U.S. Opens New $700M Baghdad Embassy

Largest American Embassy Ever Called Symbol of Continuing U.S. Commitment In Iraq

(AP)  The United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever on Monday, officially opening a fortress-like compound in the heart of the Green Zone as a testament to America's commitment to Iraq.

Addressing an inauguration ceremony under tight security, Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the $700 million embassy was testimony to America's long-term friendship with Iraq, where about 146,000 U.S. troops are deployed.

"I think we have seen a tremendous amount of progress, even since September. But the development of this new Iraq is going to be a very long time in the making, and we need to be engaged here," Crocker told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Monday's opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Attacks once again rocked Baghdad a day after a suicide bomber killed at least 38 people at a Shiite shrine just four miles north of the site of the new embassy. Four bombs exploded in different parts of Baghdad just before noon on Monday, killing four people and wounding 19.

During the ceremony at the new embassy, U.S. Marines raised the American flag over the building, which sits on a 104-acre site and has space for 1,000 employees. The adobe-colored buildings resemble a corporate campus surrounded by huge walls of reinforced concrete.

"It is from the embassy that you see before you that we will continue the tradition of friendship, cooperation and support begun by the many dedicated Americans who have worked in Iraq since 2003," said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who served as the first American ambassador to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, at the ceremony, held in the complex's courtyard.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a longtime Washington ally, praised President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, who was executed two years ago.

"The building of this site would not be possible without the courageous decision by President Bush to liberate Iraq," said Talabani, a Kurd. "This building is not only a compound for the embassy but a symbol of the deep friendship between the two peoples of Iraq and America."

U.S. diplomats and military officials moved into the embassy on Dec. 31 after vacating Saddam's Republican Palace, which they occupied when they captured Baghdad in April 2003. The palace will now seat the Iraqi government and the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who did not attend the Monday's ceremony because he was traveling in Iran.

Crocker said that, since 2003 invasion, "perhaps no single week has been more important than this past week. On Dec. 31 we left the republican palace."

For nearly six years, the grandiose and gaudy palace, with its gold-plated bathroom fixtures and enormous chandeliers, served as both headquarters for occupying forces and the hub for the Green Zone - the walled-off swath of central Baghdad that was formally turned over to the Iraqi government on New Year's Day.

The handover came on the same day that a security agreement between Iraq and the United States went into effect. It replaced a U.N. mandate that allowed the U.S. and other foreign troops to operate in Iraq.

Under the new agreement, U.S. troops will no longer conduct unilateral operations and will act only in concert with Iraqi forces. They must also leave major Iraqi cities by June and the entire country by the end of 2011. Another accord mapped out the bilateral relations.

"Iraq has now assumed the lead for all security operations and our bilateral relationship going forward will be governed" by the two agreements, Crocker said. "Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-U.S. relationship."

Though violence has plummeted around Iraq in the past year, with attacks dropping from an average 180 a day to just 10, horrific bombings still plague the capital. Many recent attacks have targeted pilgrims during ceremonies commemorating the death of a much revered Shiite saint.

On Monday, a roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded five in eastern Baghdad. Another killed a man driving in central Baghdad while two roadside bombs wounded more than 10 people - including seven Shiites preparing to head to the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, where the ceremonies will reach their pinnacle on Wednesday.

(Left: Fire fighters hose down cars at the site of a blast in Abu Dshir in Baghdad Monday.)

Iraqi officials said Sunday's suicide bomber, who killed at least 38 people outside the shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim in Baghdad, was a man disguised as a woman. Initial reports said the attacker was a woman concealing a bomb under her black cloak. At least 17 of the dead were Iranian pilgrims.

In response to that attack, Iraqi authorities banned female pilgrims from entering the district for ceremonies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected to visit Karbala and other shrines around Iraq during Ashura, which on Wednesday will mark the anniversary of the 7th-century death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.

He was killed in a battle on the plains of Karbala near the Euphrates River. The battle, part of the dispute over the leadership of a young Muslim nation following Muhammad's death in 632, enshrined Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.

Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands of troops in Baghdad, Karbala and on roads linking the two cities to safeguard the ceremonies. Attacks by al Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni insurgents and even a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people in recent years.

[indivthinker]

Posted by endrepubs at 04:14 AM : Jan 06, 2009

You must be an Obama supporter, because you have no idea about what is going to hit you once Obama is in office. Obama is going to hand out more bailouts like they''re candy... the last figure was around $800 BILLION, more than the cost of the entire war in Iraq. The Democratic-led Congress passed the $700 billion bailout earlier this year, and they want more to give out.

Add that to the trillions of dollars that Obama wants to spend on new (public, taxpayer funded) "jobs" for the infrastructure, plus hundreds of billions of dollars on new healthcare welfare handouts (paid for by the upper and middle classes) to be redistributed to the working and the lower classes. AND, add that to the fact that Obama will still maintain military spending, plus spending in Iraq for the next "sixteen" months (which is a lie, it will be more than that), and he will spend more money on the escalation in Afghanistan.

What''s the icing on the cake? Oh yes, Obama has said that he won''t do a thing about the Bush taxcuts (rather than let them expire in two years), AND he says he wants to give away hundreds of billions away in "middle class tax cuts".

So you haven''t seen anything yet. Bush may have been bad, but Obama is going to be the worst thing to ever hit the US treasury. I bet we add more to the deficit in the next four years than Bush did in all eight of his.

[harbinger09]

Why would the US ever construct an embassy costing over half a billion dollars in a country we "claim" we have no intention of staying in? Rampant waste--then we wonder why we are facing economic collapse--very similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union after their protracted and expensive war with Afghanistan--and we still spend about 10 billion a MONTH just to be in Iraq fighting the war that started with LIES. Smart. (NOT)

[evian_ycnan]

During the ceremony at the new embassy, U.S. Marines raised the American flag over the building, which sits on a 104-acre site and has space for 1,000 employees. The adobe-colored buildings resemble a corporate campus surrounded by huge walls of reinforced concrete.

The first castle built by the Crusaders in over 1700 years. Picture of embassy at link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SiegeofAntioch.jpeg

[evian_ycnan]

Spending $700m on an embassy in a country that won''''t let the U.S attack Iran from its territory. What IS Bush thinking!?

Posted by Koopa98 at 01:28 AM : Jan 06, 2009

It`s better than that... it`ll be empty inside 5 years. When the puppets are overthrown, we will once again be tossed.

[koopa98]

Spending $700m on an embassy in a country that won''t let the U.S attack Iran from its territory. What IS Bush thinking!?

[samrt-2009]

Looks like it''s past my bedtime. Meant to praise CBS rather than WaPo. Night-night.

[samrt-2009]

The statements by John Negroponte, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and Jalal Talabani sound ludicrously like flowery speeches by the old Soviet Union Politburo apparatchiks at similar dog and pony shows held years ago. Pure, saccharine propaganda.

This is one of those government handout attempts at "reporting." Nowhere is there a suggestion of why the U.S. requires such an enormous embassy in Iraq, or any attempt to find out. Sorry, WaPo, you fail the Stenography Test on this one.

[ms1-1-1]

- OH BUSH is building a new brothel for REPUBLICANs...


Here I was so devasted because United States of America has been jobless, homeless, penny less, at the expense of 8 years of failed BUSH-IT... but wait there''s so much more to come ...

hey, why aren''t the REPUBLICANs posting ... must be high oh Jenna Bush cocaine...

[ms1-1-1]

Ambassador Ryan Crocker said teh $700 million embassy was testimony to America''s Long-term friendship with Irq. where about 146,000 U.S. troops are deplyed ....


is this for REAL? We have starving U.S. Citizen, who lost homes, lost jobs, are peniless and we mysteriously found ...$700 million


- CBS - you had better not be blocking this ...

