US Embassy in Iraq a test for diplomacy

WASHINGTON -- When the US Embassy opens its doors in Baghdad next Thursday, it will hold nearly 900 American employees, nearly 600 Iraqi workers, an in-house psychiatrist, and some of the intelligence agents who will make up what is believed to be the largest CIA station in the world.

The massive mission is saddled with perhaps the most difficult diplomatic task on earth: winning the hearts and minds of a population that is anguished by a year of occupation and coordinating $18 billion in reconstruction projects under the daily threat of attack.

In addition to the scheduled transfer of power from a US-led occupation to a new Iraqi government, Wednesday's handover also marks a shift in American decision making in Iraqi affairs from a process largely driven by the Pentagon to one heavily directed by the State Department.

There will be no passing of the baton: L. Paul Bremer III, the current US administrator in Iraq, will leave Wednesday, after dissolving the Coalition Provisional Authority, and John D. Negroponte will arrive a day later as the new US ambassador to Iraq to present his credentials to the new interim government.

''The intention was not to overlap," said a State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli. ''They are doing completely different functions, and we don't want there to be any confusion in the public's mind."

But State Department officials acknowledge that the lack of security will severely hamper their diplomatic goals that only months ago seemed more manageable.

Until the security situation improves, nearly all employees will probably be confined to the Green Zone -- the heavily protected area of Baghdad where US officials have established their headquarters and where the embassy will be located -- unless they are given special permission to travel. That has led some specialists to express doubt in the mission even before it has begun.

''What will be the function of an American Embassy in a country which is run by America?" said Edward L. Peck, US ambassador to Iraq from 1977 to 1980. ''This embassy is going to have a thousand people hunkered behind sandbags. I don't know how you conduct diplomacy in that way."

In addition to the US foreign service workers within the Green Zone, there will be nearly 600 Iraqi employees, according to Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone, coordinator for the Iraq transition. In many embassies, local employees amount to two or three times the number of US staff. But in Iraq, concerns over security have prompted the US government to hire private contractors, not locals, to perform many basic services, from guarding the gates to cooking.

The new embassy will coordinate consulates in Kirkuk, Mosul, Hillah, and Basra, and embed foreign service officers with five military commmands. About 200 US advisers will work in Iraqi ministries, though they won't have the executive power they had under the occupation.

While the embassy will be one of the largest in the world, it will be smaller than the Coalition Provisional Authority, which had at its peak about 6,000 people living in the Green Zone.

This week, the State Department's ''Iraq section" buzzed with last-minute preparations. The new embassy spokesman, Robert J. Callahan, left for the region Thursday. A group of foreign service officers bound for Iraq finished a mandatory, five-day course that taught ''hostage survival" and ''chemical and biological weapons awareness."

The psychiatrist posted at the embassy will help staffers cope with the stresses of living under the constant threat of attack. The large presence of CIA agents and CIA contractors is meant to gather intelligence about the insurgency that is threatening to destroy the new Iraqi government.

Although some US foreign service workers have turned down offers to work at the new embassy, the State Department has received more applications than it has available slots.

Employees were enticed to take a one-year tour of duty in one of the most dangerous places in the world by a message sent out in February that offered the opportunity to contribute to a ''historic mission." Benefits include hazardous duty pay, a special pay rate for being in Iraq, possible overtime pay, a vacation in the region every three months, and a trip home twice a year.

For a government employee, the salary increase is substantial, although the total amount of added pay depends on the employee's title and seniority.

''When all is said and done, if you took somebody who is making $60,000 in Washington, they are probably going to double that in Iraq," said one US official in Washington involved with the new embassy who spoke on condition of anonymity. While some are motivated by money, most who volunteer for ''Embassy Iraq" are attracted by the prestige and unique chance to serve, he said.

State Department employees must leave their families behind and ''should expect spartan conditions and shared living conditions," stated the Feb. 7 message.

In Baghdad, employees of the Coalition Provisional Authority slept in bunk beds that lined the gilded, marble dining room of Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace.

A slowly growing trailer park will house the new embassy employees. US officials are also preparing a building within the Green Zone to serve as a chancery to issue visas, but plan to continue using the palace for their own offices.

That has prompted complaints from Iraq's new president, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer, who said the palace is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and should be returned. Ereli, the State Department spokesman, said it could be more than a year before Americans have built their own compound and are ready to leave.

Farah Stockman can be reached at fstockman@globe.com.

Embassy facts

With nearly 900 American staffers and almost 600 Iraqi workers, the embassy will be among the largest of the 60 US diplomatic and consular missions around the world.

Embassy will open four satellite outposts around Iraq with 100 Americans in each.

Estimated cost of operating the new mission for the balance of this fiscal year: $483 million.

2005 costs to operate the mission: could reach $1 billion, excluding construction of embassy.

Embassy will use three sets of buildings in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone. A new embassy building is expected to be built within four or five years.

SOURCE: Staff and wire reports