State Dept. Orders Site To Take Down Photos Of The $592 Million U.S. Embassy In Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/state-embassy-photos/

State Dept. Orders Site To Take Down Photos Of The $592 Million U.S. Embassy In Iraq

On Tuesday, ThinkProgress highlighted photos of the U.S. embassy in Iraq, which is set to open in September. Projected to cost $592 million, the embassy will have a staff of 1,000 people and operating costs will total $1.2 billion a year. The complex will be 104 acres, which is the size of approximately 80 football fields.

The architectural firm designing the embassy, Berger Define Yaeger, recently posted the designs for the colossus on its website (which is currently down). Today, the State Department ordered Berger to remove the images. AP reports:

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.

ThinkProgress has captured several of the images:



The complex “will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants.”

According to news reports, “Some U.S. officials acknowledged that damage may have been done by the postings and used expletives to describe their personal reactions.” But what kind of damage has been done — damage to security or public relations? (After all, aerial images of the embassy can be easily obtained from sites like Google Maps.)

The real damage of these images comes from bolstering the perception of a long-term U.S. occupation. While Americans will be living in posh quarters, the citizens of Baghdad are currently surviving with just 5.6 hours of electricity a day. Baghdad was also recently rated the world’s worst city in which to live.

[NNN0LHI]

1. But that nasty Saddam wasted the Iraqis money on huge gaudy palaces

New boss, same as the old boss.

Don

[havocmom]

2. Hey, oil barons need comfy place to stay when visiting new sites

;)

[MichiganVote]

3. WTF do they need a pool for? That's our tax money! We can't even fund our schools and they build a

fricken' pool? Who the hell do these people think they are? Last year they didn't even have city pools open in a local major city because of budget cuts. Yet we HAVE to provide a brand new pool in a city across the world that's being blown up for a lousy 1000 people that will sit around and hold their butts?

This is just plain sickening. We are so screwed in this country, so screwed.

[babylonsister]

4. If you're angry about the pool, you don't realize the scope of this

place; it's HUGH!#@!! There's probably more than one, it's a complex within a complex, it's a place you'd never have to leave, if you couldn't. And that's just what might happen.

[MichiganVote]

7. Uh...I think I can get the whole picture child.

[babylonsister]

9. Well, I hope so, child.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/building_a_fort.html

[Bullet1987]

6. Hardcore proof we're not leaving Iraq anytime soon...

no matter what anybody says...

[MichiganVote]

8. Oh hell no. We haven't fucked things up enough yet.

How's that oil thing going republicans? Haven't seen any out of Iraq yet...but by God our people are going to have a swimming pool.

[Esra Star]

14. Not to mention the new military bases. nt

[originalpckelly]

5. C-E-N-S-O-R-S-H-I-P

The fascists didn't like that we might get wind of what they are building, so poof it's gone.

Why does it seem like tyranny is on the march everywhere in the world?

Well, I'd say that we should take this as another Bush/Cheney power grab.

I just said something about this and how it might happen yesterday. And today, here it is. I guess it's because I've got a weird feeling about all of this since Corsi came out about NSPD-51.

[Solo_in_MD]

13. Not censorship

the company is under contract to the US Gov. If copies have gotten out, those can not be forced down by the Gov, though the originator could assert copyright and invoke the DCMA

[Canuckistanian]

10. Looks like a meat cleaver

[Cha]

11. How dare they? Does anybody

think the Iraqis are going to stand for this?

[babylonsister]

12. Which Iraqis? The slave-labor we're harboring? (Mind your blood pressure):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1013853&mesg_id=1013853

[Cha]

22. No surprise there...but

I meant the Iraqis who don't want us in their country as an occupier.

The ones who don't even have electricity all the time. The ones who see that embassy as a flagrant FU from gwbush who bombs their homes to bits and kills their families.

[OneBlueSky]

15. what I'd like to see photos of . . .

are the new detention camps that KBR/Halliburton is building . . . anyone know if they've appeared anywhere? . . .

[symbolman]

16. I guess the Insurgents know just where to set their charges now

this actually IS something that should be classified, not that it EXISTS, or how much, but things like WHERE, SIZE, ROOMS, etc.

We don't want people blowing up the National Iraqi Olympic Swimming pool paid for by the BLOOD of our troops.

Someone should fill a Swimming Pool somewhere with BLOOD (Pig/Cow Blood) and then POINT THIS ABOMINATION Out to the American Public.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. The Iraqis will undoubtedly be appreciative of the edifice and fling flowers at it.

Or..something.

[Supersedeas]

19. just another Presidential Palace in the eyes of Iraqis

[Neshanic]

18. Edward Durrell Stone's embassy designs live on....to the 21st Century

Imitataion is the sincerest form of flattery.

[Saboburns]

20. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Wonder if Helicopters can land on the roof??

[bklyncowgirl]

21. Nice pool. Looks like an Olympic Size jobby to me. No expense spared.

I bet Baghdadians who are suffering without electricity and clean water are really going to appreciate this. They can glory in the luxurious lifestyles of their masters.

At the very least the insurgents should issue a public thank you to the architectural firm--it's always nice to know where the most effective places to send the suicide bombers are located--suicide bombers don't seem to be in short supply but this does save time and energy.

The only question remaining is who will blow it up first? Sunni Insurgents, Shiite Militias or Al Queda Foreigners?