The largest US embassy in the world. Guess where? Islamabad? Karachi? New Delhi? Mumbai? Kenya? Madagascar? Moscow? London? Beijing? Belgium? Dubai? No, none of the above.
i particularly like the part in the article where it states that eleven US government departments have requested permission to have personnel at the embassy. The US Department of Justice is named as one of the eleven; i wonder who the other ten constitute. Any sort of external interference, if it is not mandated under the auspices of the UN, in any future Iraqi war crimes tribunal, will taint the tribunal from beginning to end as being conducted unfairly. That is the most mildest criticism that will be levelled at it.
But why such a massive US diplomatic presence in Iraq, even subsequent to the official ‘handing over’ of power (the symbolic passing of the torch from one colonial power to their puppets)? oh yes :teary1: For peace, democracy, human rights, justice, and liberty. Bravo, i say :k: Let me wipe my eyes with my hanky.
There are no less than half a dozen African countries that could use some of that peace, democracy, human rights, justice and liberty as well. But then, this is all about Operation Iraq Liberation is it not?
US to open huge embassy in Iraq, Richard Allen Greene, BBC, 23 June 2004
The dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority at the end of June will not mean the end of the US presence in Iraq - far from it. The beginning of July will see the official launch of the US embassy in Baghdad, which many are describing at the largest US diplomatic mission in the world.
It will have a staff of 1,700 - roughly 1,000 Americans and 700 Iraqis - and be responsible for disbursing $18bn in US aid to Iraq. The embassy itself will have an operating budget of up to $1bn in fiscal year 2005 alone, the US State Department estimates.
And that does not include the cost of constructing the embassy building itself.
John Negroponte, who has been the US Ambassador to the United Nations for the past two-and-a-half years, is to be the new ambassador to Iraq. He will “provide policy direction and coordination for all US government activities in Iraq” except for military ones, he told the Senate.
The US Senate - which must approve the president’s ambassadorial nominations - confirmed him in record time, holding his confirmation hearing just eight days after he was nominated and approving him soon after. Mr Negroponte arrives in Baghdad at the beginning of July, but his deputy - Deputy Chief of Mission Jim Jeffrey - has been in place since the middle of May. Mr Jeffrey had been US Ambassador to Albania.
The State Department had also assigned more than 120 staff to the embassy by mid-May and begun interviewing Iraqis for local-hire positions. More than 600 CPA staff will stay in place at least temporarily after 1 July as part of the new embassy. Embassy staff will be responsible for a huge range of tasks, including human rights monitoring.
Eleven US government departments - other than State - had told Secretary of State Colin Powell as of mid-May that they wanted to have personnel at the embassy. The US Justice Department, for example, is seconding a team to the embassy to advise and assist the Iraqi war crimes tribunal.
American diplomats in Baghdad will be very heavily guarded. There were already 30 diplomatic security agents in Baghdad when the Senate held Mr Negroponte’s confirmation hearing at the end of April, and he estimated that the number would rise to at least 50. Some of the existing private security companies working for the Coalition Provisional Authority would probably be kept on, he added.
The embassy complex itself will be within the heavily-fortified Green Zone - a site chosen for security reasons. Plans call for it to consist of three sets of buildings, at least one of which is being built from scratch. Mr Negroponte told the Senate it could be constructed within two years of funding becoming available. Money has not yet been earmarked for construction; a spokesman for the Senate foreign relations committee said it might be included in the 2005 budget.
Until the new building is completed, main embassy functions will be carried out at a building known as the temporary Chancery.
There is some dispute about whether or not Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace - currently used by the CPA - will be part of the embassy. Mr Negroponte told the Senate in April it would be used for “some support activities”.
But in mid-June, Iraq’s interim President, Ghazi Yawer, demanded that it be returned to the Iraqis, the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.
“It is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty.”
ah yes, that’s what the British colonial forces said about Indians too.