- B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T-

[american_gir]

I find this obscene, and always wonder how this sort of thing can come to be? The people of this country, myself included, are just trying to survive financially. We''''re working ourselves to death and can''''t even afford decent medical and dental care and our government spends that kind of money on this ***??? I was outraged last year when I heard about it and am doubly so now. So, we "show our commitment" to the Iraqi people, who don''''t really want us there any longer. Where is the commitment to the American People? I could use several thousand dollars to pay off my medical and dental bills, how about it?? Huh? I could use a bailout!!!!!!!!

Posted by shelleyt3 at 06:30 PM : Jan 05, 200


**** ugly *** go kill urself if u cant make money ok

[starleo146]

I find this obscene, and always wonder how this sort of thing can come to be? The people of this country, myself included, are just trying to survive financially. We''''re working ourselves to death and can''''t even afford decent medical and dental care and our government spends that kind of money on this ***??? I was outraged last year when I heard about it and am doubly so now. So, we "show our commitment" to the Iraqi people, who don''''t really want us there any longer. Where is the commitment to the American People? I could use several thousand dollars to pay off my medical and dental bills, how about it?? Huh? I could use a bailout!!!!!!!!

Posted by shelleyt3 at 06:30 PM : Jan 05, 2009

Shelley it is sad isn''t it, and to think daddy Bush want his other son to be president (Jeb) If I ever hear the name Bush again

[dnc4evr89]

700M at the taxpayers expense, just so it can be bombed and fired upon, can we the taxpayers reposses?.....sell it off piece by piece

[wardoglrs]

Now what happened? The Jews at that peace conference, when they were cutting up Germany and parceling out Europe to all these nations who claimed a right to a certain part of European territory, said, "How about Palestine for us?" And they produced, for the first time to the knowledge of the Germans, this Balfour Declaration. So the Germans, for the first time realized, "Oh, so that was the game! That''s why the United States came into the war." The Germans for the first time realized that they were defeated, they suffered the terrific reparations that were slapped onto them, because the Zionists wanted Palestine and were determined to get it at any cost.

http://fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/zionism/news.php?q=1228947965

GOOGLE:
BENJAMIN FREEDMAN SPEAKS: A JEWISH DEFECTOR WARNS AMERICA

[babooph]

More middle class tax $ down the drain.

[starleo146]

Posted by magoo2u1 at 06:43 PM : Jan 05, 2009


Wasn''t Magoo blind as a bat. Go back and read this story you ---- never mind you are not worth it

[mikefl11]

Mission Accomplished! We fixed Iraq and built a billion dollar monument to prove it. Bush 41 must be so proud.

[nativewoman]

Posted by BagdadsHere9 at 07:06 PM : Jan 05, 2009

Au contraire! Gotta job. Got insurance.

Can''t afford an annual physical as the deductible is $725.00 + $30.00 co-pay 25% of any lab work.

Annual physical runs about $500.00 - $600.00 they told me. $30.00 co-pay 25% of any lab work. Can''t afford that either.

Just like having no insurance atall!

Not living high on the hog either. No credit card bills to speak of. Don''t drive a fancy car. Don''t wear fancy clothes. Don''t eat out. Don''t go to movies.

Just barely able to meet the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter for 5 people and caring for elderly parents in poor health.

And I''m one of the "lucky" ones having what is considered a "good" job with "good" insurance.

And with unemployment at the highest rate in 14 years, it doesn''t bode well for the unemployed looking for jobs.

[endrepubs]

Another 700 million dollars for Halliburton. D-i-c-k Cheney''s going away gift!!!!!!

[be_real]

They can p!ss it away in Iraq while New Orleans is still in ruins.


Posted by mavnomore at 05:55 PM : Jan 05, 2009



Good Point!!!!

[zzy-izzy]

PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS A F-U-C-K-I-N-G JOKE $700 MILLION DOLLARS OF TAXPAYERS MONEY FOR THIS WHO IN THE HELL PASSED THIS WITH A LOT OF CHILDERN IN THIS COUNTRY WITH NO HEALTHCARE AND THE STUPID S-O-N-OF-A-B-I-C-H-E-S DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS.