US mum on huge embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Don't ask about the US Embassy in Baghdad. It's a secret -- for security reasons.

But it's hard hiding a 104-acre complex rising on the banks of the Tigris River . Anyone who cares to know can see four giant construction cranes towering over the river at the largest such project ever undertaken by the United States -- a symbol of a US presence that will last well into the future.

When the complex is completed by June 2007 -- this one apparently is on schedule, unlike most construction projects here -- it will be an American oasis in the heavily fortified Green Zone, away from the fear and the lack of services that permeate the rest of Baghdad. Among the 21 buildings will be a recreation center to rival any in the United States with, among other amenities, a pool, a gym, a food court, a beauty salon, and, of course, the American Club.

Baghdad may have little potable water and only a few hours of electricity a day, but the embassy complex will have its own water treatment facilities and electricity generator.

First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, a subcontractor of Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root, was granted the $592 million construction contract. By December it had been paid about $483 million.

The company is a relative novice in embassy building and has been criticized for its treatment of Asian workers, who, critics say, are imported because they can be paid low wages, and because they work under hard conditions. About 900 laborers live on site as they build the complex, according to a report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has congressional oversight responsibility for the project.

But little else can be gleaned about the expansive complex, which will sit on some of central Baghdad's most desirable real estate, and which, when finished, will dominate the view of anyone standing on the other side of the river.

US officials here greet questions about the site with a curtness that borders on hostility. Reporters have been referred to the State Department in Washington, which has declined to answer questions for security reasons. A tour seems to be out of the question; no formal response was given to a request for one.

The only person who would comment on the reasons behind the huge size of the rising embassy was Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

``The anticipation has always been that the US will have a large diplomatic presence in Iraq," Fisher said.

Money for the project was approved as part of a separate emergency appropriation for embassy security, construction, and maintenance, and was not part of the $18.4 billion set aside for Iraq reconstruction.