Giant U.S. Embassy project dismays Iraq
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent
May 29, 2006
BAGHDAD -- On the western bank of the Tigris River, scenes of intense activity rarely witnessed in Iraq are unfolding behind the fortified perimeter of the closely guarded Green Zone.
Trucks shuttle building materials to and fro. Cranes, at least a dozen of them, punch toward the sky. Concrete structures are beginning to take form. At a time when most Iraqis are enduring blackouts of up to 22 hours a day, the site is floodlighted by night so work can continue around the clock.
This is to be the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and it will be the biggest embassy in the world. It also is the biggest construction project under way in battered Baghdad, where the only other cranes rising from the skyline belong to Saddam Hussein's abandoned project to build the world's biggest mosque.
The irony is not lost on Mohammed Jasim, 48, a truck driver who was forced out of his home last month by sectarian violence and now is squatting in an abandoned building just across the river from the $592million embassy project.
"They could build houses, or they could bring security to Baghdad," Jasim complained as he sat in the shade of a big tree on the riverbank. "But it's clear they only came here for their own benefit because you can see how much money they are spending across the river."
Though the site is an open secret, U.S. Embassy officials, currently based in Hussein's former Republican Palace, are forbidden to discuss it.
Senate report reviews project
The few details available are contained in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Scheduled for completion in June 2007, the 104-acre embassy compound, roughly the size of the Vatican, will resemble a mini-state, entirely independent from the outside world. It will generate its own power, pump its own sewage and draw its own water.
Within the compound there will be six buildings containing 619 apartments for diplomats, a barrack for Marine guards, separate residences for the ambassador and his deputy, a gym, a swimming pool, a club, a food court, a beauty salon, a vehicle workshop and a warehouse. There is also, the report noted, an emergency exit.
The Senate report marveled at the meticulous planning.
"Most major construction projects undertaken in Iraq since 2003 have not met these standards," it said. "No large-scale U.S.-funded construction program in Iraq has yet met its schedule or budget," the report added, noting that this one is on schedule and within budget.
Iraqis also are marveling at the scale of the project and the rapid rate at which it is starting to rise above the walls of the Green Zone, which is off-limits to most Iraqis.
"Why are they only building this building?" asked Abdul Kareem al-Khiat, sales manager of the 14-story Babylon Hotel, whose riverside rooms have panoramic views of the construction site. "All the Iraqis are asking this question."
A lack of security is the main answer. Violence has deterred all but the most meager reconstruction projects. The wreckage of the ministries and government buildings destroyed by American missiles in 2003 still litter Baghdad's landscape. The blackened shells of shops and mosques blown up since then by suicide bombers add to the air of decay hanging over the city.
For security reasons, the new embassy is being built entirely by imported labor. The contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co., which was linked to human-trafficking allegations by a Chicago Tribune investigation last year, has hired a workforce of 900 mostly Asian workers who live on the site.
Most American civilians working in Baghdad are forbidden from leaving the Green Zone because of the dangers that lie beyond. The Senate report questioned "the net worth of having an embassy when it is so isolated" and suggested that purchasing a video teleconferencing system would "improve interaction" with local Iraqis.
Many Iraqi politicians also rarely leave the Green Zone. Government ministries are there, and politicians live there to avoid the hazards of commuting in and out of the zone. As Iraq's third government in as many years takes office, there is a chronic shortage of housing.
An alien experience
To most Iraqis, the Green Zone is another planet. Only one much-bombed entry point admits ordinary Iraqis, who must endure body searches at each of five checkpoints before being admitted to one small portion of the zone.
Though it's now officially called the International Zone, suggesting a foreign country, those living inside still refer to the rest of Iraq as "the Red Zone."
From his Red Zone vantage point, al-Khiat often looks across the river and wonders about life on the other side. The 6-square-mile chunk of central Baghdad was carved out for the use of the U.S. occupation authority in the months following the invasion, setting off-limits the roads, parks and restaurants that used to be a part of his daily itinerary.
"I haven't been there in three years," al-Khiat said. "I would like to go, but I don't dare. Someone might shoot me."
