[Mb-civic] "George W.'s Palace," A Giant Embassy in Iraq

[Linda Hassler]

Subject: "George W.'s Palace," A Giant Embassy in Iraq

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050306D.shtml


In the Chaos of Iraq, One Project Is on Target: A Giant US Embassy
     By Daniel McGrory
      The Times on Line UK

      Wedneday 03 May 2006

      The question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the 
Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than 
a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the 
biggest embassy on Earth?

      Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and 
running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive 
US Embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the 
Tigris.

      In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger 
than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the 
architects' claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from 
space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big 
enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested 
in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real 
estate or simply took it.

      While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all 
day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US 
mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water 
plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

      Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, 
but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete 
contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the 
skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US 
building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

      In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed 
deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that 
the bill for the embassy was $592 million (£312 million).

      The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site - which will have a 
15ft thick perimeter wall - has hundreds of workers swarming on 
scaffolding. Local residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has 
employed only foreign staff and is busing them in from a temporary camp 
nearby.

      After roughing it in Saddam's abandoned palaces, diplomats should 
have every comfort in their new home. There will be impressive 
residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior 
officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There 
will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a 
state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies 
from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club 
for evening functions.

      The security measures being installed are described as 
extraordinary. US officials are preparing for the day when the 
so-called green zone, the fortified and sealed-off compound where 
international diplomats and Iraq's leaders live and work, is reopened 
to the rest of the city's residents, and American diplomats can retreat 
to their own secure area.

      Iraqi politicians opposed to the US presence protest that the 
scale of the project suggests that America retains long-term ambitions 
here. The International Crisis Group, a think-tank, said the embassy's 
size "is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises 
power in their country".

      A State Department official said that the size reflected the 
"massive amount of work still facing the US and our commitment to see 
it through".

      Behind Schedule

  A US Inspector General's report into reconstruction found that 
although $22 billion had been spent, water, sewage and electricity, 
infrastructure still operated at prewar levels.

  Despite "significant progress" in recent months, less than half the 
water and electricity projects have been completed.

  Only six of the 150 planned health centres have been completed.

  US officials spent $70 million on medical equipment for health clinics 
that are unlikely ever to be built. More than 75 per cent of the funds 
for the 150 planned clinics have been allocated.

  Task Force Shield, the $147 million programme to train Iraqi security 
units to protect key oil and electrical sites failed to meet its goals. 
A fraud investigation is under way.

  Oil production was 2.18 million barrels per day in the last week of 
March. Before the war it was 2.6 million.