even if this compound was in my town center

i not only wouldn't work in it, i'd not even enter it. there is nothing they can do to convince me it's genuinely certified for occupancy.

New U.S. Embassy in Baghdad ready — six months late
By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The State Department on Monday certified the new $740 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as ready to open, more than six months behind schedule.
Richard Shinnick, the department's buildings chief, said problems with the mammoth, 27-building complex's fire-safety systems have been fixed, and the embassy compound will now be turned over to U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy signed the formal certificate of occupancy Monday, Shinnick said in an interview. Diplomats will begin moving into the compound next month.
The heavily fortified complex, the United States' biggest embassy, will provide working and living quarters for more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats and military personnel, many of whom have been posted on the grounds of a former palace of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
During a recent round of violence linked to the Iraqi government's military offensive in the southern city of Basra, the former palace came under intensified rocket and mortar fire, and Crocker authorized some U.S. personnel to spend the night in the new compound............

...........After McClatchy reported in January that the embassy's fire-fighting system was defective and that experts' concerns were overruled in an apparent rush to declare the facility completed..............

did king george and his court

push iraq into the arms of iran? it's possible. if it does happen, what will the supporters (of king george and his court) say? will they blame THAT on others? will they not hold king george and his court accountable? this is our WORST nightmare. oh i blame congress and the senate as well. THEY have buried their heads in the sand all along (except for a few)

Ahmadinejad calls Iraq 'brotherly'
Ahmadinejad Says Landmark Visit to Iraq Opens New Chapter in 'Brotherly' Relations
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new chapter in "brotherly" relations between the two countries, which were once bitter enemies. Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq. The trip not only highlights his country's growing influence on its Arab neighbor in the post-Saddam Hussein era, but it also serves as an act of defiance toward the U.S., which accuses Iran of training and giving weapons to Shiite extremists in Iraq.
The Iranian leader went from Baghdad's airport to a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who gave him a red-carpet welcome. The two kissed four times on the cheek in the traditional fashion and a band played the two countries' national anthems.
"We had very good talks that were friendly and brotherly. ... We have mutual understandings and views in all fields, and both sides plan to improve relations as much as possible," Ahmadinejad said in a news conference with Talabani at the Iraqi president's residence, located across the Tigris River from the new U.S. Embassy in the fortified Green Zone.........

$750,000,000 and counting........

counting down to what? our poverty? our high oil prices? the cost of groceries? the health care of our veterans? the health care of our elderly? the health care of our children? the education of our citizens? (but not to worry, our congress is investigating drug use in mlb)

State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy
By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The State Department's new embassy construction chief has rejected his predecessor's certification that the $740 million new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is "substantially completed" and has instead begun a top-to-bottom review of the troubled project.
The official, Richard Shinnick, said in an interview the State Department hopes that the sprawling embassy complex — originally scheduled to be completed last September — will be ready by March 31.
But he said repeatedly that he's not setting a target date because past deadlines have forced a rush to complete the embassy's defective work. "That's not the message I want to send," he said.
The central issue appears to be the firefighting systems.
The embassy will house more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats and military personnel, many of whom live and work at a palace of former president Saddam Hussein that is subject to frequent rocket and mortar attacks — adding urgency to completing the new complex.........

736 million dollars

for a pile of steamin' shite. i've written about it before and i'm sure i'll be writing about it again. we built a 736 million dollar white elephant (i'm almost certain WE paid MORE than that though). no one is accountable. by no one i mean king george and his court. i don't mean a low level fall woman or man. how much would 736 million have helped the gulf coast victims? stem cell research? how many books would it buy for school systems? how many meals for the elderly? how many job training programs would it fund? you get the picture

yet king george is STILL on the loose and NO ONE is doing a DAMN THING ABOUT IT
Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk
'Serious' Problems Were Ignored, Says State Dept. Official

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
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. ......

tuesday levity of the day

and it comes from patricia butenis, the deputy chief of the us mission

on service in iraq: "There are all kinds of opportunities here," said Patricia Butenis, the deputy chief of the US mission.
"There are people who think we live under a constant barrage of mortar attacks, but it isn't that way all the time."

