‘Baghdad Embassy’ Archives
Flying Baghdad Embassy Express
Asian Workers Smuggled to Build World's Largest Embassy: Oct. 17, 2006. CorpWatch, Alternet, Inter Press Service, Asia Times, Counterpunch and others (October 2006). Recipient of Project Censored award and Online News Association fiinalist for [...]
Escape from Iraq: Filipino Migrant Worker Recounts Nightmare Flight
He Didn't Want to Go: Ramil Autencio thought he was traveling to Kuwait for a job in a luxury hotel. The employer, a major Kuwait contractor working for the US government, instead pressured him to work on US military camps in Iraq. The father of two recounts his escape with more than 40 others during interview in Manila. He says he never wanted [...]
Forced Labor in Iraq and State Department Mutiny
by David Phinney Nov. 1, 2007 -- Interesting that State Department employees are up in arms about the prospect of being forced to work in Iraq at the new $740-million embassy, aka, "Fort Apache on Steroids": At the same time, the the State Department's own inspector general and trafficking in persons division (along with US news editors) [...]
The Mega-Bunker of Baghdad
by David Phinney Nov. 1, 2007 -- William Langewiesche takes a Johnny-come-lately look in Vanity Fair with something of a jaundiced view. Of course, the project is not on budget or on time. It was originally scheduled to be finished by June 2007 and cost $592-million. The project is now being estimated to cost $740 million and remains under [...]
Embassy Contracts under Review
by David Phinney Oct. 26, 2007 -- Contracts won by Baghdad embassy builder First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting are "under review," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice revealed during a congressional hearing Thursday. Rice was answering questions from Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., about why the State Department awarded the Baghdad contract [...]
Just Business: Buying a US Embassy Contractor
by David Phinney Oct. 25, 2007 -- An Update: Apparently, the sale of the Baghdad embassy contractor's US partner is a done deal -- or nearly a done deal. (Sorry about the earlier typos... I was typing in the dark in an SUV in the back country.) According to documents: Robert Farah, Paul Jureidini and Robert K. Kelley are the key players to [...]
Baghdad Embassy Contractor and the Lebanese Forces?
by David Phinney Oct. 25, 2007 -- Okay. So we know that the Baghdad embassy contractor, First Kuwaiti, is run by a Lebanese in Kuwait. And we know that First Kuwaiti's former Washington representative, Robert Farah, has been trying to buy First Kuwaiti's US partner Grunley Walsh, a company that has already landed First Kuwaiti more US [...]
Baghdad Embassy Contractor Wins More US Contracts
by David Phinney Oct. 24, 2007 -- Despite allegations of poor construction, lousy and abusive labor practices and missed deadlines for completion, the Kuwaiti contractor building the new $592-million-and-counting US Embassy in Baghdad has been quietly bagging new lucrative contracts to build US diplomatic compounds around the world. In [...]
Baghdad Embassy Coverup
by David Phinney Oct. 19, 2007 -- A project manager and the State Department Inspector General covered up "enormous problems" in the management of the $592-million embassy project in Baghdad, McClatchy newspaper reporters Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay report today. Problems became apparent after a mortar shell smashed into the [...]
Under Sworn Testimony: Misleading Statements about U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
by David Phinney Oct. 6, 2007 -- Two months ago, a top US State Department official in charge of embassy construction gave misleading statements under sworn testimony about the new US embassy in Baghdad. He claimed that it would be completed on budget and on time. Now numerous news reports say that the project's completion will be delayed for [...]
