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The general topic of this message is Women's Issues:
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Subject:
Reintroduce the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007
To:
Rep. Jackie Speier
October 16, 2009
Jamie Leigh Jones was working in Iraq for Halliburton/KBR when she was drugged and brutally sexually assaulted by co-workers.
For years, she's been asking the US government to hold the perpetrators accountable, but the men who raped her may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren't subject to US or Iraqi laws.
"In theory" the US contractors could be held accountable in the defendant's state of residence (Jaffe, 2004). The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdictional Act passed in 2000 "may" give the state department some jurisdiction in prosecuting military contractors in Iraq, but there have been a number of civilian misconduct cases referred to the state department, yet there has not been a single prosecution for criminal government contractors working abroad. It is not fair for Jamie and other victims who are coming foreword to not be able to hold their perpetrators to account. This is absolutely not acceptable.
When considering her story it is evident that the MEJA expansion and enforcement act of 2007 has to be reintroduced and passed, since the 110th Congress failed to do so. This bill was proposed in the previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books. The House approved this bill on Oct 4, 2007, but it never reached a Senate vote. Please reintroduce this important legislation.
Daly City , CA
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