Hearing of the Crime, and Homeland Security Subcommittee - "Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors"
Interview
Hearing of the Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee - "Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors in Iraq"
REP. SCOTT: The subcommittee will come to order.
Welcome to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security hearing on "Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors in Iraq."
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation in which many military contractors are acting with impunity and disregard for the law. In Iraq, our troops have been supplanted in many respects by an army of contractors that is estimated to be approximately 180,000. This is in stark contrast to the normal number of contractors, which is 2, 3, 4, 5 percent of the troop force. The -- 50 percent of the Americans over in Iraq are contractors. About 50 percent are formal military troops.
Unfortunately, the laws governing the contractors has been unclear. In September, we learned of a shooting incident involving a private contracting company in which contractors allegedly shot and killed 11 or more innocent Iraqi civilians. We learned of hundreds of other shooting incidences, but unlike the other one, did not receive media attention and have remained dormant.
Sexual assault and rape incidences have also been uncovered recently. Just last week we learned of the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, who, while working for an apparently prestigious and reputable contracting firm, states that she was drugged and raped by fellow employees in a company facility in Baghdad. Without her courage to go forward, it is likely that this would have been another story which would have gone without prosecution or investigation, and her story has encouraged other women to come forward. We are now aware of at least three other cases of such abuse, but there are likely many more.
One of those cases is Tracy Barker, whose statement, if there is no objection, will be made part of the record. Without objection, her statement will be part of the record. A statement -- a copy of her record will be at the press table if it's not already there, and she is with us today in the front row.
First, this continues -- there continues to be a lack of transparency, and the most important (sign ?) of the problem is the Department of Justice's absence here today. We had a hearing, in fact, on this issue back in June. We learned that 17 pending cases of detainee abuse, including the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, by contractors have remained with the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia for three years. Some of these cases, the Army has investigated circumstances behind them and has found probable cause that a crime has been committed, and referred the case to the Department of Justice for prosecution. We are not told why these cases against contractors have not been investigated or why they are being held up.
In response to our concerns, we marked up a bill -- H.R. 2740, the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007 -- which would require the inspector general of the Department of Justice to complete and submit a report about identification and prosecution of alleged abuses in Iraq. This bill has passed the House but has not been acted upon by the Senate.
In the case we will hear about today, the department has remained silent for over two-and-a-half years regarding the status of the criminal investigation. Why has it taken this long for the department, and what should -- for the department in what should be a routine and -- routine and swift rape investigation?
Second, there are a number of laws the department can enforce with respect to contractors who commit crimes abroad, but it chooses not to. These include the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, the Patriot Act, and the Special Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction Act of the -- jurisdiction of the United States. There is nothing to believe that incidents before us is not covered by present law, and the department has even informed us that many provisions of existing law do permit prosecution.
The bill I mentioned, H.R. 2740, would close the loophole to cover all private security contractors, not just those contracted through the Department of Defense, to ensure that all contractors overseas are accountable under United States law. But in the situation we'll hear about today, the contractor was a DOD contractor, so there should be no question about jurisdiction.
Finally, there is no mechanism in place to ensure appropriate investigation of crimes. In fact, we've heard of many instances in which the Department of Justice and the FBI failed to get directly involved once crimes are alleged. For example, the FBI -- FBI agents only flew out to Baghdad to investigate the September 16th Blackwater incident after sufficient congressional pressure and media coverage. We need to know how long after the alleged shooting they were -- how long it was after the alleged shootings that they were notified of the incident, how long after Ms. Jones's allegations occurred were the FBI notified and what steps were taken. H.R. 2740 requires the FBI to establish on-the-ground investigative units in Iraq to investigate reports of criminal misconduct, but the Department of Justice has balked at this idea and apparently does not support its inclusion in any bill, even though it has the current authority to create such units on its own.
The Department of Justice seems to be taking action with respect to enforcement of criminal laws in Iraq only when it is forced to do something by embarrassing media coverage. Our government is entrusted with the responsibility to oversee contractors in Iraq, and most certainly bears the burden to protect innocent American civilians. I hope this hearing will identify the reason why this is not happening.
With that said, it is my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Texas, Judge Louie Gohmert.
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REP. SCOTT: Thank you, Mr. Weiner.
I ask unanimous consent that a statement from the chair of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, the gentlelady from California, Ms. Sanchez, be entered into the record. As chair of that committee, she has been dealing with the issue of mandatory arbitration, and her statement relates to that issue. Without objection, so ordered.
We have a distinguished panel of witnesses here to help us consider the important issues of the day. Our first witness was to be a representative of the U.S. Department of Justice, but in a letter sent to us just last night, they have declined to testify. They cite the fact that there is a pending investigation on the allegations that we're here today -- and as the ranking member has properly pointed out, we do not expect the Department of Justice to testify on specific cases under investigation, but they failed to inform us as to why they could not appear to discuss other contractor crimes generally in Iraq which are not undergoing any pending investigation or prosecution, or whether or not they have sufficient statutory authority to investigate cases like this. But they're not here.
