Blackwater Rape Case Essay Example

But that’s only one story. Take Mary Beth Kineston’s experience for example.She worked as a commercial trucker for KBR in Iraq, and testified that she had been raped in the cab of her truck by a KBR subcontractor employee at night while she was waiting in line to fill her water tanker truck. When she immediately reported the incident to her supervisors not one person did a rape kit test, referred her for medical treatment or even offered to escort her back through the dark to her quarters that night. KBR/ Blackwater may try to keep it under wraps but the stories need to be told and they need to be brought to the light and to its greatly deserved justice.

As the number of women coming forward with these cases rises, Congress has begun look deeper and to question why these crimes are not being prosecuted. In fact, there are several laws on the books that would allow these cases to proceed through trial. But, the problem is not in their lack of legality, but the lack of will. These companies want to keep their power and secrecy and pursue personal objectives and will use political and legal loopholes to undermine the horrifying problems at hand.

Obviously, US military contractors greatly want to avoid the bad publicity that would soon come if these complaints were not kept secret.With huge amounts of money hanging in the balance, with KBR having an estimated $16 billion in contracts, their stakes are high. The jurisdiction to prosecute these men for these crimes like the alleged rapes of Leamon and Kineston is clearly shown under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act

and the Patriot Act's special maritime and territorial jurisdiction provisions. But somebody has to want to prosecute these cases. It needs to be done, and it needs to be done now. There have been over seven hundred reported cases of these alleged rapes, and only eighty-three cases have led to courts-martial.

Why? Why won’t our government step up and take responsibility for the very men they hired to do our work. Why? Because, it’s our DIRTY work. The work they don’t want us as a public eye to see. The fact that these agents are “between the lines or legality” means they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions which is not only legally, but morally wrong in all aspects.

As a country, we need to feel safe with those that are there to protect us and run our day to day lives. So fess up KBR, and give these men and women the justice they deserve. It has to be done. -MY BRAIN