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Subscribe to RSSIn 2009, NBC's Richard Engel took viewers on a tour of the U.S. embassy compound in Iraq, the biggest, most expensive U.S. embassy ever built.
The United States will "right-size" its Iraq embassy staff, which has grown to nearly 16,000, but contrary to a media report it will not halve its diplomatic presence there, State Department officials told NBC News on Tuesday.
"There is no consideration being given to slashing our diplomats by half," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told NBC News in response to a New York Times report.
A review process, being led by Deputy Secretary Thomas R. Nides, is looking at ways the U.S. can "right-size" its $750 million embassy and how it can shift away from contractors to local Iraqi support staff, Nuland said.
"We're trying to do our best to save the American taxpayer money in the way we support our diplomatic personnel," she said.
The majority of the 16,000 people under the American mission in Iraq are contractors; 1,700 are diplomats.
The New York Times story said that life has become hard for embassy personnel since the military left in December and that food formerly escorted by military escort is often delayed at the Kuwait border as Iraqis demand documentation.
It cited a dwindling salad bar and lack of sugar and Splenda at the cafeteria.
Nuland said she had seen the story and that this was "some whining that was inappropriate ... on the part of the embassy employees, with regard to the quality of the salad bar."
The Times also said that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey will step down "in the coming weeks." Nuland said Jeffrey is "on a regular diplomatic assignment. It was of a particular duration."
When Jeffrey's tour is completed, President Barack Obama will nominate a new ambassador for Iraq, she said.
"We're not at that stage yet, but this is normal and in keeping with the commitment that he made when he took the job," Nuland said.
The Times said the expansive Baghdad diplomatic buildup was seen as necessary to nurture a post-war Iraq. However, it said, Americans are frustrated by Iraqi obstructionism and are mainly confined to the embassy because of security concerns. The inability to interact with Iraqis makes it tough to justify a $6 billion annual operations cost at the embassy, the Times said.
Michael W. McClellan, the embassy spokesman, said in a statement to the Times, "Over the last year and continuing this year the Department of State and the Embassy in Baghdad have been considering ways to appropriately reduce the size of the U.S. mission in Iraq, primarily by decreasing the number of contractors needed to support the embassy’s operations."
McClellan said the number of diplomats was also "subject to adjustment as appropriate."
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For those above who are outraged by the $750 million embassy cost in Iraq please do some reading about the 1/2 billion dollar embassy in Afghanistan (before any overruns or operating costs). Wasn't it only about 11 or 12 years ago we were outraged by the $100 million embassy in Moscow which had to be rebuilt due to bugs? (spy bugs, not the legged kind). Now, we see the outrageous costs of the contractors running these deals.
As citizens, we sure cannot afford health care be we can damned well build 1/2 billion dollar edifices in war zones. So, we'll try to balance the budget by screwing up Social Security, Medicare, education funding, you name it. It seems to me that we could contract a lot of our diplomatic duties to the Swiss who we seem to be able to deal through when necessary with countries like Cuba or Iran. Funny deal that our enemies don't seem to be costing us nearly as much as our friends.
As an aside, anyone who thinks contracting out government services to private contractors (businesses) should read the article again, then read about Blackwater and the other private contractors who provided services in Iraq. These things are financial cancers at best.
"We're trying to do our best to save the American taxpayer money in the way we support our diplomatic personnel," she said....(In the joke of the day).
I used to be able to afford my healthcare, I'm middle class. Obamacare raised my premiums $100 a month, and now I get to choose between paying for my kids school lunch, or getting rid of some of the full coverage insureance we had.
thanks obama.
Why pay for your kids school lunch. Have them brown bag it. Used to be kids had lunch pails, yep, depending on the kids age, either mom or dad prepared the lunches, put in the lunch pail, into the fridge, ready for the next day.
So there is no reason for you to make a decision, just have your kids haul their own lunch to school.
Chumbkt, what makes you think the President raised your premiums? Doesn't your insurance and employer have anything to do with it? Ok I guess the President called your employer and told them to negotiate a bad contract with the insurance company and the President called the HMO's and the PPO's that your employer dealt with and said "take them (employer's for a long ride"), that's what your saying? You're so stupid.
Well said Allison & SallyAnn. Funny deal. My premiums only went up about $13. Guess Obama missed me.
My premiums went up about the same $100.00 as chumbkt's did. As for carrying lunch, what a great idea, except that in my district liberals on the school board made that difficult because they feared that the children would not receive a “balanced meal”. So now if my kids wanted to carry they have to submit a dietary plan with the school. Easy for me not so easy for others.
