yOU KNOW The Nixon Library used to suggest that Watergate was a Democratic-led coup against the president…many of your colleagues are suggesting the same thing, that this is a stunt designed to discredit Bush, the State Department, KBR, the War in Iraq, etc.

Of course going back to my original points, the evidence of her rape or lack therof will come with an investigation, which currently it appears as though both Sttate and KBR are resisting. If they have nothing to hide, why do they hide?

I only mention Foster because there are still a great many of your kind (non-conservative Republicans) who believe unequivically that CLinton had Foster Killed to silence him. Once again an issue of Innocent until proven guilty, regardless of the silliness of the charges.

One can easily turn that around and say since the wingnut blogs are ranting and raving about how the victim is lying, the viewpoint of all you wingnuts is that this woman is indeed lying so therefore you all immediately smear her and discount her story. That’s my point!

But yeah, if there are no consequences, maybe there’s a better than given chance that this incident happened because the contractors knew that they wouldn’t be held accountable…

shouldn’t be too hard to get!!!

As to the innocent until proven guilty issue I still say I am 100% right. The accused are allowed their innocence until it is proven that they have done wrong, but so too is the accused allowed to make her claims. So far no one is being punished here except the victim. We all know her name and she is being ridiculed by the likes of you and your republican cohorts. Besides the name of the company do we know the names of the perps? This reminds me of the Louima case where he made his claims and nearly all the conservative pundits attacked him as a liar who engaged in rough homosexual activity before he assaulted a police officer. In the long run the truth was far more sinister and far far from what the conservative commentators had to say. You guys are so wrong so often that it is nearly impossible to believe anything you have to say anymore.

Also JK since you believe in the principle of innocent until proven guilty (Except for brown non-christians of course) how did you feel about the Clinton Witch Hunts of the 1990’s? Vince Foster? Travel Gate? OJ Simpson?

Comment by John Kerry — January 3, 2008 @ 2:51 pm

Of course not. It’s just as possible for a woman to lie as it is for a man. But that’s not the point.

What we have here is a woman who says she was raped. This does NOT mean hang the person she accuses without a trial. This means the case should be investigated, and if there is sufficient evidence (including the victim’s testimony), the perpetrator(s) arrested and tried.

This woman’s claim, former employees describing an environment of “rampant sexual harrassment” there, and other employees saying that they too have been victims of sexual assaults has caused Congress to say “we’d like to know what’s going on and what we’re doing about it”. Yeah — I think there are enough red flags here to do some digging. After all, this is a company contracted by the United States, so the U.S. does have the right to know if KBR is maintaining the standards expected of all U.S. contractors.

So Senator Nelson writes to Condi Rice, “requesting details on how many Americans in Iraq had reported being sexually assaulted or abused, how they were investigated, and if any had been recommended for prosecution.” Condi still hasn’t replied.

We have managed to turn the thread into a “was she or wasn’t she?” argument, when the REAL issue is “what is Condi hiding, and why won’t she tell Senator Nelson what he wants to know?”

1. Innocent until proven guilty is a concept of criminal law. It is not a concept of civil law. It is not a concept of government contract law (yes, I spent the other half of my career litigating, writing and advising on federal government contracts.) You seem to be ignorant of this little fact, are you not?

2. I am sorry that you have literacy problems but there is more than her just claiming to have been raped. You just conveniently ignore the fact that she had been examined by Army doctors who found evidence of rape. They prepared a rape kit which was given to KBR security personnel who promptly lost it. I will tell you how this will play out in court:

a. KBR failed to ensure the protectioin of its employee. The plaintiff was found being held against her will in a shipping container. He release from the container required the intervention of US embassy personnel.

b. The evidence establishes with a preponderance of evidence(rmember, this is not a criminal prosecution) that the plaintiff was raped. Plaintiff was examined by US military personnel who found physical injury to her vagina and anal areas consistent with rape. Indeed, mililtary personnel prepared a rape kit to preserve essential phyical evidence.

c. The rape kit was presented to KBR security personnel who knew of the alleged rape, who appreciated the necessity of preserving evidence and have since lost the kit without any explanation. You are reminded that under the rule of spoilation of evidence that you may assume that the evidence contained in the rape kit substantiates that a rape occurred.

d. The physical evidence of forceable sex, the excited utterances of the plaintiff to her parents while being held in captivity by KBR personnel, the confirmation of her capitivity by embassy personnel as well as the spoilation of evidence by a party to this suit who knew or should have known of the importance of preserving this evidence paint a conclussive case against KBR.

