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July 5, 2008 7:02:09 PM CDT

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Duped Workers Build Baghdad Embassy

Posted Jun 7, 07 10:56 AM CDT in World    Editor's Choice

(Newser) – The Kuwaiti company building the $592 million US embassy in Baghdad is under scrutiny for allegedly tricking workers into coming to Iraq. The Justice Department says Kuwaiti First promised poor workers from Bangladesh and Pakistan it would send them to Dubai, but instead brought them to the Green Zone, seized their passports, and trapped them on the potentially hazardous project.

Inauspiciously, the embassy is one of the only US-led construction projects in Iraq likely to be finished on schedule and under budget. American officials prohibited Kuwaiti First from using Iraqi workers to build the embassy, for fear that intelligence might be passed along to insurgents. Embassy plans have, nonetheless, leaked onto the internet.

Source Wall Street Journal

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This computer generated architectural rendering recently posted on the architect's web site reportedly shows the pool house in the American Embassy complex in Baghdad, Iraq, currently under construction....   (Associated Press)
A portion of the new U.S. embassy under construction is seen from across the Tigris river in Baghdad, Saturday, May 19, 2007. The new $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime Baghdad real estate...   (Associated Press)
This computer generated architectural rendering recently posted on the architect's web site reportedly shows the entrance to the residence of the Deputy Chief of Mission, part of the American Embassy...   (Associated Press)
  (Associated Press)
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