US Embassy In Iraq $144 Million Overbudget And Unfinished

Washington Post:

The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials, according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress.

The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million. The core project was supposed to have been completed by last month, but the timetable has slipped so much that the State Department has sought and received permission from the Iraqi government to allow about 2,000 non-Iraqi construction employees to stay in the country until March.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[viflyer]

It doesn't matter if the embassy is EVER completed or if it falls down one year after completion.

IT was a corporate welfare project. Designed to dole out as much money as possible to connected Bush contractors.

If the books were opened on this thing it would boggle your mind.

You don't hear ANYTHING about all the never finished projects in Iraq where the " connected " contracters were paid the FULL amount. Or the projects where the " shortcuts" were sooooooooo dramatic that nothing works in the buildings or the equipment installed doesn't function. The examples are ALL over Iraq.
Just a free for all rip off with NO oversite. A corrupt contractors wet dream. For that matter, our entire government is running the same way!!

We have been taken for the greatest con job ride in the history of the country and you STILL have trolls coming here day after day defended the indefensible.

Don't they read the inspector general reports and other news exposing how THEY have been conned?

I don't understand these people; how their brains work or how they see the world.

I am completely dumbfounded!!!!

[consrevil]

Bet ya any amount of money it gets blown up the day before it opens, just so we can build it again...af­ter all, it's one of those jobs that Americans will do.

[CountryBeforeParty]

No problem guys!

Here! Have some more of my tax dollars! Not like we could put it to anything useful!!!

[Nyland8]

The Official Policy of the Neo-Conned Republican Party is as follows:

Whatever we do, we shouldn't let our bloated, inefficient, self-serving, wasteful, borrow-and-spend gub'mint run things over in Iraq ...

... we should let the bloated, inefficient, self-serving, wasteful, conflict-o­f-interest­, corrupt-to-the-core PRIVATE FUCKING ENTERPRISE run everything in Iraq.

If we're going to shit away our grandchildren's future, we might as well make some small group of friends filthy rich in the process.

At least they might have enough blood money left over to contribute to our reelection campaigns.

8

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[viflyer]

WOW!! Your as pissed off as I am!! Well said!!!

[Jericho]

I'm sorry but maybe, just effin maybe, an administration that has a hard time estimating the cost and time to construct a simple embassy should not be rushing to "nationbuilding", let alone "nationdes­tructing". Maybe, just effin maybe, an administration as incapable as this shouldn't even be allowed to 'administer' the profits and losses of a damned 7-11 outlet.

[partyofone]

Follow the money. I am sure there ars Bush cronies getting rich off this and plenty of no bid contracts to help explain how things "got off track."

This type of corruption will never end until CEOs are criminally libel for bilking the government. Why isn't it treason for corporations to cheat the government on contracts in a war zone? Companies like Haliburton and Blackwater might behave differently if their officers were charged and convicted of crimes against the United States, instead of financially rewarded for their dishonesty. They get fines that amount to .001 percent of their profits. It's not punishmnet in any way, just an easy cost of dirty business to absorb.

[StillAmused]

It's at times like these that Junior's MBA demonstrates its true value. Imagine if we had some yahoo asshole in the White House with no clue how to manage anything?

Oh........­..........­....... never mind.

[mrcontinental]

Stop acting shocked! You know damn well that we will remain in Afghanistan and Iraq for years to come just as you know that they will bring back the draft to have enough bodies to secure the oil fields and pipelines for the next decade.

[lyingtruth]

The Embassy only costs $250 million; the balance is graft, theft, embezzelement and corruption!

[CheneysACoward]

The FACT that their are not enough people working for The Department of State to man this building should say all that needs to be said.

[4State]

It is worthwhile to remember that it was the REPUBliscum rubber-stamping DO-nothing Abramoff-loving boy-handling Congress that approved this monstrosity, with no oversight. Just as billions more have disappeared into the Blackwater night.

[Nova16]

guajiro--Your comment needs to be a permanent reminder to all entities, agencies acting as watchdogs relating to the activities of the Bush administration that relate to the fraud, corruption, conspiracies, illegal contracts, bribery and theft in Iraq of billions of dollars. There has been no oversight of the criminal White House by Bush's enablers in congress, No investigative reports by the MSM that reveals just how these two have put the security and welfare of this nation in jeopardy, including ignoring the attack on 9/11, and the lies and deception surrounding the events that started the phony war in Iraq, just to cite two of the most egregious examples of malfeasance and misfeasance.

[Nova16]

The pillaging and plundering of our treasury by the Bush/Cheney Crime syndicate is singularly noteworthy as the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. The Mafia and the Sopranos should take lessons from these two and learn how to use the American taxpayer to confiscate huge sums of cash, hundreds of billions for the purpose of war mongering and war profiteering. When Bush leaves office and returns to whatever the hell he does, and Cheney leaves "public sevice" and returns to his sometimes position of the Halliburton War Corporation, they will live like Saudi princes on the money pilfered from the US treasury.

[Nova16]

Liar-- it wasn't long range missiles, It was Russian bombers flying over and near Alaskan waters as reported last week by Wolfe Blitzer on CNN which was a serious matter for our air force.

[MissingAmerica]

And this is why our children can't get healthcare! Once more, Bush is proving his priorities have nothing to do with America's future, only his own. It is time to impeach.

[MikeDu]

Hey, maybe when Bush starts bombing Iran in early 2008 Iran will retaliate with a couple skud missiles and turn that pointless money pit into a pile of rubble.

[drkazmd65]

Ain't that the likely truth MikeDu.

There is no building built that cannot be relatively cheaply destroyed by the proper application of explosives.

This has been nothing except an attempt to build a self-contained fortress, with such horrible oversight of expenses designed to make easy the laundering of money.

[askmeificare]

Before you go off on George and Dick, please keep in mind that congress holds the purse strings.