Come to work in Baghdad, pleads US mission

even the state department employees

who are being FORCED to serve in iraq don't want to go. one man said, 'it's a death sentence'. well think about how our armed forces feel...............WE SHOULD NOT BE THERE. CIVILIANS OR MILITARY.

Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty
Top State Dept. Officials Face Angry Questions

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs.
At a town hall meeting in the department's main auditorium attended by hundreds of Foreign Service officers, some of them criticized fundamental aspects of State's personnel policies in Iraq. They took issue with the size of the embassy -- the biggest in U.S. history -- and the inadequate training they received before being sent to serve in a war zone. One woman said she returned from a tour in Basra with post-traumatic stress disorder only to find that the State Department would not authorize medical treatment..................

ok let me just get this ONE thing (out of a kazillion)

straight. this dude, golden who was the state department contractor dude in charge of the us embassy in iraq project ATTEMPTED TO ALTER some shite at the construction site when it was bombed in may. THEN, our dear friend and current ambassador to iraq, ryan crocker BANISHES (isn't this JUST like a fairy tale?) the dude golden FROM iraq YET (and this is THE best part of this ONE story) this golden dude IS STILL IN CHARGE OF OVERSEEING THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

yikes

oh and there's more, i just wanted to mention ONE thing
(and remember OUR KIDS DON'T HAVE HEALTH COVERAGE)
Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A mortar shell smashed into the hulking new U.S. Embassy that's under construction in Baghdad last May, damaging a wall and causing minor injuries to people inside the building. It also exposed enormous problems in the management of what's become a $592 million government construction project.
The State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L. Golden, attempted to alter the scene of the blast, according to government officials familiar with the incident. The State Department inspector general prevented Department officials from investigating the incident, according to interviews and documents.
A congressional committee is examining whether the walls of the still-unfinished embassy complex, which are supposed to be blast-resistant, performed as they should have during the mortar attack.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker banished Golden from Iraq, but he continues to oversee the construction of the embassy in Baghdad; to be the liaison with the contractor, Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co.; and to supervise other projects for the State Department's Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) bureau.......

i'm not going to look for it now

but JUST a couple of days ago, they (i don't know if it was wapo or nyt or whatever) published an article saying the american embassy (that HUGE high priced already falling apart hunk of uselessness) in iraq was NOT going to cost (US i might add) one more cent. why? because they had a SET contract with the builders

why aren't i shocked and surprised then to see this headline now?
Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays
Planning, Workmanship Cited as Problems

when are we going to STOP this out of control regime?

when when when

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials, according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress.
The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million. The core project was supposed to have been completed by last month, but the timetable has slipped so much that the State Department has sought and received permission from the Iraqi government to allow about 2,000 non-Iraqi construction employees to stay in the country until March............

aw so now we find out we employ slave labor (surprise surprise)

and what will be done about this? the same thing that's done about EVERYTHING king george and his good ol' boys touch. NADA

the king george and his court motto: AT ANY COST

(and they DO mean ANY cost including the lives of a few thousand american men and women AND the united states constitution)

Foreign Workers Abused at Embassy, Panel Told


By William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writer

Two American civilian contractors who worked on a massive U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad told Congress yesterday that foreign laborers were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq to toil at the site, where they experienced physical abuse and substandard working conditions.
State Department officials disputed the charges, telling a House committee that inspections had not substantiated the worst reported abuses.
The accounts were delivered at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse in the construction of a huge new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad at a cost of nearly $600 million. The embassy, slated to be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, is being built by a Kuwaiti firm, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., which was awarded the contract after no U.S. company would meet the terms, the committee was told..........

yesterday i linked to a story about the construction of the us embassy in iraq

it cost well over 500 million dollars (and i'm guessing that's nowhere near where it will eventually cost). it was built like the first piece of 'furniture' i built when i took woodshop as a senior in high school (i had all of my credits but they wouldn't let me graduate early. so i took all sorts of FUN classes as a senior. woodshop ended up being fun but since i had NEVER before done anything with wood except pound in a nail, you can only imagine how my first piece looked. it was a 'whatnot' shelf by the way.)

now they want to form an oversight committee to go over the delays, the expenses and the problems? NOW? what about before? before 592 million was thrown down the drain?

what are they going to do? who are they going to punish?

you see not even people who commit treason have to serve time if they're friends with king george or his court members.