As to why we think the president’s health care plan increased premiums, well it's well established that the provisions of the plan that come into effect this year combined with the ones from last year caused premium increases, how much depends on the type of plan you have. My company has already told us that they will be cutting plans (Reducing Benefits) and increasing the cost again next year in response to the health care mandate. The reality is that we simply can't afford the provisions of this well intentioned yet poorly thought-out law.
Just once, I'd like to read an article that involves wasting money and risking lives, and it NOT involve the USA. Why can't other countries, especially the ones so wealthy they can lend us trillions, be required to spend more on defense and commit their citizens to defending their economic security?
Year 2088 it's Bush's fault get a life. Watch the news lately? who is the current president of the United States for the last 3 years!
If it's 2088 and it's Bush's fault, that must mean the people really has forgotten history. The just got rid of another president named Bush in 22087. So far 2 Bushes=0, except for wars.
complete waste of time and lives.
I never did get one free tank of gas out of the deal.
I thought once the war began, they would just run a hose from the oil fields straight to the gas stations here in the US. I figured gasoline would be under a buck again (remember 1999?). Man was I wrong! I guess Haliburton and other oil service companies, drilling companies have to take their cut first.
So no one who works for the government is ever allowed to say anything bad about the food where they are working, ever? Point noted. Free speech is dead, and I will never work for the government.
IMHO, Michelle Obama needs to stop encouraging everyone to eat healthy if the govt. is not even going to provide the organic, healthy expensive food they expect everyone else to eat to people who work for them.
I have had enough of the govt. telling me what to eat, and apparently their employees are not even allowed to have free speech regarding the food they are having to eat. Ridiculous.
Is there free speech in Iraq? I know in Saudi Arabia, women aren't allowed to talk and if they do, the men beat them with sticks.
What other embassy in the world has over 16,000 people? Why are we still giving handouts to government contractors? $6 BILLION in contractor welfare?
This is Bush's oil ministry. This giant waste of taxpayer money, was put in place to watch over the oil fields. The US should take out all of it's people, and give the building to the Iraqi's to turn into a hospital or university. Then the US should find the $ Trillions$ Rumpsfeld and the Israeli's stole and invest it in the good ole USA.
You are 100% right. Its is all about the OIL and access to oil. If Iraq didn't have $10 TRILLION+ worth of oil under the sand, the country would have never been even on the US radar map. Wars are almost always about resources and access to resources.
In stabilizing Iraq, Bushy promised Americans affordable oil.
Still waiting.
The $6 BILLION annually spent in Iraq today is gross negligence of our tax dollars.
It was gross negligence when the Bush administration implemented this dumb policy.
And they say they are having a tough time finding places where to slash spending? What a joke! A $750 million dollar building, that for one is ridiculous enough. Consider that Forbes valued Trump tower at $260 million in 2006. So the embassy costs three times more than the cost of Trump Tower, and the yearly operating cost is 24 times the cost of Trump Tower and 8 times the cost of the building itself! Why are we considering closing American military bases and closing American military factories that create jobs and train soldiers to protect our country when there's huge excesses like this that are outrageous?
16,000 people? Bring 15,990 of them home. Iraq isn't a real nation, we only need about a ten people there. That way when the whole place goes to sh!t we only need to cover a ten plane tickets.
I got an idea. The people complaining about the salad can be given a firearm and some boots and sent to Afghanistan to hunt Taliban in the Hindu Kush and other mountain ranges. Its beautiful this time of year.
$6 BILLION ANNUALLY !!
This is the kind of waste we could do without. What is Iraq giving the US for our presence in making their country stabilized?
Charity begins at home. I say we pull every one of those diplomats leaving a minimal amount of security.
We Americans are still waiting for the affordable oil that was promised!!
16,000? What do they do?
The diplomatic staff are so inept the first oil contract from Iraq went to the chinese. They love us. Pave the way for their energy concerns. Take a look at africa, next place we're putting boots on the ground while the chinese soak up the oil, because, well, americans need to "pay twice" what we pay now.
Yeah, they're working really hard on saving us money. Might I propose just dumping piles of cash out of plane above major civilian centers in Iraq or maybe just setting it on fire instead? **** it, right? We'll just print more money…
In all seriousness though, while that certainly is a lot of money, I'm sure they're all important diplomats who are working hard to make the lives of the average Iraqi citizen better.
Yeah,…I see what's going on here and who the real 'victors' are in Iraq.
I don't remember exactly how many years ago but there was a lengthy article in Vanity Fair about the pallets of money (CASH) bound in plastic that was constantly being flown over to Iraq, the article had photos of this that accompanied the article.
