If Bush decides to relinquish the throne in a year, dead-ender republicans will no doubt start demanding that something be named after him. As I pondered the legacy of the president most deserving of impeachment in our history, several possibilities came to mind. Because more than 300 mountaintops have been destroyed in Appalachia during his term, the area could become a new national park - the Bush Wasteland. Imagine being able to drive an offroad vehicle through this barren moonscape, camp overlooking a toxic sludge pond, and hunt mutant rats! His love of prisons and capital punishment could be combined in the Bush Ultramax Penitentiary and Penal Colony, jointly operated by Halliburton and Blackwater. It would be the perfect site for the National Torture and Death Penalty Museum. To provide a suitable home for future historians to study the demise of the American system of government, we could build the Bush Center for Incompetence, Deception, and Corruption. But no building epitomizes Bush better than the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's beautiful Green Zone. Nothing says Bush like obscene cost, corruption, secrecy, and imperialistic audacity as with the largest embassy in the world built in the capital of a country conquered and occupied by the United States.
The new Bush Embassy Baghdad is back in the news because its fire-fighting systems don't work. McClatchy yet again lives up to its "truth to power" slogan with some fine investigative journalism. The story is classic Bush administration.
In August, the State Department's fire safety specialists raised serious concerns about the fire control systems in the new embassy. Problems were discovered with the water mains, fire alarms and numerous other systems. The allegations were yet another embarassment in a project that has been baffling in its excessive scale, cost, and shoddy construction. A civil war of sorts seems to have broken out within the State Department.
The State Department's building chief, Bush appointee Charles Williams, began a systematic campaign of obstruction and obfuscation. Williams fired the first shot by denying access to State Department specialists:
Several officials confirmed that the State Department's own specialists were largely excluded from the Baghdad project starting in September. And in a major departure from normal practice, they weren't called on to certify the embassy's fire safety systems.
The State Department fired back:
The State Department ordered Williams to bring in an outside consultant, Schirmer Engineering of Greenbelt, Md., which found the same problems, according to e-mails from Schirmer to the State Department dated Oct. 22, Oct. 27 and Nov. 1.
Williams turned to his Kuwait-based project manager, James L. Golden, to find more agreeable consultants to certify the fire safety systems. Golden has been under investigation for a number of questionable practices and has been banned from the embassy complex after trying to alter damage from a mortar attack to cover design flaws. Under Golden's direction, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company, the project contractor, hired Hughes Associates to provide an assessment of the fire safety systems.
First Kuwaiti hired Baltimore-based Hughes Associates Inc. to test water pressure in the underground fire mains to ensure that they'd operate in the event of a fire. Based on a certification by a Hughes contractor, dated Dec. 7, Williams declared that the new embassy met key fire codes.
When the State Department and Justice Department investigators started sniffing around, Hughes got cold feet and distanced themselves from their certification of the embassy fire systems.
Hughes President Philip J. DiNenno, who confirmed that First Kuwaiti hired his company, said in a Dec. 14 e-mail to the State Department that the employee did nothing more than witness a test.
"He was and is not authorized to speak on behalf of Hughes Associates or to communicate the final status of any deficiencies, and certainly he may not satisfy anything unilaterally," DiNenno wrote, adding that the firm's final report is still being prepared.
On Dec. 12, Williams initialed a statement that the fire system met requirements. On Dec. 28, project officials in Baghdad (First Kuwaiti) notified Williams that construction of the compound "has been substantially completed in accordance with the contract plans." Williams "retired" from his illustrious service on December 31, 2007.
The Washington Post also covered the story on page 1 yesterday. The article quotes a State Department official who describes the fire safety systems as just the tip of the iceberg in construction problems in the embassy.
Some officials assert that in the push to complete the long-delayed project, potentially life-threatening problems have been left untouched. "This is serious enough to get someone killed," said a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. "The fire systems are the tip of the iceberg. That is the most visible. But no one has ever inspected the electrical system, the power plant" and other parts of the embassy complex, which will house more than 1,000 people and is vulnerable to mortar attacks.
In an article published in October, McClatchy noted some other inconvenient truths about the Bush Embassy Baghdad.
McClatchy Newspapers has also learned that:
— Aspects of the embassy's construction are the subject of at least one U.S. government criminal investigation, according to officials in Congress and the administration. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter and declined to divulge more details for publication.
— In order to rush the project, the long-time head of OBO, retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles Williams, signed a waiver in July 2005 allowing a sole-source contract to be awarded to First Kuwaiti.
"The only acquisition option that can be considered is to issue Sole Source Awards to contractors capable of completing the design and construction in accordance with the required schedule, budget and performance parameters," Williams wrote in a memo reviewed by McClatchy.
— Columbia, Md.-based Cosmopolitan Inc., which was awarded the lead contract to build the embassy's classified spaces, where intelligence officers and others work, meet and store information, was kicked off the job for alleged non-performance. It was replaced by Kaseman Corp. of Chantilly, Va.
