Who Hired Trump as a Military Contractor?

Can this possibly be right? The proposed American embassy in Iraq will cost $1.5 billion? What are they doing, building it out of diamond for bulletproofing? As Atrios notes, that's about the same as the projected cost of the Freedom Tower to be built on the site of the Twin Towers.

UPDATE: Commenters find info suggesting we're talking about a fairly vast complex—and given that you can build a pretty hefty office building for a few mil, it'd have to be—which helps to explain the cost, but is sufficiently unusual for a traditional "embassy" that I wonder how it'll look to Iraqis.

Comments

[Brian]

It's so expensive because it's going to have a big landing pad on the roof for the inevitable "last helicopter leaving Saigon" moment.

[Jeff A. Taylor]

Fuck's sake! NASA should be able to launch the shuttle from the roof for that kinda of cash....

[gaius marius]

hell, it ain't their money.

fwiw, i'm sure that the "embassy" will cover several square miles of downtown baghdad and include a listening post that would put menwith hill to shame.

[Jamie]

Thats a lot of johns at $500 per toilet seat...

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Wow. $1.5 billion?

Can I get my $11.50 back?

Seriously, I know some contractors that can do it at a much lower cost.

[chthus]

Apparently this amount is for a State Dept contract that is entitled "Design-Build and Construction of a New U.S. Embassy Complex Baghdad, Iraq. Including Office Buildings, Housing and Support Facilities."
http://www.cbd-net.com/index.php/search/show/736469

Not that the fact that it is more than one building makes the amount acceptable, but at least more comprehensible.

[Jamie]

Even Menwith Hill didn't cost that much to build. Those golf balls are just made out of plastic, and there wasn't enough money to staff the gym...

[chthus]

And here, the IRS is renting a pickup truck in Baghdad.
http://www.cbd-net.com/index.php/search/show/735758

What the fuck are they doing there?

[Franklin Harris]

Fuck's sake! NASA should be able to launch the shuttle from the roof for that kinda of cash....

Exactly. The American embassy in Iraq is going to have escape pods. And it's going to need them.

[gaius marius]

What the fuck are they doing there?

those soldiers owe uncle sam money, you know. :/

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

What the fuck are they doing there?

What in the hold hell is going on over there? I fucking hate this shit. Next you'll tell me that the SSA is over there too.

[thoreau]

Let's see, if Trump built it, everything would be made of gold, in keeping with his good taste and understated sense of decor. That sounds about right, actually, since this embassy will literally be worth its weight in gold.

[chthus]

Found this in a newsletter sent out by a govt. employee in Baghdad last year. Slightly dated and unofficial, but sheds a little more light.

"We had the Assistant Secretary of State for Installions visit us this week. His job is to determine where the new embassy and support buildings would be located and what role the Palace would play with the new US diplomatic compound. We spent all week preparing for his visit yesterday, which is a big reason why I'm late getting the Rag out. But some important decisions were made. First, the site of the new embassy and Ambassador's residence was selected. It will be just a few miles north of the CPA compound but still within in the Green Zone. This will be where the new Ambassador will hold his official functions and conduct business with the new Iraqi government. The Palace compound will become an "annex" to the embassy. We will convert the north wing to house most of the diplomatic staff and most of the foreign officers and economic policy section will be here. Also, we are recommending that a new joint military-State organization to replace CPA be formed to continue supporting the diplomatic community for another year. I think reality is setting in that the manpower and funding to continue all the activities we are now doing is too much for State to absorb by July 1. They need more time and this organization will help them continue the transition as we proceed to standing up the diplomatic complex being planned. This will be the largest complex for the State Department to date, and it will require the coordination of most, if not all, agencies within the US government. We have set into motion a three-year plan to build facilities to house this complex, hoping to have it completed by late 2007. It's a good plan and I feel privileged to play a small role in helping to formulate these plans."
http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/03RelatedStories/03.09relcontinfo/09.43BaghdadRag/BghdRagNotes.11.htm

It seems likely that several square miles of the Green Zone will be turned into this embassy/housing complex. This along with the fact that the palace complex will merely be an annex gives some idea of scope.

As for the overall cost, I suspect the continued use of the palace complex will indeed necessitate that all toilets stay consistant with the already established gold theme.

[gaius marius]

The Palace compound will become an "annex" to the embassy.

just in case anyone forgets who's *really* in charge.

this has all the tin-eared hallmarks of a bush white house decision. use saddam's prison for your prison, use saddam's palace for your "embassy". what message is that supposed to send?

and some people here really believe the iraqi elections are not being gamed. lol...

[kwais]

A couple of points of chthus' post.

1 The green zone is really not that big overall for the embassadors residence to be miles from the CPA compound (or what used to be the CPA compound, I think it has another name now). And the palace that is being used now as the embassy is pretty godamned big.

2 I hear a lot of talk on this thread of expensive shitters. The shitters in the palace now are decidedly unimpressive. They are downright ghetto. I was overall impressed with the palace, but if I ever met with Saddam I meant to have a talk with him about how substandard the johns were. Then I found out that we put those johns in.

So if what is in place right now is any indication, the lions share of the 1.5 billion is not going into the rest rooms.

