As we know by now the rightwing blogosphere instinctively favors mercenaries and private contractors over US troops, unless someone wants to argue that they agreed with Kos and the troops that unaccountable, trigger-happy mercs do more harm than good. They favor management over the mercenaries/contractors themselves (pick any whistleblower case). Whether this comes from an ideological preference for private enterprise over government and management over labor, or whether they instinctively attack anybody who upsets the blue-skies-in-Iraq storyline I can’t rightly say. Could be a mix of both. Whatever it is you won’t lose money betting on Bob Owens or Michelle Malkin’s reaction to a given story.
Case in point: gang rape. Two days ago I commented, snarkily:
How many hours until Bob Owens demands to inspect her vagina? Place your bets here.
Whodathunkit! 32 hours wins the prize.
Bob has a number of concerns, e.g. what actually happened to the rape kit, and wonders why an earlier sexual harrassment case involving the victim isn’t getting more play. Of course that second point helps rather than hurts the argument that KBR has gender sensitivity problems, so three cheers to Bob for bringing it up.
He ends with this gem:
A third claim made in The Blotter is that in the wake of the alleged rape, Jones was, “…held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR…”
Shipping containers typically found in Iraq (and elsewhere) are either 20’ or 40’ steel and aluminum boxes with little to no ventilation. On the days Jones was confined by KBR (July 29-30, 2005), the mean average temperature was 100-degrees, with air temperatures over 110 degrees for 6 hours straight both afternoons. It seems implausible that a person would survive such conditions without adequate food and water.
As much as it pains me to truth-squad a great writer like Bob Owens, repurposed shipping containers (Container Housing Units, or CHUs) are a fairly common type of housing in Iraq. Indeed, one can’t help asking whatever happened to the proud citizen journalist corps of Graeme Frost fame. Has anybody photographed her countertops yet? Harassed an ex-boyfriend? The only thing to do is keep digging.
***Update***
Or, one can stop digging. Six hours after the essay that I linked to, Bob clarified his position:
For those of you who might expect me to be trying to debunk the case… don’t.
No, of course not. Only pieces of the case, which without a disclaimer gives the impression of trying to debunk the case. I’m glad that we cleared that up.
***Update 2***
This post from Jon Swift takes a much broader look at reactions around the conservasphere. When your credibility is rescued by Ben Domenech, it’s a bad day.
jenniebee
It could be worse. I give them high marks for disbelieving it rather than trying to defend gang rape, abduction and cover ups. So far.
Anybody want to take bets on how long it takes for one of them to transition to “the guys have to blow off steam somehow and this is really only just proof that women have no place on a modern battlefield?”
Dreggas
Sorry to go OT but I think the college professor’s will love seeing this
TheFountainHead
Eh, it’s been over 48 hours since The Blotter broke this and the MSM hasn’t picked it up yet which means they likely never will which means it may as well have not have happened. That’d be my angle if I were a suffering neocon.
Grand Moff Texan
CHUs) are a fairly common type of housing in Iraq.
Which just goes to show that Bob Owens has never been in Iraq or a woman.
Not likely to change anytime soon, either.
.
yet another jeff
Either that or they’ll say without irony that she was dressed provocatively and they couldn’t help it…if only she’d been in some sort of garment that didn’t show flesh or feminine shape…
yet another jeff
Can’t imagine a storage container in a warehouse or anything like that…
Bubblegum Tate
I have in my sandbox a 1:32 scale model of a shipping container. I stuck a GI Joe action figure in it and left it out in the sun, and the GI Joe melted! Seeing as how this woman clearly has not melted, we can safely say her entire story is a crock.
Bubblegum Tate
Dreggas: If any of those papers receives a grade lower than an A (maybe an A-), then that is proof of liberal bias in academia! Somebody alert David Horowitz!