As recently as August, Williams assured the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the embassy would be ready for occupancy by the end of September.
"This and other incidents involving separate embassy construction projects raise concerns about the adequacy of the Department's management of our overseas building operations," committee chairman Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Cal., wrote to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on October 4.
And who gave Charles Williams the plum job of overseeing State Department building programs? Colin Powell.
Williams, who was chosen for his post in March 2001 by his friend, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, runs the overseas buildings operation like a virtual fiefdom, according to numerous current and former officials who refused to discuss personnel matters on the record.
He and his aides refused to let U.S. diplomats and congressional staffers onto the new embassy compound in Iraq, according to congressional testimony in July and a former senior official with first-hand knowledge.
The characterization is typical Bush administration. A high ranking official runs their department or program like a fiefdom, with their word as law of the land. And where former Attorney General Gonzales at least had the sense to fake a memory disorder in dodging questions from Congress, Williams denied congressional investigators and State Department busybodies access to the embassy compound.
Here is the State Department announcement of the Williams' retirement. I hope Bush has a medal of honor waiting.
General Charles Williams today announced his retirement, effective December 31, 2007, after a distinguished military career and seven years at the State Department as Director and Chief Operating Officer of Overseas Building Operations (OBO). Under his leadership, the Department has built 56 new embassies and consulates, providing over 15,000 employees with safer, modern facilities.
When she came to the State Department in 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked General Williams to stay for two additional years to complete a number of ongoing projects. Three years later he has now decided the time is right to retire. We salute General Williams for his service to our country and wish him all the best in the future.
And why did the cost of the project suddenly jump 144 million dollars over the past year?
The Baghdad embassy complex, while incomplete, is about to be dramatically expanded to make room for a U.S. military presence that wasn't anticipated when the structures were first planned in 2004.
Kennedy said the $144 million additional price tag isn't a cost overrun, but the result of a decision to locate Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, and his staff in the compound. That will involve converting some space planned for unclassified use to classified use.
"Crocker and Petraeus don't want to divorce," Kennedy said. "We have about 250 more people to squeeze into the complex than we were planning on squeezing in."
I am so thankful that Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus will not have to divorce. Their love has been so touching. Such a wonderful tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit amidst all that violence, fraud, corruption, and bilking of the American taxpayers.
We the taxpayers have coughed up 740 million dollars for a project that is over budget, long delayed, and an attractive target for mortar practice. So who is First Kuwaiti, the contractor responsible for this pile of crap?
Here is a summary of their portfolio from their website.
- Grade-A Contractor for General Contruction by Kuwait Central Trading Committee (CTC)
- Grade-A Infrastructure and Roads Contractor by Kuwait Central Tendering Committee (CTC)
- Certified Offshore & General Contractor by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) & Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC)
- Prime Contractor for US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
- Major Subcontractor for Halliburton's Kellog Brown & Root (KBR)
- Prime Contractor for the US Department of State, pre-qualified for the design and construction of the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
What a surprise. First Kuwaiti has a Halliburton connection. Their client list includes:
-US Army Corps of Engineers, (USACE)
-Halliburton, Kellog Brown & Roots (KBR)
-US Government, Army
-US Government, Marine
-US Government, Air Force for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE), subcontract through ECCI
-Bechtel
Interesting how the two companies given no-bid contracts in Iraq, Halliburton and Bechtel, have a First Kuwaiti link. The Pentagon awards Halliburton and Bechtel big contracts in Iraq, who in turn farms out the work to First Kuwaiti. One could ask what Halliburton and Bechtel did beyond collect a huge overhead, but that would impune the integrity of these wonderful corporations and big contributors to Bush-Cheney 00 and 04.
First Kuwaiti has been given numerous awards and certificates, including from the US Marine Corps, US Army, and, of course, KBR.
Apparently the construction costs of Bush Embassy Baghdad are just the tip of the iceberg.
The mission's closely guarded budget is a source of controversy at State, and across the federal government. At $923 million for the 2006 fiscal year, the budget was 20 times that of the Beijing embassy's that year, according to the State Department. More than two-thirds of the money pays for security. Salaries for about 600 staff from other federal agencies are not included in that figure, nor are some expenses.
So two-thirds of the operating budget of the Bush Embassy Baghdad goes for security. I wonder which contractor provides security? My guess is Blackwater. And for comparison purposes, we are paying more for security for this embassy than the National Institutes of Health funds in Alzheimer's disease research in a year. There are currently 5 million Americans suffering from the effects of Alzheimer's disease. The scope of waste and misplaced priority in the embassy construction and operating costs are beyond the pale.
And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Bush Embassy Baghdad. I can think of no more fitting monument to the corruption, incompetence, deceit, and arrogance of the Bush administration than the world's largest embassy, built in an conquered country, as large as the Vatican, and much larger than any of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. It screams Bush.