[dead_elvis]

With all the stories I see about contractor jobs in Iraq that pay something like triple normal wages, it doesn't surprise me. It's so expensive because they're building it in a war zone.

I wonder if the 1.5 billion includes painting a giant bulls-eye on the building.

[chthus]

kwais,

The restroom comments (at least on my part) are merely jokes. Recalling overpriced toilet seats involved in govt. contracting in the 80's, coupled with stories and some pics of golden toilets in at least one of Saddam's palaces, the attempt at bathroom humor was just too strong to resist.

As for the overall size of the green zone and scope of the plans for the embassy complex, I was merely going by the above statement that the site for the embassy itself was a couple miles from the palace and making the assumption that a good portion of the area in between the two would be used for housing and offices. You can probably speak better than I can about the size of the green zone and the locales of the palace and proposed embassy site. Would it be likely that the two would be connected by a continuous area used for embassy purposes, if only to have one continuous border/perimeter to secure? Or do you think the two are separated by enough distance that they would in effect become two separate compounds?

[Shawn Smith (in Las Vegas)]

I heard that number yesterday on NPR's Morning Edition and thought "What the...?! Did I hear that right?!" Didn't the Bellagio here in Las Vegas cost about that much? Sheeesh.

And echoing gaius marius's point, why on Earth does a lousy American embassy need to be so outlandish? What, are the Iranians, Brits, French, and Russians going to demand similar lodgings for their diplomats? Where can I get my share of that money the government is spending?

Sheeeeesh. This is depressing.

[kwais]

chthus,
I really don't know. I was just joking also. I don't think if I ever did meet Saddam, that criticizing the restrooms in his palace would be forfront in my mind. As a matter of fact I don't know arabic well enough to ask that, and the translator would be insulted at having to translate something so trivial.

It has been a number of months that I haven't been to the Green Zone, and I have heard that it has expanded.

The Green is a walled off zone in the middle of Baghdad. Huge concrete wall have been put up around it and many of the major highways throught it have been shut down. This has caused a headache traffic problem to a lot of locals, and they resent it for that.

The Army controls the three access points. (I only went in and out of three points, but there may be more). And if I remember correctly the whole Green Zone was about 5 miles wide and 4 miles deep (that is just a guess, estimate).

However, Iraqis live within the Green Zone, and who they support or oppose is largely unknown. The Green Zone is mostly safe, but Iraqi residents have been known to fire on coalition forces, and have also been known to be suicide bombers (I lost some close friends to one).

Within the Green Zone there are peremiters of other bases and safehouses. Including the US Embassy, which is probably the best guarded peremiter within the Green Zone, and not only because it is guarded by Marines.

I would imagine that the embassadors house and the various offices would be better within one peremiter, guarded by Marines. That way the embassador could just walk to work in the morning and there wouldn't be a huge ordeal with motorcade and bodyguards and all, every day, two or three times a day.

All the above mentioned information is available open source, or is speculation based on open source information.

[Ron Popeil]

$1.5 billion might sound like a lot, but it's a $3 billion value!

Order now and we'll throw in armored humvees absolutely free!

But wait, there's more! Included in the embassy is a luxury hotel, a mall for tourists, and a museum memorializing the Americans who died liberating Iraq!

That's right, the embassy, the palace compound, the humvees, the mall, the hotel, and the museum, all for $1.5 billion. No, make that $1.9 billion and we'll throw in a residential complex for embassy employees!

[Andy]

Wasn't it Nero who demolished a large portion of Rome to build a monumental palace?

[Douglas Fletcher]

My memory is growing dim of the election days, but wasn't Atrios proven to be a complete idiot back then?

[Douglas Fletcher]

And where the hell is joe? Is internet service down in Boston?

[joe]

I'm here, and my insightful comment is about the bathrooms -

People from other countries think we're insane for making our bathrooms so elaborate. The bathroom has become a place to spend time and enjoy one's self in American homes, while it remains much more utilitarian in other countries. This is not a question of prosperity - not even well to do Europeans choose to put their money into lavish "W.C.s" - but a different concept of what the loo is for.

[gaius marius]

Wasn't it Nero who demolished a large portion of Rome to build a monumental palace?

the domus aurea, built in the aftermath of the fire of 64. imperial land grab followed by monstrous ostentation including a manmade lake (under the current site of the colosseum) and a four-story bronze likeness of nero.

[thoreau]

joe, I believe that the Japanese have Americans beat when it comes to elaborate bathrooms.

[Seamus]

"It will be just a few miles north of the CPA compound but still within in the Green Zone. This will be where the new Ambassador will hold his official functions and conduct business with the new Iraqi government. The Palace compound will become an 'annex' to the embassy."

I thought the Green Zone was an Iraqi presidential palace, i.e., property of the government of Iraq. How in the hell did the U.S. government acquire title to that piece of downtown real estate? Can I see the deed from Ayad Allawi? (Or would it have to have been signed by President al-Yawr?)

When we conquered Japan, MacArthur didn't take over the Imperial Palace, and even if he had, I like to think that after the restoration of Japanese sovereignty, he'd have given back to the Japanese. If we really need a super-secure site for our embassy, we ought to buy it from the Iraqis at fair market value, or else build a new embassy way out in the suburbs, with a big honking moat around it (alligators optional).

[alara]

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