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‘Sleeping with the boss’ common at KBR in Iraq

10:25 AM CST on Saturday, December 15, 2007

By Jason Whitely / 11 News

Linda Lindsey, right, is yet another former KBR employee to come forward to support allegations made by Jamie Leigh Jones.

Working in Iraq wasn't always an adventure for Linda Lindsey.

"If you wanted to get a promotion you didn't necessarily have to have the qualifications,” remembered Lindsey, a former KBR contractor. “You just needed to be sleeping with the person who was doing the hiring.”

Lindsey spent two and a half years at the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq working for KBR. She coordinated military housing among other responsibilities.

Though she did not know Jamie Leigh Jones, the young KBR contractor who says she was drugged and gang raped by colleagues, Lindsey said Jones’ allegations are not surprising.

“Where I was at and when I was there it was very, very upsetting,” Lindsey recalled.

In a sworn affidavit for the Jones case, Lindsey said: “I saw rampant sexual harassment and discrimination."

“Well, first of all, a boss saying that he hired a woman because she told him that she puts out," she added.

Her affidavit also said: "When anyone would report an incident of abuse or harassment, they would be threatened with a transfer to a more dangerous location."

Lindsey said complaints made it back to KBR's Houston headquarters, but the people causing problems in Iraq were never removed.

That left many women workers, Lindsey said, feeling helpless.

"If something was going wrong, you couldn't really get anything done about it," she said.

KBR told 11 News it does not tolerate sexual harassment and takes the safety of its employees seriously.

But some like Lindsey think the company, even in Iraq, could do more to protect women workers.

Jamie Leigh Jones and a North Carolina woman, who also said she was assaulted by a KBR contractor, will both testify before Congress Wednesday.

KBR told us it has yet to receive an invitation or subpoena to appear.

On a side note, as a form of therapy, we've learned Jamie Leigh Jones is writing a manuscript on her experiences, which could become a book later on.
Inside KHOU.com

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