Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Embassy

It's getting so that the saga of this is becoming more-and-more comical, perhaps surpassing the Cary Grant-Myrna Loy classic we culled the title from ...

It's been called, due to first, the sprinklers not working, and also having pipes burst from the water pressure, a fire trap.

It' has gone (big surprise) tremendously over-budget.

It has had calls for it to be shut down.

And, there was also the mandatory call by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, issuing an edict, in order to fill vacant positions, to State Department employees, that they would have to render service in Iraq.

We speak of the Bush Grindhouse's Xanadu ("cost: no man can say"), it's Winchester House, or, otherwise known as the U.S Embassy in Iraq.















The latest?

New US Embassy in Iraq Can't House All Its Workers

Baghdad - The new U.S. Embassy complex does not have enough fortified living quarters for hundreds of diplomats and other workers, who must remain temporarily in trailers without special rooftop protection against mortars and rockets, government officials have told The Associated Press.

Sorting out the housing crunch and funding could further delay moving all personnel into the compound until next year and exposes shortcomings in the planning for America's more than $700 million diplomatic hub in Iraq.

Hmmm ... Something tells me this could become a campaign issue ... In the 2012, or 2016 elections ...

Bonus "She's A Brick House" Riffs

The Guardian: One building that's been built on time and on budget in Iraq: America's fortress embassy ...Vatican-sized bomb-proof structure to cost £300m ...· Builders in Green Zone already insurgent targets

Tom Engelhardt: Imperial life in a brand-new city; What plans for a gigantic new U.S. Embassy in Iraq say about the Bush administration, the occupation of Iraq, and Americans themselves

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Newly Constructed Iraq Embassy Is Poorly Built

Along With Shooting Innocent Civilians, We've, Apparently, Outsourced Rape, As Well

When I first saw this article, I did a double-take.

It is a harrowing, sick, awful story, redeemed only by the courage of the victim to fight back, against our own Government.

As reported by ABC's Brian Ross (along with Maddy Sauer and Justin Rood), Jamie Leigh Jones, of Houston, was a KBR employee, at the time KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, working in Iraq - in the Green Zone - when she was gang-raped by her own co-workers.

And before you think that was the only horrible incident that occurred;

"...The company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

And it still gets worse.

"According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."

Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.

Much like they did when Blackwater USA mercenaries shot and killed 17 Iraqis, has Condoleeza Rice and the State Department given her rapists immunity?

And people criticized the career diplomats who balked at being consigned to serve at the still-a-disaster U.S. Embassy in Iraq?

Shut this nightmare down!

And put out the good vibes for Ms. Jones, that she can successfully, working against the stacked deck at the hands of our own government, can beat the odds and bring all these cretin bastards to justice.

Links

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR

Shakespeare's Sister: Nobody Could Have Predicted Halliburton Was Pro-Rape

The Condoleezza Rice Ballroom Dancing & Charm School; Or: Shopping For A Legacy on Cyber Monday


















What do you say there, Madam Secretary? Will you see that justice prevails here? Will you help harbor Ms. Jones from her own, very painfully personal mushroom cloud?

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Newly Constructed Iraq Embassy Is Poorly Built

News Item: Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays

10. The office pool is firmly betting on the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series over when they get to move into the Embassy

9. Whispers in Washington are surfacing, that this wouldn't be happening if Condi Rice had a husband

8. You keep getting unsolicited suggestions from the contractors building Iran's nuclear plants

7. Even Andy Card says he couldn't market, no matter what month he tried, something this fucked up

6. Everytime General Petraeus criticizes Prime Minister Maliki, Maliki just snickers back "Embassy"

5. Instead of sending and receiving cables, cables are what’s holding the building up

4. You reach out, but architect Frank Gehry turns you down, wanting no part of it

3. Embassy staff prefers to work and live in the moving vans

2. Your query on how to fix it stumps the Ask This Old House guys

1. You keep getting unsolicited suggestions from the people that run the Winchester House


Bonus Bad Embassy Riffs

McClatchy Newspapers: Even sprinkler systems fail at U.S. embassy in Baghdad

TimesOnLine: Welcome to the new US embassy; It’s bigger than Saddam’s palace and, with a cinema, gym and pool, is the safest and smartest place to live in Iraq...

Tom Engelhardt: Imperial life in a brand-new city; What plans for a gigantic new U.S. Embassy in Iraq say about the Bush administration, the occupation of Iraq, and Americans themselves.