In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad
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 caf=E9s, people moan that the structure is bigger 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.
While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to
fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US
mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water
plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.
Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but
you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours
of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline,
the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building
project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.
In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines
and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that the bill
for the embassy was $592 million (=A3312 million).
The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site - which will have a
15ft thick perimeter wall - has hundreds of workers swarming on
scaffolding. Local residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has
employed only foreign staff and is busing them in from a temporary camp
nearby.
After roughing it in Saddam's abandoned palaces, diplomats should
have every comfort in their new home. There will be impressive
residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior
officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There
will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a
state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies
from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club
for evening functions.
The security measures being installed are described as extraordinary.
US officials are preparing for the day when the so-called green zone,
the fortified and sealed-off compound where international diplomats and
Iraq's leaders live and work, is reopened to the rest of the city's
residents, and American diplomats can retreat to their own secure area.
Iraqi politicians opposed to the US presence protest that the scale of
the project suggests that America retains long-term ambitions here. The
International Crisis Group, a think-tank, said the embassy's size
"is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power
in their country".
A State Department official said that the size reflected the "massive
amount of work still facing the US and our commitment to see it
through".
BEHIND SCHEDULE
A US Inspector General's report into reconstruction found that
although $22 billion had been spent, water, sewage and electricity,
infrastructure still operated at prewar levels
Despite "significant progress" in recent months, less than half the
water and electricity projects have been completed
Only six of the 150 planned health centres have been completed
US officials spent $70 million on medical equipment for health clinics
that are unlikely ever to be built. More than 75 per cent of the funds
for the 150 planned clinics have been allocated
Task Force Shield, the $147 million programme to train Iraqi security
units to protect key oil and electrical sites failed to meet its goals.
A fraud investigation is under way
Oil production was 2.18 million barrels per day in the last week of
March. Before the war it was 2.6 million
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C3-2162249%2C00.html
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