Dug Jay
Not sure why your flaming Bob Owens in such a dishonest way; I guess that’s just the style of an unprincipled hack. Here’s what Owns posted around daybreak this morning:
Zifnab
Translation: She’s not dead. Ergo, it didn’t happen.
jcricket
Goddammit! I’ll say it again, with emphasis added: FUCKING GODDAMIT!
How many times to we have to spend countless hours wasting our time rebutting right-wing red herrings, jackalopes, false assertions, two wrongs make a right and any other number of diversionary tactics before we get it? The wingers are basically 100% in the wrong about everything.
And in every single case where they’re proven wrong, they seek to claim victory by shoving some minor non-issue to the front of the discussion to distract all of us will keep us from noticing just how much damage they’re doing to the US and the World.
It’s about fucking time we stopped putting up with it and started throwing some dirt back in their faces
Jeff
I am not making any judgments but these guys are taking a different angle.
Tom Hilton
Amazingly enough, Ben Domenech (of all people) has a very different reaction. Not a fan of Box Turtle Ben, but I give him credit for acknowledging a problem that people like TIDOS Yankee would rather explain away.
That is Paula Jones they’re talking about, right?
Jay C
@ Bubblegum Tate, 12:51pm
I wouldn’t suggest using your scale-model-test results as any sort of argument, either for against Jamie Leigh Jones’ allegations: as it incorporates a serious methodological flaw. A flaw, of course, which will only enable the disloyal, Saddam-loving, terrorist-hugging defeatists among us to use the data you developed to smear and discredit those brave upstanding American
mercenariescontractors who are so altrustically spending so many billions of US tax dollars to bring freedom, democracy and ponies to the ingrate masses of Iraqis.I would suggest you repeat your sandbox-model test using a Barbie doll. Then, the results will be incontrovertible!
jcricket
I’m sorry, but just when I think I’d seen all the beyond the pale comments, comes this turd of a blog post:
Yes, us liberals would have gotten away with our pesky plan to report on all the dead, wounded and raped in our glorious adventure in Iraq if not for you pesky right-wing bloggers.
The delusional mindset has really taken hold, hasn’t it. No stopping them now.
Jen
A comment from the blog. You cannot invent the irony.
It’s not enough just to ride the KBR gravy train, the way to really get PA-ID is to get raped! Hazard pay, baby!
jcricket
Satire, meet reality. Reality, satire.
jcricket, meet gullible. Gullible, jcricket.
Sad.
Jake
Too late for the first part of your bet. Some dickhead in another thread has already tried to tie the lack of prostitution in Iraq (100% false) to the attack. ‘Cos, like, persistent wood is fatal, only luzers wank off an’ rape is just sex without flowers and dinner.
As for the battlefield thing, they might like the fact that she wasn’t on the battlefield keep them quiet or they might be afraid that mentioning that she was out there will look like disloyalty to the Fearless Leaderz that sent her out there.
Tim F.
jcricket, turn on your spoof detector.
However Swift’s post, like John’s two days ago, helpfully illustrates that an impressive number of rightwing bloggers have reacted exactly as I predicted they would.
Jen
Uh, Dug Jay, you think he mighta put that in the FIRST fucking post so he didn’t have to go and put it in later after he looked like an idiot writing that crap about the shipping container? Or do you think maybe now he’s backpedaling without any apologies or retractions whatsoever and acting like he meant all along that she was a brave young woman and “absolutely nothing seems to contradict” her key claim, and we’re all a bunch of idiots for thinking just because he wrote about how she wouldn’t have survived in a shipping container, heavens no, he wasn’t trying to “debunk” anything.
Prick.
Sorry, everybody else.
Mad now.
Jake
Um, yeah. I don’t know if anyone has ever worked with a lawyer, but depending on the circumstances a client can have little or no say in what the hell their attorney is doing. If your attorney doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing (or he’s an attention whore), you can be fucked five ways from Sunday and left with a big legal bill.
The Other Andrew
I’ve noticed that the right is seriously guilty of projection. I go back and forth on whether it’s a ploy or whether it’s subconcsious, though.
