White House blocks inquiry into construction of $736m embassy in Iraq

White House blocks inquiry into construction of $736m embassy in Iraq

www.guardian.co.uk

The Bush administration is blocking an inquiry into the delay-plagued construction of the $736m US embassy in Baghdad, a senior Democrat in Congress said today.

Henry Waxman, who is chairman of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, asked US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today to explain why her department certified the embassy as "substantially completed" in December despite inspections that reveal continued deficiencies in the facility's water, fire alarm and kitchen systems.

The Baghdad embassy, which stands to become the largest US diplomatic facility in the world, had an original opening date of mid-2007. But the project stalled amid ballooning cost estimates as well as charges of corruption and shoddy work by the private contracting company overseeing the project.

In addition, two US state department employees who worked on the embassy project are now under criminal investigation. Waxman urged Rice to release subpoenaed documents related to the Baghdad embassy project next week or risk being forced to do so.

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
US Embassy In Baghdad Iraq Delayed Indefinitely

What may be the largest most expensive diplomatic facility in the world has inquiries about it being resisted by the current administration.
This is a surprise?

Does the USA interests in this area warrant the continued cost in both money and lives?



www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

That's what this entire invasion was about in a nutshell-Allocating huge amounts of money overseas that would go to 'contractors' with gov affiliations...Only much of it ends up 'missing', unaccounted for, 'misspent', etc...It is so dirty and corrupt it's embarassing.

Just more war profiteering by Bush cronies. Nothing new here (unfortunately).

And we'll probably never be able to use it...

Why would the "largest US diplomatic facility in the world" be in Baghdad in the first place? Think about this when you cast your vote in November. Do you really think any candidate is actually going to end the occupation?