Embassy larger than Vatican City to be built in Iraq!

[Tim4319]

This the very reason they region hates the west. Occupation of their land!

<<snip>>
More than three years after the invasion and billions spent on power plants and substations, electricity still remains below pre- war levels, with Baghdad getting power only a few hours daily. Only 32 percent of the people can get clean drinking water versus 50 percent pre-invasion; 19 percent of the population has working sewer connections, compared with 24 percent before. Oil production is stuck at 2.05 million barrels a day and can't seem to reach the 2.5 million- barrel-a-day target set by the U.S.


<<snip>>
But the cost of the new embassy is estimated at somewhere between $592 million and more than $1 billion.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3750745

[robbedvoter]

1. Lemme guess: Halliburton gets the contract, right?

[Tim4319]

2. Wouldn't be surprised in the least bit!

[Bridget Burke]

4. In this case, a "controversial Kuwait based" company got the contract....

Baghdad Embassy Bonanza; Kuwait Company’s Secret Contract & Low-Wage Labor
by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch
February 12th, 2006

Work for what is planned to be the largest, most fortified US embassy in the world was quietly awarded last summer to a controversial Kuwait-based construction firm accused of exploiting employees and coercing low-paid laborers to work in war-torn Iraq against their wishes.

More than a few U.S. contractors competing for the $592-million Baghdad project express bewilderment over why the U.S. State Department gave the work to First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC). They claim that some competing contractors possessed far stronger experience in such work and that at least one award-winning company offered to perform the all but the most classified work for $60 million to $70 million less than FKTC.

"It's stunning what First Kuwaiti has been able to get from the State Department,” one contractor said.

www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13258

Asian workers have been imported; working conditions are dreadful. One group protested but were told they could stay or be released--& find their way back to Nepal from Kuwait City.

(Check out Corpwatch.org. There's plenty of information on Halliburton, too.)

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. For a little perspective on size, it will be 80 football fields

when it's complete! EIGHTY!!! That is enormous!

But, hey! It's all on schedule!!! On track!!! Due to be complete in June 2007...just about time for the troops to be out.

Maybe Bush will just send the troops to the embassy and have Tony Snow sell a message that all troops are back on U.S. soil. :sarcasm:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-04-19-us-embassy_x.htm
"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman.

[Tim4319]

5. Wait, I thought they don't like to give timetables?

:sarcasm:

[The Blue Flower]

6. Pentagon East

n/t