Our next witness will be the gentleman from Texas, Representative Ted Poe, who represents the 2nd Congressional District of Texas. He is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus. As a former criminal court judge and prosecutor for over 30 years from the Houston area, he is recognized nationally for his creative sentencing of criminals and as a dedicated advocate of victims and children.
Our next witness will be Ms. Jamie Leigh Jones, who in 2005 traveled to Baghdad as a contract employee of KBR and was placed in a predominantly male barracks located in Camp Hope. She will testify to events that occurred only four days after her arrival. She subsequently founded the Jamie Leigh Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping United States citizens and legal residents who are victims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape and sexual abuse while working abroad for federal contractors, corporations or government entities. We want to thank Ms. Jones for her courage and for her presence today.
And finally, we'll hear from Scott Horton, who is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches law of armed conflict and commercial law courses. Since February of this year, he has managed the Project on Accountability of Private Military Contractors at Human Rights First. He is the author of more than 100 publications dealing with issues of international public and private law, and is currently working on a book on legal policy issues relating to private military contractors.
Now, each of our witnesses' written statements will be made a part of the record, each statement in its entirety. I will ask that each witness summarize his or her testimony in five minutes or less, and to help you stay within that time, I hope the timing devices are working at the table. They should start off green, go to yellow when a minute is left, and then to red when the five minutes are up.
First we'll hear from Congressman Poe.
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EP. SCOTT: Thank you. Thank you, Professor.
We'll now have questions from the panel and I'll recognize myself for five minutes and begin with Ms. Jones.
Are you aware of other cases of sexual assaults during your time in Iraq?
MS. JONES: I'm aware of several other cases, yes.
REP. SCOTT: And do you know if any of them have been investigated by criminal law authorities?
MS. JONES: Everyone that has came to me through my foundation don't know where to turn to for their criminal prosecution. And that's why I asked the assistant United States attorney where I should refer the victims to, Mr. Chairman.
REP. SCOTT: And do you know whether any of them have been investigated?
MS. JONES: Not to my knowledge, Mr. Chairman.
REP. SCOTT: Congressman Poe, when you called the Department of State -- did they give you any response to the allegations? Did they admit it, deny it?
REP. POE: The initial call was made and -- told them what had occurred. And our biggest concern at that point was getting Jamie in a safe environment. And so there was no comment. The first, obviously, they had seemed to have heard of any of this is when we called the State Department.
REP. SCOTT: And did you call the Department of Justice as well as the Department of State?
REP. POE: We called -- contacted the Department of State first. Later, in the last two years the Justice Department has been contacted by my office, but we have not received any response from either one.
REP. SCOTT: Say that again?
REP. POE: We haven't received any response from the State Department or the Justice Department.
REP. SCOTT: Professor Horton, you indicated that in this case there seems to be no question about federal jurisdiction over the crimes, because the KBR was a Department of Defense contractor. We're trying to make sure that's the same case for other contractors -- if it's the Department of State or Department of Interior, whatever.
Since it is covered, who in the federal government is responsible for the investigation and prosecution?
MR. HORTON: Well let me start by noting Judge Gohmert, I think pointed out quite correctly, there are still some open questions here, of course. And we don't know who all the perpetrators were. So of course there could be some question with respect to some of the perpetrators. If those individuals aren't in the theater in the context of a contract supporting the Department of Defense, that would be an issue.
But the core events that occurred clearly are within the jurisdictional grant of the MEJA. So what does that mean? That means that the Department of Justice had the power and the responsibility to conduct the preliminary investigation in the theater and to handle it from that point forward. And I'd point out something else that I noted in my written remarks here. That is on December 5th there was a memorandum of understanding reached between the Department of Defense and the Department of State about conducting investigations. That's the thrust of your question.
I got this agreement recently and I read it. I thought I was missing some pages, because the Department of Justice does not appear anywhere in the document! Not only are they not a party involved asserting their prerogatives and their powers in connection with the investigations -- and they are the paramount authority for this purpose -- they aren't even referred to in the agreement! They're AWOL.
REP. SCOTT: We've talked about the mandatory arbitration clause in our employment agreement. Is there any appeal from a mandatory arbitration decision?
MR. HORTON: I have to say that's beyond my field of expertise.
REP. SCOTT: Okay.
And finally, do you know anything about other incidences that have not been investigated?
MR. HORTON: Well, I've interviewed a number of individual contractors who described being victims of assault, involved contract -- rather, fiscal contract issues and so forth -- who described only a process of internal investigation with no government oversight investigation in these cases. So yes, I am aware of some other incidences.
REP. SCOTT: In terms --
MR. HORTON: Not as serious as these, however,
REP. SCOTT: You mean, the contractor doing the investigation, not criminal authorities doing the investigation?
MR. HORTON: That's correct.
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REP. SCOTT: Thank you. Finally, as the chairman has indicated, notwithstanding the absence of Department of Justice officials today we will get answers, and if not soon we'll have other additional hearings in which they'll have an opportunity to explain themselves. In any event, Ms. Jones, we may need more research but I think most of the people up here believe that the statute of limitations on all of the criminal offenses that have been alleged in your case extends into the next administration, and so if this administration will not investigate and prosecute I'm sure the next administration will. With that without objection, the committee stands adjourned.
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