On Capitol Hill, Justice Department officials are coming under criticism for refusing to attend a hearing on allegations of rape and sexual assault of female contractors in Iraq. A former employee has sued Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR after she says she was gang-raped by employees of the company in Baghdad. The alleged victim, Jamie Leigh Jones, accuses the company and the US government of covering up the crime. On Wednesday, government officials skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing into the charges. Committee chair John Conyers called the absence a “disgrace.”