At new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, even kitchens are fire hazards

[Barrett808]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

At new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, even kitchens are fire hazards
By Warren P. Strobel

WASHINGTON — None of the 26 buildings in the new $740 million U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad is ready to be occupied. Fire alarms intended to safeguard more than 1,000 U.S. government employees aren't working. Kitchens in some of the buildings are fire hazards.

A senior State Department official in December certified that embassy construction was "substantially complete," but department inspectors found "major deficiencies" at the unoccupied embassy, according to their inspection report, which Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., released Friday.

McClatchy reported earlier this week that the new chief of the State Department's embassy-building arm, Richard Shinnick, has voided the Dec. 16 certification — made under his predecessor, retired Army Gen. Charles Williams — that the embassy is nearly ready to be occupied.

In a blistering letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman, who chairs the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused the State Department of withholding documents about the troubled project.

"It appears that the State Department is concealing from Congress basic information about the status of the embassy project and the activities of officials and contractors involved. This continued intransigence is inappropriate," wrote Waxman, who threatened to haul Rice's deputy before his panel.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/29070.html