3. The government must determine whether KBR is a responsible contractor. Again, this is not a criminal case. It is an administrative determination within the State Department under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Dept. of State Supp thereto. The evidence in the Jones case is enough to prove the case by a preponderance of evidence. We have yet to hear a response by KBR. We will never hear a response from KBR because it would present the potential for civil liability on their part. However, there have been many other allegations of rape and sexual harassment concerning KBR that only hightens the concern over the contractors responsibility as a government contractor.

4. There is a policy determination that needs to be made concerning whether adequate laws exist to protect personnel serving contractors over seas in support of a US military venture. There is a policy determination to be made as to whether the initial decision to deny jurisdiction to the Iraqi government and the failure to enact adequate extra teritorial law to cover such contractors was adequate. This takes an even lower level of evidence.

JK – I hate people like you. You represent the worst element of society. Your kind has justified corruption, bigotry and every other form of injustice in this society.

32. Hmmm!! I’ve read and reread this and for some reason cannot find the word ALLEGED in this story! Maybe my 20/20 vision isn’t what it used to be, right!!

Oh, can anyone say “DUKE LACROSSE CASE”!!!

Comment by John Kerry — January 3, 2008 @ 12:12 pm

Here is a few simple FACTS for everyone, (I won’t address them to some here, because they are obviously in the river and need a pair of oars):

1) Mike Nifong brought the Duke case forward simply to win a tough reelection fight against two opponents in Durham, a city with a sizeable African American community, the accuser was African American.

2) In the Duke case, North Carolina State Bar filed ethics charges against Mike Nifong over his conduct in the case, accusing him of making public statements that were “prejudicial to the administration of justice” and of engaging in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”

3) The rape kit in the Jamie Leigh Jones case disappeared after Doctors turned it over to KBR, clearly an obstruction of justice issue.

4) As noted here by many others, but worth repeating to drive home the point, the victim was rescued from a CONTAINER where she was being held AGAINST HER WILL.

5) According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, National Crime Victims Survey, 2005, almost two-thirds of all rapes were committed by someone who is known to the victim. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger — 38% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 28% were an intimate and 7% were another relative.

6) In the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1872 rapes each day, 56160 rapes each month and 683,280 rapes each year.

7) The United States has the world’s highest rape rate of the countries that publish such statistics. It’s 4 times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan.

As far as FALSE ACCUSATIONS: yes there are many, some statistics show anywhere between 25 to 40 percent.

However, when the evidence has been destroyed, when a victim is rescued from confinement, when a respected former Judge (Ted Poe) who has seen thousands of these cases in his courtroom believe that a crime (in this case many crimes) has occurred, one would think the American people would be livid. One would think the media would be demanding answers, one would think parents would be on the phone to their congressperson. One would think…..

In speaking to a well respected therapist, I learned that in this type of case, where so much has been hidden and evidence lost, there is a very strong possibility Ms. Jones is telling the truth. I for one would give her the benefit of the doubt and keep an investigation going until the truth came out.

At least let’s give everyone involved a polygraph and see what shakes out!

What are you so afraid of?

I’m all for innocent until proven guilty – so let’s get busy with the proving part, shall we?

Comment by John Kerry — January 3, 2008 @ 2:51 pm

You should ask Larry craig and Scooter Libby, both guilty and both free, under your republican “law”, a sad, cruel joke on true American patriots.