A Fire Risk
In a rush to build the massive $736 million embassy compound in Baghdad, the State Department and its contractors bungled a wide array of safety basics, including fire protection systems.
"This is serious enough to get someone killed," a State Department official is quoted as saying in the exclusive story over the weekend by my Washington Post colleague Glenn Kessler. "The fire systems are the tip of the iceberg. That is the most visible. But no one has ever inspected the electrical system, the power plant."
The problems chronicled by Kessler -- relying in part on internal documents he obtained -- are only the latest to emerge in what appears to be a contracting catastrophe. "Originally expected to be completed by July 1, 2007, at a cost of $592 million, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world has been plagued by poor planning, shoddy workmanship and design changes that have added to the cost. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of the contract and related subcontracts," according to Kessler's story.
Consider an even larger context: The embassy, almost quadruple the size of the Pentagon, is only a visible example of a phenomenal amount of money that has been misspent or worse in a huge array of projects putatively intended to make Iraq a better place.
It's going to take awhile to learn the true scope of fraud, waste and abuse there.
By Robert O'Harrow |
January 17, 2008; 6:58 AM ET
iraq
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Posted by: Deborah | January 17, 2008 9:56 AM
(To Deborah - fist posting) Nothing I've seen before illuminates so unambiguously the true underpinnings of this Wolfowitz Implimentation War as does "almost quadruple the size of the Pentagon."
I could write the Justice Department's report this afternoon -- slight revisions to the "Fraud, waste, and abuse report Template" that has been used for years: Accounting errors...unintentional...etc. etc.
I cannot help but wonder if "First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting" is anything other than a cover name for Halliburton or one of its subsidiaries.
Posted by: Talking Bird | January 17, 2008 7:09 PM
Who was the head of the Government Oversight Committee who pandered to the crooked contractors who built this structure, who extorted campaign contributions for his wife - who had NO federal campaign limits? and for the RNCC with felon Jack Abramoff? And Tom Delay's ARMPAC - a felony consiracy in Texas? Northern VA's own Tom Davis.. The contractors put more care into hiding their contributions than they did in assuring the safety of our troops who are at risk this building.
Posted by: achamblee | January 17, 2008 11:00 PM
People "working" in government, press and big business often do it for one reason POWER and MONEY. Who could dig deep enough to find the truth about the frauds and payoffs involved . Who could really determine the " net worth" of so many of these people. We condem practices in other countries that are really just as common here.
Posted by: Robert Fisher | January 28, 2008 7:34 AM
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A mess, a quagmire and a money pit. No bid contracts for crappy work and foreign builders everywhere. If anyone could have told me our government was so inefficient, I would have laughed, but they have managed to screw up every single thing about Iraq. As a "shareholder" in this fiasco, I would like to sure Bush & Co for complete failure before they take their golden parachute and head for Dubai.
IMPEACH NOW!