Our Iraqi Ambassador's New Digs

Well, Baghdad may be a hell-hole, and Iraqis may have to do without electricity (and how’s that water supply system?), but the palatial U.S. embassy is about to be christened. At least we’ve been constructing something.

For two years, stories about the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad have talked about its looming size—a 104-acre expanse—and extreme isolation. More recently, though, the stories have turned to sensational reports of human trafficking, slave labor conditions and a dangerously unsafe structure.

The allegations have been strong enough to put the entire project in doubt. Yet the State Department has plowed ahead and is finally saying that the embassy will soon be completed—far away from the glare of continuing Justice Department and congressional investigations.

  Washington Independent