Oversight committee to probe embassy construction in Baghdad

Michael Roston

Amid reports of escalating trouble in the construction of the new US Embassy in Baghdad, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that it would investigate the project to build what will be America's largest overseas diplomatic post.
"The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing on construction delays and problems plaguing the U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad, a $592 million project," said the release from the Oversight Committee sent to RAW STORY. "The hearing will examine the performance, billing, and labor practices of government contractors, including the record of oversight of contractors by the United States government."......

592 MILLION

yes i said MILLION. it will end up being WAY more than that though. you know it and i know it.

592 million and children living in the us (even in connecticut) are going hungry. 592 million and millions in the us lack health care. 592 million and the us education system sure could use a giant boost. 592 million and there are still thousands displaced from natural disasters such as katrina. 592 million and our vets aren't being treated right at several va hospitals including walter reed.

592 million and the justice department already has an eye on the building contractor.

592 million and they can't even turn an effing stove on

592 million

Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq


By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer

U.S. diplomats in Iraq, increasingly fearful over their personal safety after recent mortar attacks inside the Green Zone, are pointing to new delays and mistakes in the U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad as signs that their vulnerability could grow in the months ahead.
A toughly worded cable sent from the embassy to State Department headquarters on May 29 highlights a cascade of building and safety blunders in a new facility to house the security guards protecting the embassy. The guards' base, which remains unopened today, is just a small part of a $592 million project to build the largest U.S. embassy in the world.........

mind boggling

this is the stuff of legend i tell ya!

Baghdad embassy plans appear on Internet

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

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.....

......The images were removed by Berger Devine Yaeger Inc. shortly after the company was contacted by the State Department.....

this would be wicked funny

if thousands of people weren't dead and tens of thousands weren't displaced and if we didn't create a whole new wave of terrorists by illegally and immorally invading a country that DID NOTHING TO US

this is EFFING INSANITY AT IT'S HEIGHT

The Colossus of Baghdad: A Mammoth New American Embassy in Iraq

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com.

The U.S. is building an embassy in the heart of Baghdad's embattled Green Zone that will be the largest embassy on the planet -- big enough to embody the Bush administration's vision of an American-reordered Middle East.

Of the seven wonders of the ancient Mediterranean world, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes, four were destroyed by earthquakes, two by fire. Only the Great Pyramid of Giza today remains.
We no longer know who built those fabled monuments to the grandiosity of kings, pharaohs, and gods; nowadays, at least, it's easier to identify the various wonders of our world with their architects. Maya Lin, for instance, spun the moving black marble Vietnam Memorial from her remarkable brain for the veterans of that war; Frank Gehry dreamt up his visionary titanium-covered museum in Bilbao, Spain, for the Guggenheim; and the architectural firm of BDY (Berger Devine Yaeger), previously responsible for the Sprint Corporation's world headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas; the Visitation Church in Kansas City, Missouri; and Harrah's Hotel and Casino in North Kansas City, Missouri, turns out to have designed the biggest wonder of all -- an embassy large enough to embody the Bush administration's vision of an American-reordered Middle East. We're talking, of course, about the still-uncompleted American embassy, the largest on the planet, being constructed on a 104-acre stretch of land in the heart of Baghdad's embattled Green Zone, now regularly under mortar fire. As Patrick Lenahan, Senior Architect and Project Manager at BDY, has put it (according to the firm's website): "We understand how to involve the client most effectively as we direct our resources to make our client's vision a reality."............