Government plans to build new embassy in Iraq. Marking the beginning of the post-Saddam Hussein era in Iraq, the U.S. State Department is planning to allocate $35.8 million to construct a new embassy in Baghdad. The funds would come from President Bush's $74.7 billion supplemental budget for the war.
Spokesman Richard Boucher told the press during a March 25 briefing in Washington, D.C., that the new, state-of-the-art structure will "represent the people of the United States to the free people of Iraq."
Boucher could not confirm if the new building would be built on the site of the existing embassy building in the Iraqi capital, which was abandoned before the kickoff of the 1991 Gulf War. Boucher could not confirm the condition of the existing embassy, either.
The hefty price tag would cover construction costs, as well as security measures, including barriers around the perimeter, closed-circuit TV, and bomb-detection devices.
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