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Posted on 04/18/2008 12:22:04 PM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON — A Kuwait contractor has concluded the construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
On April 14, the State Department issued a certificate of acceptance for the 104-acre, 27 building compound.
The $474 million facility is the largest U.S. embassy in the world, with 619 apartments for staffers as well as restaurants, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, volleyball court, and indoor Olympic-size swimming pool.
After years of delay, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting completed the design and construction of the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The project, plagued by faulty construction and scandal, was certified by the State Department and independent consultants.
"This is a remarkable accomplishment for our company and for the thousands of individuals whose hard work has made it possible," First Kuwaiti managing director Wadih Al Absi said. "We are proud of our record of achievement in Iraq and regard the completion of the new U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad as an absolute success."
The company, which hired 23 U.S. subcontractors, said the project was completed nearly two years beyond schedule. The project was said to have stayed within its original budget of $474 million.
Executives said prior to construction, First Kuwaiti cleared the embassy site of buildings, hidden tunnels and bunkers, landmines and unexploded ordnance. They said supplies of 75,000 tons of cement and 28,000 tons of steel were hampered by military closure of the road to the embassy site. The embassy construction site itself is at times the target of direct rocket and mortar attacks.
"First Kuwaiti completed this project under conditions that none of us anticipated," Al Absi said.
Kuwait, which hosts about 15,000 U.S. troops, has been given the bulk of U.S. military in Iraq contracts to foreign firms. Executives said the sheikdom facilitated the U.S. embassy contract by serving as a conduit for workers and material.
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Just add a joint Marine/Army/Air Force base to it and call it a day already...:-)
Say what you want. that is damn good deal foot for foot.
Hope it isn’t riddled with listening devices like the one in Moscow turned out to be.
Probably out of gratitude from the Kuwaitis.
staying within budget on any construction project involving the US government is a major miracle.
Kuwaitis - doing the work Americans won't (or can't) do..
Like they don't get enough of our money from oil revenues..
Or as we like to call it, White House: Middle East. ;)
Imagine if we tried to build that here. After ten years and four billion dollars, we finally get the environmental impact plans reviewed.... and turned down.
Kuwait, which hosts about 15,000 U.S. troops, has been given the bulk of U.S. military in Iraq contracts to foreign firms.When you're friends with Uncle Sam, he'll always help you help yourself.
A palace in Baghdad.
What a conservative.
I hope it comes with a half mile wide free-fire zone all around it.
“Babylon” comes to mind...
Did you miss the part where Kuwait hosts 15000 troops? When you give to America, the return is always in spades.
Dontcha love it when a plan comes together?
I tend to agree. What the hell were they thinking? I can see it now, the Democrats will bring up this as evidence we’re occupying Iraq (as if they’ve stopped that line of bull). I’ve already seen in a local blog statements about the Iraqis unemployment rate and how they could have done the job.
The news last nite had it at a little over $700M
A beautiful white elephant.
“yea, because we know how Unconstitutional it is to to have embassies. .. so long as you ignore Article 2 Section 2..”
What do you mean? Article 2 Section 2 refers to the President shall be Commander in Chief... I don’t see anything about not having embassies.
Just the opposite, it authorizes the president to appoint ambassadorships & make treaties (thus, the need for embassies). I should have put a /sarc tag on that.
Ah, yes. I guess the /sarc tag would have helped me.
The base being set up for “mystery Babylon” comes to my mind.
Zechariah 5:
Vision of the Woman in a measure
5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”
6 So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a [fn1] ‘ephah/measure basket that is going forth.”
He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth:
7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”;
8 then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth.
9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork [demon sirens], and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”
11 And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar [Iraq]; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”
Ummm... It’s an embassy. They’re constitutional ya’know.
But this looks like A "Big Oil" Palace to me. You think that thing would be so huge anywhere else? Let's just put a sign up announcing our intent to control all the oil in the region - it would have been a lot cheaper.
Post WWII, the marshall plan wasn’t put in place to make us rich. It was put in place to help the countries that had been destroyed. Seems like the least we could do to help the Iraqis get back on their feet.
” Let’s just put a sign up announcing our intent to control all the oil in the region - it would have been a lot cheaper.”
And it would be a ficticous and hateful accusation against America. Unless you believe we are in violation of UNSC 1547, which reaffirms ‘the right of the Iraqi people freely to determine their own politcial future and control their own natural resources’.
First off you should try reading the news once in a while. We aren’t controlling a drop of oil in the region Iraqis are. The Iraqis just let out a bunch of production contracts and almost every major American company was on the list. And so was PetroChina (don’t remember their real name), as well as French, Russian, and dozens of other firms.
Second of all. Oil is in America’s interest. If we want it and deem it necessary for our country we COULD control it. Why not?
This reminds me of the American Embassy in Moscow. When the Russians insisted that local labor and supplies be used, our idiot State Department allowed them to get away with it. If you are ignorant of the results, I suggest a little research.
Anyone willing to bet me that al-Qaeda and the Taliban already have a complete set of plans for that facility? Including communications, defensive areas and anything else of defensive value.
Anyone willing to wager?
Do I believe that all kuwaiti people are dishonest? Murderers? No.
They are simply muslim first. Readers can infer from that what they will.
Which Democrat campaign are you working on anyway? We ARE helping the Iraqi’s rebuild.
yeesh... what a loon. Are you a Paultard?
Well, because Iraq is a sovereign nation, and it's not our right to go and steal other people's resources? Geesh
Whar makes it a sovergn nation? What makes it “their” resources?
If we want it, it's ours. Let's just make Iraq the fifty-first state.
Has this place been flooded with neocons? What happened to the real conservatives who used to be here?
This thing is costing over a $ billion if it costs a penny.
This thing is costing over a $ billion if it costs a penny.
Huh? Did you miss the part where we already spent billions liberating their sorry arses in Gulf War 1 - and WE have to reward them for THAT??
The yearly costs must be unbelievable. I sure hope we get enough revenue out of that area to make it worth while.
What makes Iraq sovereign? What makes the oil theirs?
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