Newsline: US embassy clarifies news report on command complex in Pakistan

May 10, 2010 at 6:49 pm · Filed under Pakistan, US

The U.S Embassy in Islamabad rejected the assertions made Monday by a Pakistani newspaper in an article entitled the “U.S. Embassy $1bn multipurpose command complex near completion.”  A U.S Embassy Spokesman said, “The story is completely untrue and is replete with errors.” He said there is no large scale construction project going on at the U.S. Embassy, as alleged in the article and there is certainly no command complex under construction. There are plans to replace many of the aging buildings on the embassy compound but construction has not yet begun and is not anticipated to begin until next year, he said. The Spokesman said there are no plans to add hundreds of Marines to provide security for the Embassy. “We have said several times publicly and on the record that after the U.S. Embassy renovation project is completed we may add approximately a dozen additional Marine Security guards.” “The article also alleges that an additional 1000 personnel from Washington will be assigned to the embassy.  Again, as we have said publicly and on the record, after the completion of the Embassy renovation project we may increase the number of American employees by 300-400.  No final decision has been made on this but the total number of Americans in Pakistan after the increase will certainly be far less than 1000 American employees,” the Spokesman further clarified. The Embassy further refutes the assertion that the United States has pressured the Pakistan Government to allow a private U.S.  security company to import hundreds of armored personnel carriers.  Neither the United States government nor any private security company working for the United States government has sought to import any armored personnel carriers into Pakistan. The allegation that the U.S. Embassy put pressure on the local or federal government officials to stop the construction of a hotel near the Embassy is also false, he said. “Finally, we were surprised to see the publication of a photo associated with the article that was captioned, a view of under construction block of American Embassy at Diplomatic Enclave. In fact, the photo is of another country’s embassy that is under construction approximately one kilometer from the U.S. Embassy Compound.

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102618&Itemid=1

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