US spent over $40 million on an Iraqi prison that will probably never house an inmate

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/02/iraq.reconstruction/index.html

(CNN) -- Iraqis in Diyala province sarcastically call it "the whale."



A new report says a half-built prison in Khan Bani Saad, Iraq, will probably never be used.

The "skeletal, half-built" shell of a maximum-security prison in Khan Bani Saad "will probably never house an inmate" even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project.

Marred by "poor security and weak subcontractor performance," the project is among several examples of Iraqi rebuilding problems cited in a just-published history by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Titled "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," the report says the massive reconstruction initiative was marked by waste and failures caused by "blinkered and disjointed" pre-war planning -- and was pursued amid deteriorating security.

...

It weaves interviews, facts and vignettes detailing the use of a "sea of taxpayer dollars" from mid-2002 through autumn 2008.

[Oregone]

1. Maybe we can house Jon Stossel there.

They should of just paid off my mortgage with that money.

[Ian David]

2. It looks like a great place to play paintball. n/t