Ted Poe: “In the deserts of Iraq a war is going on against the enemies of America. In the heat and dust of the summer of 2005, a…”

“In the deserts of Iraq a war is going on against the enemies of America. In the heat and dust of the summer of 2005, a young American went to fight, not against al Qaeda, but for her own survival. She became the ``Hostage of Baghdad,'' held against her will by villains of the desert, thousands of miles away from home in Texas. This is her story. Madam Speaker, Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old woman who worked for Halliburton KBR. She was sent to Iraq as part of her employment. She was sent to Baghdad to a place, ironically, called Camp Hope, in the supposed Green Zone that was supposed to be safe. After being in Iraq only a few days, she said she was held against her will, drugged, gang-raped by Halliburton KBR firefighters, and the people in charge of her held her hostage in a ship cargo container for 24 hours without any food or water. She became an American hostage, held hostage by fellow Americans. She convinced one of the people guarding her to let her borrow his cell phone. After obtaining the cell phone, Jamie called her dad in Texas and pleaded for help and begged to be rescued. She was scared, she was hurt, she was half a world away from home, and she was alone. Jamie's dad called me because I represent him in Congress. Her father relayed the tragic assault and crime, and of course needed immediate assistance.…”