their reluctance to question the word of someone who claims to have been brutally raped and then imprisoned in order to ensure that KBR gets a full and fair hearing in Jones's civil suit.
Not every woman who cries rape turns out to be a victim. But if women who are raped can't make the accusation without having every self-styled detective on the internet speculating on the evidence, women who are raped eventually will stop coming forward. Sadly, a woman who has actually undergone the trauma of a violent rape (not to mention other aggravating circumstances) finds it extraordinarily difficult to come forward, while a woman bearing false witness for an ulterior motive would presumably find it quite easy.
I don't think that raped women who come forward should be pilloried in advance of any perjury because some women abuse the system.
So thank you, Jon Swift, for this short-notice and back-handed discomfiture of Jamie Leigh Jones's attackers..
Justice Dept. Let Contractors in Iraq Misbehave?
Blackwater Took Iraqi Airplanes, CEO Misled Congress?
Inspector General Blocked Investigations re: Waste and Fraud?
Blackwater Faces Civil Suit over Killing Iraqi Civilians
DynCorp Joins Blackwater as Probe Target, State Dept. Stonewalls
Troubled Halliburton-Tied Contractor Ordered out of Iraq
Contractor UNISYS in Trouble Again
Govt. Contractors: Driving up War's Costs?Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Contractor Fraud?
Oversight Hearing: Rice Evasive, Republicans Don't Want Probe
In an added twist -
One of the charges being levelled at Jamie Leigh Jones by prospective "debunkers" is that she alleges she was held under armed guard by KBR but KBR doesn't have it's own armed security.
They're correct. KBR is meant to get all its security details from the US military...but KBR is under a cloud because it might have to pay back $400 million because it sub-contracted other companies to provide it with private armed guards anyway. The Army has admitted that KBR did this in violation of its contract already.
Can you guess who the biggest contractor to provide armed guards for KBR is?
I'll give you a hint. It begins with "B" and ends with "water".
Of course, the wingnuts will claim this just makes it even more perfect, so it must be a set-up...somehow we lefties infiltrated KBR and made them hire private gunslinging thugs.
Regards, C
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/12/smearing-of-jamie-leigh.html
Posted by: Cernig | December 13, 2007 at 01:20 PM