Baghdad embassy's fire-fighting system is defective

[laststeamtrain]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Baghdad embassy's fire-fighting system is defective
Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: January 11, 2008 03:53:58 PM

WASHINGTON — The fire-fighting system in the massive new $740 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is defective, according to documents obtained by McClatchy and U.S. officials, who allege that their concerns were ignored or overruled in a rush to declare the complex completed.

"As far as I know, nothing's been fixed," said one State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation for speaking to the news media. "The lives of the people who are working in that building are going to be at stake" if the complex doesn't meet building codes, he said.

Last month, 19 days before he retired, State Department buildings chief Charles E. Williams certified key parts of the embassy's fire-fighting system ready for operation, according to the documents McClatchy obtained.

His own fire-safety specialists and an outside consultant, however, had warned Williams and his aides repeatedly about numerous violations of fire safety codes.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/24626.html

[kimmylavin]

1. Sorry for the language...

But are you FUCKING kidding me?
$740 million for an American Palace, and they can't even put in fire safety equipment correctly?
Is this just so someone can make another $5 or $10 million to fix it all?

[Tempest]

2. One mortar and the whole building goes up in flames

BRILLIANT!

[AzDar]

3. Yep. Then, a Halliburton subsidiary gets the contract to rebuild it,

Ad nauseum....

[Doctor_J]

4. Better give KBR another 10 billion to upgrade it

or 20

[onethatcares]

5. well, they can poke holes in the light fixtures and

let the excrement and urine outen any fires that might happen. Sheesh, these guys are the best contractors in the world and the only ones capable of handling such large projects and they suck big time. I guess that's what happens when you are on the government teat.

[tanyev]

6. And Condi can't figure out why her employees don't want to go to Iraq?

Yeesh.

[Richard D]

7. Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk

Source: Washington Post

The firefighting system in the massive $736 million embassy complex in Baghdad has potential safety problems that top U.S. officials dismissed in their rush to declare construction largely completed by the end of last year, according to internal State Department documents, e-mails and interviews.

Some officials assert that in the push to complete the long-delayed project, potentially life-threatening problems have been left untouched. "This is serious enough to get someone killed," said a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. "The fire systems are the tip of the iceberg. That is the most visible. But no one has ever inspected the electrical system, the power plant" and other parts of the embassy complex, which will house more than 1,000 people and is vulnerable to mortar attacks.

Other sources involved in the project, also requesting anonymity, insist that disputes involve technical paperwork issues, largely because the contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials. Now, much of that work needs to be reexamined and checked, they said, substantially delaying the project's completion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

---

Well, gee, it's only 3/4 of a billion dollars.
Wonder if the contractor was a friend of Darth?

[rodeodance]

8. The snow will help

[Octafish]

9. Like the planned NAZI white elephants -- it is the architecture of empire.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Sick reality, but empire is the most profitable line of business.