Subscribe"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman.
You want the benefits of a modern civilization?
First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, a subcontractor of Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root, was granted the $592 million construction contract. By December it had been paid about $483 million.This more recent article puts the cost at $1 billion.
The company is a relative novice in embassy building and has been criticized for its treatment of Asian workers, who, critics say, are imported because they can be paid low wages, and because they work under hard conditions. About 900 laborers live on site as they build the complex, according to a report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has congressional oversight responsibility for the project.
« Older The Architect of the... | Betrated: The Iraqis who trust... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
No large construction project is without it's minor problems, of course. Some have voiced concern about the non-standard labor practices of First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, the primary builder on-site: "...When he urged laborers to get medical treatment for rashes and sores, First Kuwaiti managers accused him of spoiling the laborers and allowing them simply to avoid work, he says.
...Once when 17 workers climbed the wall of the construction site to escape, a State Department official helped round them up and put them in “virtual lockdown,” Owen said."
There are also rumors that some of the independent contractors in charge of worker morale may not be fully committed to the cause of Iraqi Freedom: "...Prostitutes, he explains are viewed as possible spies. 'They are a big security risk.'"
posted by cortex at 6:02 PM on March 24, 2007