3rd top official departs State Dept. under criticism

[unhappycamper]

3rd top official departs State Dept. under criticism
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON — The head of the State Department's embassy-building operation, responsible for the troubled $740 million new embassy in Baghdad, announced Wednesday that he's stepping down.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles Williams is the third senior State Department official to depart amid failures in managing the burgeoning U.S. diplomatic presence in Iraq. The department's inspector general and head of diplomatic security also have resigned.

Williams earned Congress' ire after promising in July that the mammoth, 104-acre Baghdad embassy complex would open on schedule and on budget in September.

Instead, the embassy is riddled with problems — including a fire suppression system that didn't work when it was tested — and it's unlikely to open until well into next year.

Criminal investigations into shoddy work and the awarding of subcontracts are under way. The State Department also is under fire for awarding a sole-source, fixed-price contract to build the compound to First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co., a Lebanese-owned Kuwaiti firm.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/23445.html

[DCKit]

1. I'm pissed about the insane waste of money....

but how funny is it that EVERYTHING Jr. touches turns to SHIT?