Women complain of lack of response from KBR to sexual assault

Women complain of lack of response from KBR to sexual assault reports
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, February 14, 2008


Mary Beth Kineston, an Ohio resident who went to Iraq to drive trucks, thought she had endured the worst when her supply convoy was ambushed in April 2004, The New York Times reported Wednesday. After car bombs exploded and insurgents began firing on the road between Baghdad and Balad, she and other military contractors were saved only when Army Black Hawk helicopters arrived.

But not long after the ambush, Kineston told the Times, she was sexually assaulted by another driver, who remained on the job, at least temporarily, even after she reported the episode to KBR, the military contractor that employed the drivers.

Later, she said, she was groped by a second KBR worker. After complaining to the company about the threats and harassments endured by female employees in Iraq, she was fired, the Times wrote.

Kineston is among a number of American women who have reported that they were sexually assaulted by co-workers while working as contractors in Iraq but who now find themselves in legal limbo, unable to seek justice or significant compensation, the paper reported.
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