<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/5a9b5a5a-3f32-4afa-bacc-7e194126aa1d/2A05F8D9-D30A-4521-AB67-956A9E64FD3C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/embassy-waxman/" href="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/embassy-waxman/" style="font-size: 11px;">thinkprogress.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/embassy-waxman/"><P><IMG class="imgright" alt="ricepoint.jpg" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ricepoint.jpg" /> The State Department has come under intense criticism recently for its lavish $592-million embassy in Iraq. The embassy complex will have a staff of 1,000 people and <A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052301344_pf.html">operating costs will total $1.2 billion a year</A>. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/embassy-waxman/"><P>Today, House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and raised concerns about the “substandard work” done by the prime contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company. Waxman’s investigation has uncovered not only poor workmanship — widespread defects in <A href="http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071009103256.pdf">fire detection systems and electrical wiring</A> — but also a past record of corruption that the State Deparment may have purposefully overlooked: </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/embassy-waxman/"><P><STRONG>The Kickback Scheme:</STRONG> Wadih El Absi, the managing Partner of First Kuwaiti, “personally engaged” in a $13-million kickback scheme with a major U.S. contractor in Iraq in 2003 “in order to obtain subcontracts.” </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2A05F8D9-D30A-4521-AB67-956A9E64FD3C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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