Yeah, i'm seen pictures of the 'palettes of cash' that get sent over without any real direction or knowledge of where it's going to be spent. I believe that kind of money is what was 'lost' for quite some time and then allegedly 'found'. It's pretty much one big **** sandwich and everyone's taking a huge bite.
The US Embassy in Iraq has a staff of 16,000?! There are fewer police officers on the streets of Manhattan! Close the embassy and stop wasting American taxpayer's money!
After reading this story, what am I supposed to be more upset about? The fact our state dept is pi$$ing money down a rat hole or..........................the quality of the salad bar.
I have the perfect solution, feed this pompus group MRE's for a month. I bet then they will stop bitching about the lack of splenda at the salad bar.
I am a Democrat and will very likely vote for Obama again. But, having an embassy staff/contractor the size of the present one is insane. Even 1/2 the size is too much. By now we must have some metrics on this. If they are meaninful use them. If not, junk them and start over again. Even if we have to take a loss, we need to downsize drastically.
Bad news for you, this was going on during the Bush administration, go back (several years) and you'll see. Use your computer for christ sakes'.
what more can be expected of an administration with little or no experience in foreign affairs. obama doesn't care about our people in iraq because he is only concerned with getting re-elected. in obamas mind he is the only one that matters. his big fat inflated ego won't let him do what is right. he has to be the dictator. this attitude goes back to his kenyan heritage and wanting to rule the tribe. two ivy league degrees don't mean you are inteligent. especiall when they were bought and not earned.
Let him pay for it with campaign donations.
boomer, are you attempting to say that the Bush administration had experience? You're funny.
Allison,
Actually if you want to compare experience, the Bush admin had WAY more experiencethan Obama's admin. It's not even comparable the difference is so great.
However we are talking solely about experience.
Yes, Cheney was especially experienced in dealing with Saddam for oil. They were well acquainted. I guess huntin partners aren't the only ones he feel comfortable
Why don't we just throw $750 million in a fire pit and set it on fire. Better than building an entire embassy to watch it burn to the ground.
Congratulations to the NYT for highlighting this gross mismanagement of US taxpayers money. This embassy is the responsibility of the OBAMA ADMIN............................16,000 staff????......Contractors who can earn $100,000 plus for duty there.................IRAQ should pick up the bill for the entire staff, otherwise pull 90 percent of them home.............................Maybe they could park a aircraft carrier down at BASRA and conduct embassy operations off the flight deck......................
Pete, where were you from 2002 forward? You must have been under a rock. You don't really believe this just happened within the last 3 years do you?
Allison - Yes, I'm sorry just like a failing company Obama was hired and promised change. Did he change the staff/contractors etc of the Iraq embassy? If Bush messed it up fine. Obama promised to fix it up.
So yeah it's on his watch. My god. When is this his Presidency? 2 years into (God Forbid) his 2nd term? 2 years AFTER?
YOU wake up.
Do your homework Pete! The U.S embassy in Iraq was in the hopper well BEFORE Obama took office as were most of those contracts. Blackwater was paying drivers that much before Obama ever was elected. There were more contractors there than military.
Give'er a look see:
U.S. Building Its Largest Embassy in Iraq
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Friday, April 14, 2006
And:
(pay heed to those dates there).
BigJJ,
Didn't you mean false "Profit"?
Im beginning to get the notion that the nations that matter are getting tired of our constant interference worldwide. I hope there is no price to pay for 50 years of it.
disinterested, I don't know how old you are but I'm 61 and how long has the war (actual fighting) been over in Korea? Face it it's a business just ask Rumsfeld and Cheney they'll tell youif you don't believe it.
That is GOP job creation in action. US Gov't pays GOP donor-owned mercenary, janitorial, and catering companies biggie sized warbucks in Bush's Baghdad Folly. It's just a giant target for motars and rockets when the Iraqis get ready to take back that stolen part of their city.
Yeah, anyone who thinks it's one party or the other is on drugs or stupid. Our Government is corrupt. Period.
Lot's of Bush Bashers saying the Embassy was an embarrassment. Well how come Obama did not clean that up on the apology tour? Bush Phucked up things Obama was in la la land. Great 12 years of American history.
After reading many of the posts on the article above, I am flabbergasted how far the "dumbing down" of America has evolved. The real whiners and complainers are the ones writing all these comments. It is obvious that many of you have no clue about the history that made our country great. Maybe, you should talk to your "out of touch" grandparents. You might learn some valuable lessons about the country you live in.
"Love America, or Leave It" or find your utopian society somewhere else. God Bless America, "the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free".
Way too many folks there, and probably elsewere as well.