----------
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
(The article is here.)
Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent
May 29, 2006
BAGHDAD -- On the western bank of the Tigris River, scenes of intense activity rarely witnessed in Iraq are unfolding behind the fortified perimeter of the closely guarded Green Zone.
Trucks shuttle building materials to and fro. Cranes, at least a dozen of them, punch toward the sky. Concrete structures are beginning to take form. At a time when most Iraqis are enduring blackouts of up to 22 hours a day, the site is floodlighted by night so work can continue around the clock.
This is to be the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and it will be the biggest embassy in the world. It also is the biggest construction project under way in battered Baghdad, where the only other cranes rising from the skyline belong to Saddam Hussein's abandoned project to build the world's biggest mosque.
The irony is not lost on Mohammed Jasim, 48, a truck driver who was forced out of his home last month by sectarian violence and now is squatting in an abandoned building just across the river from the $592million embassy project.
"They could build houses, or they could bring security to Baghdad," Jasim complained as he sat in the shade of a big tree on the riverbank. "But it's clear they only came here for their own benefit because you can see how much money they are spending across the river."
Though the site is an open secret, U.S. Embassy officials, currently based in Hussein's former Republican Palace, are forbidden to discuss it.
Senate report reviews project
The few details available are contained in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Scheduled for completion in June 2007, the 104-acre embassy compound, roughly the size of the Vatican, will resemble a mini-state, entirely independent from the outside world. It will generate its own power, pump its own sewage and draw its own water.
Within the compound there will be six buildings containing 619 apartments for diplomats, a barrack for Marine guards, separate residences for the ambassador and his deputy, a gym, a swimming pool, a club, a food court, a beauty salon, a vehicle workshop and a warehouse. There is also, the report noted, an emergency exit.
The Senate report marveled at the meticulous planning.
"Most major construction projects undertaken in Iraq since 2003 have not met these standards," it said. "No large-scale U.S.-funded construction program in Iraq has yet met its schedule or budget," the report added, noting that this one is on schedule and within budget.
Iraqis also are marveling at the scale of the project and the rapid rate at which it is starting to rise above the walls of the Green Zone, which is off-limits to most Iraqis.
"Why are they only building this building?" asked Abdul Kareem al-Khiat, sales manager of the 14-story Babylon Hotel, whose riverside rooms have panoramic views of the construction site. "All the Iraqis are asking this question."
A lack of security is the main answer. Violence has deterred all but the most meager reconstruction projects. The wreckage of the ministries and government buildings destroyed by American missiles in 2003 still litter Baghdad's landscape. The blackened shells of shops and mosques blown up since then by suicide bombers add to the air of decay hanging over the city.
For security reasons, the new embassy is being built entirely by imported labor. The contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co., which was linked to human-trafficking allegations by a Chicago Tribune investigation last year, has hired a workforce of 900 mostly Asian workers who live on the site.
Most American civilians working in Baghdad are forbidden from leaving the Green Zone because of the dangers that lie beyond. The Senate report questioned "the net worth of having an embassy when it is so isolated" and suggested that purchasing a video teleconferencing system would "improve interaction" with local Iraqis.
Many Iraqi politicians also rarely leave the Green Zone. Government ministries are there, and politicians live there to avoid the hazards of commuting in and out of the zone. As Iraq's third government in as many years takes office, there is a chronic shortage of housing.
An alien experience
To most Iraqis, the Green Zone is another planet. Only one much-bombed entry point admits ordinary Iraqis, who must endure body searches at each of five checkpoints before being admitted to one small portion of the zone.
Though it's now officially called the International Zone, suggesting a foreign country, those living inside still refer to the rest of Iraq as "the Red Zone."
From his Red Zone vantage point, al-Khiat often looks across the river and wonders about life on the other side. The 6-square-mile chunk of central Baghdad was carved out for the use of the U.S. occupation authority in the months following the invasion, setting off-limits the roads, parks and restaurants that used to be a part of his daily itinerary.
"I haven't been there in three years," al-Khiat said. "I would like to go, but I don't dare. Someone might shoot me."
----------
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
(The article is here.)
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