From The Washington Post, 7/5/07:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/04/AR2007070401685.html?hpid=topnews

Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq

From The Washington Post, 7/5/07:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/04/AR200...

Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 5, 2007; Page 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.

The main builder of the sprawling, 21-building embassy is First
Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Co., a Middle Eastern firm that
is already under Justice Department scrutiny over alleged labor
abuses.

First Kuwaiti also erected the guard base, prompting some State
Department officials in Washington and Baghdad to worry that the
problems exposed in the camp suggest trouble lurking ahead for the
rest of the embassy complex.

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 [the
embassy] with no recourse but to shut the camp down, in spite of the
blistering heat in Baghdad," the May 29 cable informed Washington.

Such challenges with construction contracts inside the fortified
enclave known as the Green Zone reflect the broader problems that have
thwarted reconstruction efforts throughout war-torn Iraq.

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$592 million, eh?

Harry