WASHINGTON — While working in Iraq for a U.S. government contractor, a Tampa, Fla., woman says she was raped by a drunken colleague. Her attorney said he’s unaware of any criminal charges in the case.
The U.S. Justice Department has the authority to prosecute, but she and at least three other women who say they were assaulted complain of being trapped in legal limbo between a military system that doesn’t oversee the private contractors and a justice system that appears unwilling to do so.
After tearful testimony Wednesday at a Senate hearing from two other women who reported being raped while on the job in Iraq, the Defense and Justice departments acknowledged that although more than two dozen U.S. civilians working in the war zone have complained of sexual assaults, no one has yet been tried for a crime.