“She’s just trying to profit from the situation in Iraq!”
“They’re being partisan for no good reason!”
“Those Democrats are rewriting history, again!”
“I’m so sick of those Democrats and all the government money they’re spending!”
Dustin
Uhhhh jcricket…. Jon Swift is a parody blog. Think The Colbert Report but in writing.
Hell don’t believe me? Just read some of his “Swift Reactions” posts.
Hubris
A RealDoll melts pretty fast under a fiberglass bed topper on a ’92 Chevy, so Bob’s point of reference might be a bit skewed.
Jen
jcricket, that made me laugh because I’m gullible too. Although he *did* name his blog Jon Swift and lead off with this reference to right wing bloggers:
That’s Colbert material, that is.
Libby Spencer
Jcricket, Jon Swift in one of the best spoofers out there and a dear fav of mine. I wish I could write satire like that.
gypsy howell
Using an Animal Crackers box as a surrogate for a shipping container in my kitty litter tray, and experimenting with the effect of different extremes of temperatures by placing said kitty litter tray alternately in the refrigerator and in my easy-bake oven….
Oh hell. Why even try to out-satirize them?
Punchy
Wouldn’t a kitchen have been a better place to keep her? At least she’da been less likely to feel isolated, and coulda whipped up some biscuits and gravy to boot…
Tsulagi
The Confederate Yankee would probably think more clearly if he’d remove the double dildo from his ass.
Did see one decent post on this at a Party of Bush site. Actually at RedState. Surprised. Don’t know the whole history of this Ben Domenech guy (before my blog time), but he wrote a decent piece. Didn’t say the gang rape definitely occurred, but found her account credible. Thought the conditions in the Green Zone to be ripe for this.
Most of the comments in the RS thread were fairly decent too. Of course, though, you can always count on the retardation to rise at RS. And to show stupid is gender neutral, “Peg C” rose to the occasion in a few comments.
Among other things, Peg thought the woman should have known better and shouldn’t have been working there. Ah, the party of personal responsibility. Also, no doubt Peg was mightily looking for a way to pull the trigger on “The Democrats are always worse,” but just couldn’t find it. So she went with “The U.N. peacekeepers are always worse.” Peg had more. She seems to be a proud vessel for Bush. Like him, she sees the big picture.
libarbarian
The Pro-GangRape, Pro-Merc, Bedwetting wing of the Republican party.
libarbarian
Jon Swift is 100% Satire and Snark.
Jesus. How blind do you have to be not to see that?
Dug Jay
No, Jen. You’re just another moron.
Svensker
Please. I just had to gouge out my mental eyeballs.
Jake
Oh, the disgusting responses one could, but will not, make.
Jen
Gosh, score a point for you. Good argument.
Hart Williams
Yup. The second I saw it, I thought: Didn’t John Cole predict this (humorously) two days ago?
And, reading Butt Plug Bob’s “I’m going after ABC, not the rape victim” snark, I have to make this challenge:
I don’t think Butt Plug Bob actually exists. There are too many contradictions and loose ends in the evidence of his existence. Undoubtedly, he’s just a ‘bot that escaped from NRO’s cross-indexing program.
I’m not going after ACTUAL a**holes. Just the artificial construct “Butt Plug Bob” the Confederate Yanker.
Say, isn’t it getting time for “him” to proclaim once again that Google is trying to destroy Christmas with the “Baby Jesus Butt Plug”?
Just wondering. Good catch, John.
Hart Williams
er … I mean Tim.
Hart Williams
Sorry ‘bot that. (sic)
Jen
Domesticate thyself, libarbarian.
Sailmaker
It didn’t even have to a ‘repurposed’ container (although those are useful housing in much of the world), all it had to be was a ‘reefer’ container with a gen set.
Even more obvious – they could have left the container doors open and left a ‘guard’ at the door.
libarbarian
Can we just hurryup and waterboard her so we find out what really happend?
