Kuwaiti firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs

[Barrett808]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Kuwaiti firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs
By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Kuwaiti contractor that's building the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — behind schedule and plagued by allegations of shoddy construction and safety flaws— is still winning lucrative new contracts to build U.S. diplomatic installations overseas.

Late last month, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. was part of a team that won a $122 million State Department contract to build a U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia , according to contract documents.

That's one of at least three State Department jobs, in addition to the Baghdad project, that First Kuwaiti won in association with a U.S. firm, Grunley Walsh LLC of Rockville, Md .

Since 2006, by operating as a subcontractor to Grunley Walsh, First Kuwaiti has won contracts for work on a new U.S. Embassy in Libreville, Gabon ; on a consulate in Surabaya, Indonesia ; and on the Jeddah project.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20071024/wl_mcclatchy/20071024bcusembassiesexclusive_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop

[peacetalksforall]

1. As Cheney logic would have it. As U.S. citizens are learning it. This is what

their logic is saying to us? They build cheap and turn in expensive cost reimbursement requests - for their own joint profit. In the event of an attack on the Embassy, no great loss. To them. But, we, the taxpayers ... are left ... to show our empty pockets. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad - a money laundering scheme? Tell us it isn't so.

[Supersedeas]

2. a Condi style promotion -- where incompetence is always rewarded