What took so long is one point. How Halliburton has managed to avoid much negative impact is another. Despite what that company thinks by the way they act, this is extremely serious. They even tried the classic smear in such cases about her drinking and flirting. It's shocking (in a not shocking Bush years way) that Halliburton could get away with all of this. Thanks to Al Franken, things are changing.
US defence firms are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action over an alleged gang rape by fellow workers.
Al Franken, the Senate's newest member, has won an amendment to the defence appropriations bill prompted by the case of Jamie Leigh Jones. She alleges that she was drugged and raped by seven American contractors in Baghdad in 2005.
