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While the innocent are suffering, country’s
infru structure destroyed in the name of WMD the http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_New_Embassy.html Friday, April 14, 2006 · Last updated 1:58 p.m. PT U.S. building massive embassy in Baghdad
The new "We can't talk about it.
Security reasons," Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy,
said when asked for information about the project. A British tabloid even told
readers the location was being kept secret - news that would surprise Baghdadis
who for months have watched the forest of construction cranes at work across
the winding Tigris, at the very center of their city and within easy mortar range
of anti-U.S. forces in the capital, though fewer explode there these days. The embassy complex - 21
buildings on 104 acres, according to a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
report - is taking shape on riverside parkland in the fortified "Green Zone,"
just east of al-Samoud, a former palace of Saddam Hussein's, and across the
road from the building where the ex-dictator is now on trial. The Republican Palace, where
U.S. Embassy functions are temporarily housed in cubicles among the
chandelier-hung rooms, is less than a mile away in the 4-square-mile zone, an
enclave of American and Iraqi government offices and lodgings ringed by miles
of concrete barriers. The 5,500 Americans and
Iraqis working at the embassy, almost half listed as security, are far more
numerous than at any other This huge American contingent
at the center of power has drawn criticism. “The presence of a massive U.S. embassy - by far the largest
in the world - co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen
by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their
country," the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group,
said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq. State
Department spokesman Justin Higgins defended the size of the embassy, old and
new, saying it's indicative of the work facing the "It's
somewhat self-evident that there's going to be a fairly sizable commitment to Higgins
noted that large numbers of non-diplomats work at the mission - hundreds of
military personnel and dozens of FBI agents, for example, along with
representatives of the Agriculture, Commerce and other U.S. federal
departments. They
sleep in hundreds of trailers or "containerized" quarters scattered
around the Green Zone. But next year embassy staff will move into six apartment
buildings in the new complex, which has been under construction since mid-2005
with a target completion date of June 2007. "Embassy
Original
cost estimates ranged over $1 billion, but Congress appropriated only $592
million in the emergency Higgins
declined to identify those builders, citing security reasons, but said five
were American companies. The
designs aren't publicly available, but the Senate report makes clear it will be
a self-sufficient and "hardened" domain, to function in the midst of It
will have its own water wells, electricity plant and wastewaster-treatment
facility, "systems to allow 100 percent independence from city
utilities," says the report, the most authoritative open source on the
embassy plans. Besides
two major diplomatic office buildings, homes for the ambassador and his deputy,
and the apartment buildings for staff, the compound will offer a swimming pool,
gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation
building. Security,
overseen by Higgins
said the work, under way on all parts of the project, is more than one-third
complete. --- Associated
Press news researcher Jennifer Farrar in *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended: http://www.islamonline.net http://www.islam-guide.com http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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