Middle East Focus: A Baghdad Embassy, Shady Contractors and Pliant Supervisors, America’s Banditry Years, a Goldman Man and a Nun’s Donkey………..

Arabia Deserta

A Baghdad Embassy, Shady Contractors and Pliant Supervisors, America’s Banditry Years, a Goldman Man and a Nun’s Donkey………..

“The $736 million new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which American diplomats have occupied for 18 months, contains "multiple significant construction deficiencies”……. The report, by the State Department's inspector general, cites flaws in numerous systems throughout the embassy complex and says that the contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., failed to properly design, construct and commission the largest U.S. Embassy overseas. It also cites failures by the former leadership of the State Department bureau that's responsible for constructing overseas diplomatic posts…… McClatchy and other news outlets have reported extensively about the troubled embassy project, which encountered delays, reports of shoddy workmanship and allegations -- never proved -- of abusive labor practices by First Kuwaiti……….

“The report blames many of the embassy buildings' woes on a decision by the then-head of overseas construction at the State Department, retired Army. Maj. Gen. Charles Williams, to set up a separate, secretive unit, answerable only to him, to oversee the Baghdad project..……. The inspector general's report also suggests that the now-defunct office and its former head, who was a personal services contractor, gave First Kuwaiti preferential treatment. The office "was managed by an individual who did not enforce contract provisions..…..." it says. The individual, identified in previous news reports as James Golden, also approved $69 million in advance payments to First Kuwaiti that weren't authorized by federal regulations, the report says……… According to a State Department cable that McClatchy obtained, the Kuwaiti government lobbied the Bush administration on behalf of First Kuwaiti, which was seeking more U.S. government work. During a dinner in Kuwait City on Jan. 11, 2008, attended by then-President George W. Bush, a diplomat from the emirate gave the U.S. delegation a package that included a DVD and testimonial with praise for First Kuwaiti…..…..” McClatchy News

“At new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, even kitchens are fire hazards…….Waxman also disclosed that because the embassy was prematurely declared ready, First Kuwaiti is being paid another $4.5 million under a new contract to maintain it……..” McClatchy News

I wonder if that now-retired general is now retired in style, if you know what I mean. As for the ‘personal services contractor’, a Mr. James Golden, well, private contractors made out like bandits during the Bush-Cheney war years, even as they dragged the international reputation of the United States into the mud. Unfortunately they came to identify America in the eyes of many parts of the world. In a way they did truly identify one particular era in American history, hopefully an era that ended last January, but keep them fingers crossed.

Speaking of bandits, did you hear the one about the Goldman Sachs executive, the nun who had a famous wild donkey, and the nervous priest………
Cheers
mhg
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