[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 72 (Friday, May 2, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3741-S3742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FOREIGN CONTRACT PERSONNEL

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I came to the floor to discuss 
another matter. I thank the Senator from Rhode Island. As a matter of 
fact, before the Senator from Rhode Island departs the Chamber, he 
might want to hear what I came to talk about. It is actually a little 
success story, but it is borne on another failure we have seen. This, I 
am sad to say, is a failure for American women who are contractor 
personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, when sexually assaulted, 
when raped. They have not been able to have their assailants 
prosecuted, as contractor personnel.
  We dramatically brought this to light in a hearing about 3 weeks ago. 
Two very courageous Americans stepped forward, one for the first time 
publicly. In her particular case, she had been drugged and then gang-
raped by not only fellow American contractor personnel, KBR, a 
subsidiary of Halliburton, but in that case also participated in by 
members of the military. When she tried to seek help, it was all swept 
under the rug, and in her particular case, she did not even get any 
medical attention until 3 weeks later.
  Well, the little success story we have, Mr. President, is that in the 
passage of the Defense Authorization Act, which occurred on Wednesday 
in the Armed Services Committee, there is inserted a new requirement 
under law. That requirement is that contractors to the Department of 
Defense--and, mind you, we have tens of thousands of those contractors 
in Iraq and Afghanistan--No. 1, will be required to report the offenses 
of sexual assault to the appropriate investigative authorities; No. 2, 
they will have the responsibility of providing victim and witness 
protection and assistance to contractor employees.
  If we can maintain that position in the Defense authorization bill as 
it works its way here to the floor of the Senate and then to work out 
the final product with the House--and I think we will be able to 
protect this because who is going to vote against it--that is one 
little happy victory that will give some additional protection to 
American women who are serving in harm's way, who are not members of 
the military but, in fact, are Americans serving overseas as 
contractors to the military.
  Over and over, the testimony was they are assaulted, they cannot find

[[Page S3742]]

someone who will investigate; if they have any evidence--in other 
words, they have been able to get to a doctor and have the evidence 
from a rape kit--indeed, that evidence is lost, the counseling is not 
there, and they are left on their own.
  The United States military actually has done a pretty good job of 
this for military personnel, not so with contractor personnel. There 
are laws on the books that protect contractor personnel. But out of the 
26 known cases we know of, of raping American women--contractor 
personnel--not one of them has been prosecuted.
  So the amending of the Defense Authorization Act with this new 
requirement will require--you would think common sense would tell you 
the contractors would do this. But, no. In 26 alleged cases, there has 
not been one prosecution, and certainly no conviction. So it is my hope 
this will mandate to the contractors they have to report the offenses 
and they have to provide the victims and witnesses protection and 
assistance.
  In this one case, which was so dramatic, Mrs. Dawn Leamon had come 
forth for the first time when she testified to our subcommittee. The 
intimidation of her not doing anything about this gang rape was so 
severe that when she finally left the forward operating base to go to 
another forward operating base, where she could first seek assistance, 
she was given a thumb drive of photographs. Normally, these would just 
be photographs of the fellow contractors and so forth.
  But let me tell you what one of those photographs was. And one day I 
am going to bring that photograph over here in its blown-up form, which 
we showed in the committee, so that the Senate can see how dramatic 
this is. There are three of her male contractor personnel. As they are 
all three facing the camera, one of them is like this, another one is 
like this, and the third one is like this: Hear no evil, see no evil, 
speak no evil--a message that there is no sense in her trying to do 
anything, that they do not know anything.
  This is the kind of lack of protection that is allowed to have been 
going on that has to stop. I thank Senator Levin, the chairman of the 
Armed Services Committee, and Senator Warner, who is the acting ranking 
member of the Armed Services Committee, for letting this Senator bring 
that to the attention of our committee when we marked up and amended 
the Defense authorization bill.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would ordinarily ask consent to proceed to 
a bill prior to filing a cloture motion on the motion to proceed. But I 
will not do so today because there is no one on the other side to 
object.

                          ____________________