“What were you wearing?”
“Glug Glug”
“Did you have anything to drink?”
“Glug Glug”
“Do you like to watch Porn?”
“Blurb Blurb Retch”
“Did you give the men any indication to think that you wanted to engage in a consensual gangbang?”
“Gag Cough Choke”
“Do you have a history of acting like a leftist slut?”
“Sputter Gag Puke”
“Did George Soros put you up to this?”
jenniebee
Chris Jones at RedState:
One of the commentors suggested he clarify that immediately. He did by explaining that he was only saying that contractors should have complete immunity for killing the people whose country we’re in, but not for raping them, should they choose to do so. Once again, raping country fine, raping people not. Also, if you do rape an Iraqi national and are worried about being caught and brought up before the court of Chris Jones, you should probably go ahead and kill your victim. It reduces the chance of getting caught, eliminates a witness, and there’s no additional risk because in the Court of Chris Jones, there’s no penalty for killing an Iraqi. They aren’t really alive like you and me anyway.
The internets are such a wonderful thing. They let all the sociopaths find soulmates, and not only soulmates, audiences!
Jen
Wow. If you’re Iraqi-American, is there like a three-fifths rule, maybe?
I’ve been giving some thought to trying to infiltrate RS, or some other blog with “moderated” (i.e. “crazerated”) comments, as a spoof. Anyone done this or have any advice? Could be fun. Could be horrifying. Could be both.
Fe E
Smokin’ Joe Jenniebee, the depravity in that comment (Chris Jones’–not yours) is stunning.
What kind of an asshole must that guy be?
Tom Hilton
Yeah, that’s the guy I was referring to upthread. Sounds like conditions there are just horrific for women…good for him for bringing that out, and shame on the other chickenhawks for ignoring it.
By the way, Domenech’s history: he worked for Senator John Cornyn (google ‘box turtle ben’ sometime), was at Red State, got a WaPo blog, within days it turned out he was a serial plagiarist, and he lost the WaPo gig. Generally considered not too bright, and kind of a joke. Still, he deserves credit this time.
maxbaer (not the original)
I seem to recall talk of contractors raping boys at Abu Ghraib. If true, then raping Iraqis is not really something that will make it to the court system anywhere. We’re bringing democracy to Iraq, not justice.
jcricket
Look, alright, I posted too quickly (it was via instaputz, anyway)… And then harangued myself for it :-)
But more importantly, how far off from the actual responses of right-wingers was it? Even Bob Owens, who ostensibly claims to believe the victim, says there are “inconsistencies” and goes into detail about the various physics of box cars (talk about missing the forest for the trees, right?).
Weeks ago (or was it a month) we had top-string bloggers driving by people’s houses to inspect their countertops.
I think that’s what sad. I usually have a good spoof detector, but my outrage-meter has blown a gasket so many times I think it’s stuck in the “on” position.
jenniebee
If you go to her site’s About page (http://www.jamiesfoundation.org/Jamie.htm), you find out that the assault was so bad that she had torn pectoral muscles that required surgery to put right, and she had to fight Halliburton/KBR for the workman’s comp claims to get that treatment – wow. Then there’s this:
Libby Spencer
Don’t feel bad jcricket. Swift fooled me the first time I read him too. That’s the beauty of his work It’s so subtle.
Cassidy
This was on Lou Dobbs yesterday.
jcricket
It’s like vintage DougJ.
These new spoofers are all bluster and no heart. It’s sad really.
Mike P.
Man, I “survived” in CONEX Boxes (as we knew them in Somalia) for days – hell, months – at a time. Slept, showered, shit, ummm… yep, even worked in them. They’re lovely to cut holes in and fix up. “Flip that CONEX!” is what we called it in ’93. OK, not really, ’cause that would be gay.
Anyways, KBR, as well as anyone who’s served in contingency ops over the last couple o’ decades, is quite familiar with the damn things. They’re ubiquitous, and cheap!