What will the $592 million, 104-acre U.S. embassy compound in Iraq stand for?

[RiverStone]

CNN.com
posted 6/1/07

<snip>

The construction site in Baghdad is under heavy guard and treated with extreme secrecy. It is off-limits to all but those with special passes, surrounded by tall, concrete blast walls and impossible to see except from the air.

The $592 million embassy, on a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, is expected to be completed in September. The images posted on the Web site show that it will be a spacious and comfortable facility, albeit dangerous.

Identified as the "Baghdad U.S. Embassy Compound Master Plan," the images show palm-lined paths and gardens, volleyball and basketball courts outside the Marine post, as well as the swimming pool, all with a view of the river.

"In total, the 104-acre compound will include over twenty buildings, including one classified secure structure and housing for over 380 families," the Web site boasts.

more:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/01/embassy.plans.ap/index.html


* * * * * * * * * *

Occupation and opulence come to mind...

I wonder how the resident's of Baghdad feel about a 104-acre American compound in the heart of their city?

How big a space do other nation's embassy's take up in our country?

Another reckless presumption of the BushCo regime - nobody else would fathom creating such a pretentious facility in a country we helped to tear apart --- except the decider and his cronies.

Maybe Shrub will vacation there instead of his ranch?

[fooj]

1. Illegal occupation.

[ringtailtooter]

5. The government has shut down the builders web site

The builder of the new embassy, Berger Devine Yaeger, has their plans posted on their site. The State and Defense Departments freaked and had their site shut down.

bergerdevineyaeger.com/

I'll bet it opens later without the plans.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. My dear ringtailtooter!

Welcome to DU!

Enjoy your stay in our crazy and highly addictive little village!

:hi:

[ringtailtooter]

13. Thank You CAPeg

<:crazy:>

[shadowknows69]

2. I think the real question is

how long will it be standing? You put that big a middle finger in someone's country and someone will find a way to break it off at the knuckle.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. The AMERICAN EMPIRE.

[leftchick]

4. Imperialism

period

[cyberpj]

6. Iraqi's call it "George W's Palace" -- see older articles here:

US "Embassy Iraq", the largest fortress in history, est. cost 1 billion

Iraqis call it "George W.'s Palace".
It has it's own, separate, utilities AND secret detention facilities.
Anyone remember hearing this lie? ..."If Iraqis ask us to leave, we'll leave."

3 articles follow:

(1) In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad
May 03, 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 - 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.

cont'd...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article712424.ece

(2) The U.S. Embassy will be the De facto Capital of Iraq
by Stan Moore
Sunday April 30 2006)

"The U.S. embassy in Iraq is not being built for the Iraqi people's interests. It is being built to facilitate and manage long-term American control of Iraq."

snip...
The myth of democracy for Iraq is about as shallow and as subtle as this reinforced concrete building. Iraqi governance will for years be directed, controlled, manipulated, and protected by the United States of America and its military and corporate leadership. The assets of Iraq will be managed, siphoned, extracted, liquidated, and strangled from the U.S. embassy. Iraqis who oppose this program will become among the "disappeared" and will not be allowed to influence Iraqi governance or policies.

snip...
The U.S. embassy in Iraq is not being built for the Iraqi people's interests. It is being built to facilitate and manage long-term American control of Iraq. The U.S. embassy will be more like the Pentagon than like an administrative home of diplomatic activity. Iraq's fate rests with the fate of that embassy, and it is a foreboding, threatening, frightening monument to the stealing of an entire nation, its future, and its soul by a greedy, powerful, heartless, and merciless occupier.

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/29818

(3) U.S. Building Its Largest Embassy in Iraq
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Friday, April 14, 2006

snip...
"The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country," the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq.

snip...
"Embassy Baghdad" will dwarf new U.S. embassies elsewhere, projects that typically cover 10 acres. The embassy's 104 acres is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall.

snip...
Original cost estimates ranged over $1 billion, but Congress appropriated only $592 million in the emergency Iraq budget adopted last year. Most has gone to a Kuwait builder, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, with the rest awarded to six contractors working on the project's "classified" portion — the actual embassy offices.

Higgins declined to identify those builders, citing security reasons, but said five were American companies.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/14/international/i105942D92.DTL

[cyberpj]

7. And here: Bush's Iraq Palace -largest Embassy on Earth- not big enough

Your tax dollars at work people.......

World's Biggest U.S. Embassy May Not Be Quite Big Enough
Washington Post
By Al Kamen
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

For all those who keep whining about how the government can't do anything right, we're happy to report that the massive New Embassy Compound in Baghdad, the biggest U.S. embassy on earth, is going to be completed pretty much as scheduled in August.

The bad news is that it appears it's not going to have enough housing for all the employees who'll be moving to the 27-building complex on a 104-acre tract of land -- about the size of the Vatican, two-thirds the size of the Mall -- within the Green Zone.

In fact, our new man in Baghdad, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, is said to be concerned that, while there are more than 600 blast-resistant apartments in the NEC, there's a need for several hundred more apartments.

Problem seems to be that the original plans didn't account for hundreds of staff working in reconstruction, development, the inspector general's office and other security programs, who, though considered temporary, will need, at least for a few years, somewhere to live. There are 1,000 Americans working at the embassy, and Crocker is looking to downsize, but we hear he's having trouble finding even 100 to toss overboard.

Also, there are about 200 non-U.S. workers brought in from around the region who are replacing Iraqi staff because it is too dangerous for the Iraqis, who live outside the fortified Green Zone, to work for Americans.

entire article w/photo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051502027.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Bush's Folly.

[radfringe]

9. a monument to the worst president ever

[Mr. Ected]

10. After WE Made Such a Stink About Saddam's Palaces

And used them in our propaganda war about his lavish excesses.

The hypocrisy is, yet again, startling.

[pork medley]

12. the outmoded class of imperialists

preying on the outmoded class of colonized peoples

[snappyturtle]

14. It's the new oil ministry headquarters. nt

[rasputin1952]

15. About 45 minutes after we get our troops out...

:)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

16. It will be...

The biggest mortar target ever constructed.