Half a trillion for embassy- built with forced labor
Is there anything…ANYTHING…that this bunch of numbnuts can do right?
U.S. embassy ‘built with coerced labor.’
Construction of the colossus U.S. embassy in Baghdad continues, projected to eventually cost $592 million. IraqSlogger reports today that American officials have reported “instances of appalling living conditions, abuse, and coerced labor” among the foreign construction workers:
During a telephone interview last weekend, [a high-level project manager] said the laborers “had their backs to the wall,” and had been living 20 to a trailer. Protests over First Kuwaiti’s bad food, abusive treatment from managers and unsafe working conditions were routine among many of the 2,700 workers during much of 2005 and 2006. […]
[Former Army emergency medical technician Rory Mayberry] says he found the most basic of medical needs missing and that clinics lacked hot water, disinfectant and hand washing stations. Mayberry also claims that workers’ medical records in total disarray or nonexistent, beds were dirty and the support staff was poorly trained. Prescription pain killers were being handed out “like a candy store … and then people were sent back to work,” to operate heavy equipment or climb scaffolding, he adds.</em>
And they aren’t particuarly good at security, either:
Baghdad Embassy Plans Turn Up Online
WASHINGTON – Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project.
Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital.</em>
Incompetent morons.
