by Gouda » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:59 am
As sprawling as the Vatican. 42 hectares. Shrouded in secrecy. And being built via subterfuge and abusive slave labor, all under the approving eye of the State Department and Pentagon. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (A Kuwaiti-Lebanese elite venture) is the building contractor. <br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.firstkuwaiti.com/images/first_kuwaiti_logo.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>I especially like the pyramid symbolism. <br><br>I think this growing fact on the ground is one of the keys to understanding US long-term intentions in Iraq and the middle east - whether it will be partition, phased troop withdrawal or not - one must also consider the unreal size and scale of this project which shall be built regardless of the superficial political situation in the USA. Problem is, I am not sure what it means. <br><br>More than a few legal bodies need to start challenging the legality of this. More than a few human rights organizations need to start looking into the abuses. More than a few journalists need to start digging. What the fuck! The State Department, yeah, supposedly the "good guys" holding back this neopentacon bushco junta. Ironically, the article below portrays the Pentagon as the agency doing the most to "reign in" the practices there. Of course, we do not really believe the Pentagon has had a change of heart about human fodder. But they do have a good intelligence and PR network that can anticipate and manage leaks about this embassy, issuing perfunctory and non-threatening memos. They may have even read the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Chicago Tribune</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> expose, "Pipeline to Peril," on human trafficking by contractors. <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak01.html">www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak01.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A peek behind the walls of 'Fortress US'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>By David Phinney<br><br>WASHINGTON - Things began looking sketchier than ever to John Owen as he boarded a nondescript white jet on his way back to Iraq in March 2005 after some downtime in Kuwait City. <br><br>(...)<br><br>Now, with a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First Kuwaiti is in the midst of building the most expensive and heavily fortified embassy in the world. Scheduled to open next year, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size. <br><br>In his resignation letter in June, Owen told First Kuwaiti and US State Department officials that his managers physically assaulted and beat the construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety and routinely breached security.<br><br>(...)<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>And it was all happening smack in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, he said - <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>right under the nose of the State Department </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->that had quietly awarded the controversial embassy contract.<br><br>(...)<br><br>Despite numerous e-mails and phone calls about such allegations, neither <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>First Kuwaiti general manager Wadih al-Absi nor his lawyer, Angela Styles, the former top White House contract policy adviser</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, has responded. After a year of requests, State Department officials involved with the project also have ignored or rejected opportunities for comment.<br><br>However, on April 4, the Pentagon issued a new contracting directive after a secret investigation that officially confirmed what many South Asian laborers had been complaining about ever since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. <br><br>(...)<br><br>While the Pentagon declines specifically to name those contractors found to be doing business in this way, it also acknowledged in an April 19 memorandum that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>it was a widespread practice among contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan to take away workers' passports.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>(...)<br><br>Several months before Owen quit, Rory Mayberry witnessed similar events when he flew to Kuwait from his home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon.<br><br>The gravely-voiced, easy-going US Army veteran had previously worked in Iraq for Halliburton and the private security company Danubia. Missing the action and the big paychecks US contractors draw there, Mayberry snagged a $10,000-a-month job with MSDS consulting company.<br><br>MSDS is a two-person minority-owned consulting company that assists US State Department managers in Washington with procurement programming. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Never before had the firm offered medical services or worked in Iraq, but First Kuwaiti - Owen's employer - hired MSDS on the recommendation of Jim Golden, the State Department contract official overseeing the embassy project. Within days, an agreement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical care was signed. </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>(...)<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>"All the workers had their passports taken away by First Kuwaiti,"</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> Mayberry claimed, and while he knew the plane was bound for Baghdad, he's not so sure the others were aware of their destination.<br><br>(...)<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>State Department officials supervising the project were aware of many such events, but apparently did nothing, he said. 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. </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>(...)<br><br>Recent First Kuwaiti employees agree that the accounts of Owen and Mayberry are accurate. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>One longtime supervisor claimed that 50-60% of the laborers regularly protested that First Kuwaiti "treats them like animals"</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, and routinely reduced their promised pay with confusing and unexplained deductions. <br><br>Another former First Kuwaiti manager, who declined to be named because of possible adverse consequences, said that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Owen's and Mayberry's complaints only began "to scratch the surface"</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.<br><br>But scratching the surface is the only view yet available of what may be the most lasting monument to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. As of now, only a handful of authorized State Department managers and contractors, along with First Kuwaiti workers and contractors, are officially allowed inside the project's walls. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>No journalist has ever been allowed access to the sprawling 42-hectare site</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> with towering construction cranes raising their necks along the skyline. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=gouda@rigorousintuition>Gouda</A> at: 10/27/06 6:40 am<br></i>