US Embassy opening in Baghdad delayed indefinitely

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The opening of the mammoth new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has been delayed indefinitely while its Kuwaiti contractor fixes a punch list of problems, the State Department said on Tuesday.

The sprawling complex, whose cost is edging toward $750 million, was set to open last month but U.S. lawmakers say shoddy work by the contractor and poor oversight by the State Department have delayed it.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected claims of inadequate oversight and said there was no indication how long it would be before the new embassy opened.

"I can't tell you when the embassy is going to open," said McCormack. "We don't have an answer."

McCormack said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was prepared to "cut everybody involved some slack" if the delay fell within the norms of opening a large embassy complex but would demand answers if it dragged on too long.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09435348.htm

[Aviation Pro]

1. This is what you get when general elections are treated like....

...a fucking vote for the high school prom king and prom queen.

[Bucky]

2. and here's a picture of this super 750 million dollar fortress

before


and after

[DavidDvorkin]

3. So does this mean no big, flat roof for the helicopters

to take off from during the final minutes of the American occupation? This is serious!

[TexasLawyer]

4. These aren't just small construction problems

Your tax dollars at work!!!

Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 5, 2007; A01

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.

<snip>

The first signs of trouble, according to the cable, emerged when the kitchen staff tried to cook the inaugural meal in the new guard base on May 15. Some appliances did not work. Workers began to get electric shocks. Then a burning smell enveloped the kitchen as the wiring began to melt.

All the food from the old guard camp -- a collection of tents -- had been carted to the new facility, in the expectation that the 1,200 guards would begin moving in the next day. But according to the cable, the electrical meltdown was just the first problem in a series of construction mistakes that soon left the base uninhabitable, including wiring problems, fuel leaks and noxious fumes in the sleeping trailers. "Poor quality construction . . . life safety issues . . . left with no recourse but to shut the camp down, in spite of the blistering heat in Baghdad," the May 29 cable informed Washington.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/04/AR2007070401685_pf.html

[kimmylavin]

5. Of COURSE it is...

What a complete and total cockup.
Just think of all the things that money could have done here at home... but what a ridiculous notion, spending our own money on ourselves!