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McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/14/2008 | New U.S. Embassy in Baghdad ready — six months late
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McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/14/2008 | New U.S. Embassy in Baghdad ready -- six
months late
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NEW U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD READY -- SIX MONTHS LATE
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008
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WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Monday certified the new $740 million U.S. Embassy
in Baghdad as ready to open, more than six months behind schedule.
Richard Shinnick, the departments buildings chief, said problems with the mammoth,
27-building complexs fire-safety systems have been fixed, and the embassy compound will
now be turned over to U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy signed the formal certificate of occupancy
Monday, Shinnick said in an interview. Diplomats will begin moving into the compound next
month.
The heavily fortified complex, the United States biggest embassy, will provide working
and living quarters for more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats and military personnel, many of
whom have been posted on the grounds of a former palace of late Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein.
During a recent round of violence linked to the Iraqi governments military offensive in
the southern city of Basra, the former palace came under intensified rocket and mortar
fire, and Crocker authorized some U.S. personnel to spend the night in the new compound.
Shinnicks predecessor promised Congress last July that the embassy would be complete in
September 2007.
But the project has been plagued by allegations of shoddy workmanship by the main
contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co., and unproven charges of
labor abuses. First Kuwaiti has denied any wrongdoing and says it stands by the quality of
its work.
Embassy contracts have been the subject of a Justice Department investigation. The status
of that probe is unclear.
After McClatchy reported in January that the embassys fire-fighting system was defective
and that experts concerns were overruled in an apparent rush to declare the facility
completed, Shinnick ordered a top-to-bottom review of the project. Hed just taken over the
job from retired Army Gen. Charles Williams, whose performance Congress criticized.
Shinnick said Monday that numerous small "punch list" items remain to be rectified.
"But they are not vital. ... They are not life-safety issues," he said.
Additional work also has to be done on the chancery building, which is being reconfigured
with more classified spaces to accommodate U.S. diplomatic and military staffers whove now
been assigned to the same location, Shinnick said. Those changes and others added $144
million to the compounds original $592 million cost.
Documents obtained by McClatchy, along with a Feb. 13 report by the State Departments own
inspectors, showed numerous problems with the embassys fire-safety systems.
They included fire alarms that didnt operate properly when tested, concerns about
underground fire mains, and, in one annex building, stairs that didnt reach the structures
top floor, a violation of fire codes.
Shinnick said a team of about a dozen specialists inspected the new embassy compound over
the Easter holiday to verify that First Kuwaiti and its subcontractors had carried out
repairs that had been ordered.
McClatchy Newspapers 2008
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MORE ON THIS STORY
Story | At new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, even kitchens are fire hazards [23]
Story | State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy [24]
Story | New Baghdad embassys fire-fighting system is defective [25]
Story | State Dept. retains manager of troubled embassy project [26]
Story | Law waived to allow Kuwaiti firm to build U.S. embassy in Iraq [27]
Story | Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction [28]
Story | Even sprinkler systems fail at U.S. embassy in Baghdad [29]
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