Baghdad embassy contractor gives U.S. trouble again, this time in Africa

by WARREN P. STROBEL
(McClatchy Newspapers)

WASHINGTON -- A year after problems emerged in the construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, another State Department post being built largely by the same Kuwaiti-based company is engulfed by delays, recriminations, and an Inspector General's probe, according to U.S. officials.

The embassy building, in the central African nation of Gabon, was supposed to be finished by April 2009.

Instead, according to U.S. officials and to documents obtained by McClatchy Newspapers, the $55 million complex is only 7 percent complete. Workers are still excavating the construction site in the Gabonese capital of Libreville, and early 2010 is the new target date for completion. State Department officials confirmed that the department's inspector general is actively examining the project, but declined to provide details.

Patrick Kennedy, the Under Secretary of State for Management, acknowledged serious problems with the facility.

US, Iraq, Turkey to fight PKK 'terrorists': US embassy

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The United States, Iraq, and Turkey have condemned the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a "terrorist organisation" and formed a joint committee to combat them, the US embassy said Thursday.

The committee will meet every two months to "to exchange intelligence and to coordinate security measures to combat the PKK," it said in a statement.

The announcement followed a meeting on Wednesday between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, visiting Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discuss the plan.

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Kari's note: Security is understandably very high on the Turkish-Iraqi border. When my son, Samuel, and I were driving there, we experienced checkpoint after checkpoint....and it was always interesting to us that if I was driving, we'd usually get "flagged on" and if Samuel was driving there'd be a thorough inspection.

New U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — At 104 acres, it would be rather small for a country, roughly the size of Vatican City — but the newest U.S. embassy is much more, a $700 million complex that is the largest and most expensive embassy ever built.

FOX News was granted exclusive first access to the embassy, a crowded set of 27 buildings in Baghdad where 1,200 staffers live and work. A titanic project years in the making, it's finally open for business.

Since construction began on the new embassy in 2005, the U.S. mission has changed repeatedly, but officials in Baghdad say the structure represents the U.S. presence and its commitment to diplomacy, civil affairs and soft power.

"It symbolizes a move to a more normal relationship with the Iraqi government," said Susan Ziadah, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, noting that Americans have now moved out of their old location in the Green Zone and returned it to Iraqis — though the new location is just a mile away.

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