zimv20
Jun 1, 2007, 01:36 AM
first off, it's huge (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12319798/):
New U.S. Embassy in Iraq cloaked in mystery
Baghdad locale, slated to be completed in 2007, to be largest of its kind
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.
The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome.
“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project.
[...]
The 5,500 Americans and Iraqis working at the embassy, almost half listed as security, are far more numerous than at any other U.S. mission worldwide.
[...]
Original cost estimates ranged over $1 billion, but Congress appropriated only $592 million in the emergency Iraq budget adopted last year. Most has gone to a Kuwait builder, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, with the rest awarded to six contractors working on the project’s “classified” portion — the actual embassy offices.
Higgins declined to identify those builders, citing security reasons, but said five were American companies.
The designs aren’t publicly available, but the Senate report makes clear it will be a self-sufficient and “hardened” domain, to function in the midst of Baghdad power outages, water shortages and continuing turmoil.
(more)
i've seen estimates elsewhere that its annual operating budget will exceed one billion dollars. more on that kuwaiti firm in a moment.
now, remember how the plans are secret? oops! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_go_ot/baghdad_embassy_plans)
Baghdad embassy plans turn up online
WASHINGTON - Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project.
Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital.
The images were removed by Berger Devine Yaeger Inc. shortly after the company was contacted by the State Department.
(more)
ah well, that's not the worst of it (http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3014/Forced_Labor_Building_Baghdad_Embassy):
Coerced Labor Building Baghdad Embassy?
Slogger Investigation Reveals Unreported Incidents of Abuse
Rumors of labor trafficking and abuse have plagued building contractor now completing the $592 million Baghdad embassy building project, but a State Department Inspector General investigation reported finding nothing untoward. Now an IraqSlogger exclusive reveals previously unreported instances of appalling living conditions, abuse, and coerced labor, making clear that the allegations against the contractor managing the embassy project remain unresolved.
[...]
The Americans protested that construction crews lived in crowded quarters; ate sub-standard food; and had little medical care. When drinking water was scarce in the blistering heat, coolers were filled on the banks of the Tigris, a river rife with waterborne disease, sewage and sometimes floating bodies, they said. Others questioned why First Kuwaiti held the passports of workers. Was it to keep them from escaping? Some laborers had turned up "missing" with little investigation. Another American said laborers told him they were been misled in their job location. When recruited, they were unaware they were heading for war-torn Iraq.
After hearing similar allegations during much of 2006, Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general, flew to Baghdad for what he describes as a "brief" review on Sept. 15. He now reports that the complaints had no substance....
One former labor foreman at the embassy site who recently read Krongard’s review called it "bull ****." Another former First Kuwaiti employee viewed it as "a whitewash."
[...]
"Every US labor law was broken," says an American labor foreman, John Owens, who adds that he never witnessed a safety meeting. Once an Egyptian worker fell and broke his back and was sent home. No one ever heard from him again. "The accident might not have happened if there was a safety program and he had known how to use a safety harness," charges Owen, who left the embassy project last June....After having worked construction on US embassy sites in Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia, nothing compares to the mess he saw in Baghdad. "I’ve never seen a project more ****ed up."
these are the same kuwaiti friends who we defended in the gulf war. but until i now, it hadn't occurred to me that the word "friends" should have been taken in the context of a "bush friend", meaning using taxpayer money to line corporate coffers at the expense of the proletariat. i'm glad i've got that all straight now.
New U.S. Embassy in Iraq cloaked in mystery
Baghdad locale, slated to be completed in 2007, to be largest of its kind
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.
The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome.
“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project.
[...]
The 5,500 Americans and Iraqis working at the embassy, almost half listed as security, are far more numerous than at any other U.S. mission worldwide.
[...]
Original cost estimates ranged over $1 billion, but Congress appropriated only $592 million in the emergency Iraq budget adopted last year. Most has gone to a Kuwait builder, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, with the rest awarded to six contractors working on the project’s “classified” portion — the actual embassy offices.
Higgins declined to identify those builders, citing security reasons, but said five were American companies.
The designs aren’t publicly available, but the Senate report makes clear it will be a self-sufficient and “hardened” domain, to function in the midst of Baghdad power outages, water shortages and continuing turmoil.
(more)
i've seen estimates elsewhere that its annual operating budget will exceed one billion dollars. more on that kuwaiti firm in a moment.
now, remember how the plans are secret? oops! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_go_ot/baghdad_embassy_plans)
Baghdad embassy plans turn up online
WASHINGTON - Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project.
Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital.
The images were removed by Berger Devine Yaeger Inc. shortly after the company was contacted by the State Department.
(more)
ah well, that's not the worst of it (http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3014/Forced_Labor_Building_Baghdad_Embassy):
Coerced Labor Building Baghdad Embassy?
Slogger Investigation Reveals Unreported Incidents of Abuse
Rumors of labor trafficking and abuse have plagued building contractor now completing the $592 million Baghdad embassy building project, but a State Department Inspector General investigation reported finding nothing untoward. Now an IraqSlogger exclusive reveals previously unreported instances of appalling living conditions, abuse, and coerced labor, making clear that the allegations against the contractor managing the embassy project remain unresolved.
[...]
The Americans protested that construction crews lived in crowded quarters; ate sub-standard food; and had little medical care. When drinking water was scarce in the blistering heat, coolers were filled on the banks of the Tigris, a river rife with waterborne disease, sewage and sometimes floating bodies, they said. Others questioned why First Kuwaiti held the passports of workers. Was it to keep them from escaping? Some laborers had turned up "missing" with little investigation. Another American said laborers told him they were been misled in their job location. When recruited, they were unaware they were heading for war-torn Iraq.
After hearing similar allegations during much of 2006, Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general, flew to Baghdad for what he describes as a "brief" review on Sept. 15. He now reports that the complaints had no substance....
One former labor foreman at the embassy site who recently read Krongard’s review called it "bull ****." Another former First Kuwaiti employee viewed it as "a whitewash."
[...]
"Every US labor law was broken," says an American labor foreman, John Owens, who adds that he never witnessed a safety meeting. Once an Egyptian worker fell and broke his back and was sent home. No one ever heard from him again. "The accident might not have happened if there was a safety program and he had known how to use a safety harness," charges Owen, who left the embassy project last June....After having worked construction on US embassy sites in Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia, nothing compares to the mess he saw in Baghdad. "I’ve never seen a project more ****ed up."
these are the same kuwaiti friends who we defended in the gulf war. but until i now, it hadn't occurred to me that the word "friends" should have been taken in the context of a "bush friend", meaning using taxpayer money to line corporate coffers at the expense of the proletariat. i'm glad i've got that all straight now.
