WaPo: How Much Embassy (in Baghdad) Is Too Much?

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101497.html

How Much Embassy Is Too Much?

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 2, 2007; Page A11

Mention the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Lawrence Eagleburger and he explodes.

"I defy anyone to tell me how you can use that many people. It is nuts . . . it's insane and it's counterproductive . . . and it won't work," says the Republican former secretary of state and member of the Iraq Study Group. "I've been around the State Department long enough to know you can't run an outfit like that."


Some say the U.S. Embassy in Iraq is so complex and expensive that it diverts cash from diplomatic efforts worldwide.


The nerve center of Iraq reconstruction efforts, housed in an ornate former Saddam Hussein palace with soaring ceilings and its own espresso bar, the embassy in Baghdad is one of the largest foreign missions ever operated by the State Department. Its complexity and expense, some say, hampers reconstruction efforts and drains cash from diplomatic efforts worldwide.

According to a State Department count, about 1,000 federal employees report to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, not including hundreds of private contractors. State Department personnel are assigned to roughly half the slots in Baghdad, and the rest are reserved for an array of agencies, including about 90 from the Justice Department, 20 from the Department of Homeland Security, and four each from the Commerce Department and the Transportation Department. They are needed, officials say, to rebuild transit and mail services, to assist small businesses, to advise politicians and peasants.

The mission's closely guarded budget is a source of controversy at State, and across the federal government. At $923 million for the 2006 fiscal year, the budget was 20 times that of the Beijing embassy's that year, according to the State Department. More than two-thirds of the money pays for security. Salaries for about 600 staff from other federal agencies are not included in that figure, nor are some expenses.

"Maintaining an oversized mega-embassy in Baghdad is draining personnel and resources away from every other U.S. embassy around the world, and all for what?" said a senior State Department official, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue.

more...

[youngdem]

1. Depends on who you ask...If you ask these guys, they're thinking a very small number.

[htuttle]

3. I suspect the opposite is true

The bigger and more outrageous the size of the US Embassy, the more people we piss off and the easier their job becomes.

Also the larger the size of the staff, the easier it is to infiltrate, and the more targets you have.

:shrug:

[benld74]

2. Really get ill about it by reading more at this URL

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13258

[ClintonTyree]

5. Using slave labor....

I'm sure the workers will give it their all in workmanship. The Kuwaiti company will undoubtedly use sub-standard materials and cut costs as much as possible to complete Bush's monument to himself. The thing will be rife with problems and probably fall down during the first substantial sand storm. As to why they got the contract in the first place? A quid pro quo for Kuwait's "cooperation" with the Bush administration's rush to war in Iraq, would be my guess.

[ClintonTyree]

4. The Bush Memorial Embassy...

I'm sure Bush considers this Embassy a monument to his greatness. :puke: Enjoy it while you can you simian, shit-stain of a human being. It'll belong to the insurgents after we HAVE TO vacate Iraq because of your failed policies, moran! :grr: