http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/11681101.htm
Dispute over a landmark building pits U.S. security vs. Iraqi sovereignty.
By Hannah Allam
Inquirer Foreign Staff
BAGHDAD - American administrators spent at least $15 million turning an opulent sandstone building, shaded by date palms along the western bank of the Tigris River, into a state-of-the-art command center for the rapidly growing Iraqi Defense Ministry.
Now the Iraqi National Assembly wants it, and the U.S. military is struggling to hang on. Built by a king, seized by a dictator, and bombed by U.S. warplanes, this Baghdad landmark is again facing an uncertain future. snip
The most recent bombings left the Majlis a shell of its past glory. Mohammed Qassim, an Iraqi architect who has worked on the building, said he toured the Majlis with U.S. contractors who were seeking local help to rebuild it as quickly as possible in the early days of the war. He said they entered the building to find U.S. soldiers camping in filthy halls. The troops had scribbled anti-Muslim graffiti on the marble walls, he said, and had smashed the fancy bathroom fixtures imported from Italy.
"I was in pain when I saw what had happened to that building," Qassim said. "I said to myself, 'Are these really the civilized Americans we hear about?' "
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