I don't really have time to do this story justice but I wanted to diary it so that perhaps someone with more time can elaborate.
As many of you know, the US is building itself one of the largest, most secretive embassies in the world for Baghdad.
It will equal Vatican City in size (more than 100 acres).
The construction site has never allowed journalists to vistit, but word is leaking out from hired American contractors about unbelievable brutal, inhumane treatment of the third world labor force.
Asia Times has the story here,http://www.atimes.com/...
Workers from the Phillipines, Nepal, India, etc, think that they are going to work in Dubai, but they are taken to Baghdad. Their passports are confiscated.
A disgusted American contractor who quit the job, reports that he routinely witnessed construction managers physically assault the workers, demonstrate little regard for worker safety, and routinely breach security.
And it was all happening smack in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone, he said - right under the nose of the State Department that had quietly awarded the controversial embassy contract.
"Some contractors, many working as subcontractors to Halliburton in Iraq, were found to be using deceptive, bait-and-switch hiring practices and charging recruiting fees that indebted low-paid migrant workers for many months or even years to their employers. Contractors were also accused of providing substandard, crowded sleeping quarters, serving poor food and circumventing Iraqi immigration procedures."
Of course, this is all under the oversight of the State Dept and the White House who have stonewalled all attempts for answers.
Secret renditions, coerced and brutalized labor, torture, secret trials -- we have become the worst of the worst under the neocons. Americans need to know this story.
(sorry for no fancy formating....wonder why diaries aren't afforded the same format help as comments?)