That the US State Department is considering moving embassies means that it will off-load the old building. That is only logic. That a potential buyer will want to see the plans to consider the value of the building, is also basic logic. The assumptions that the US Government would consider giving detailed examples of the existing floor-plans, internal structures, placements of sensitive and critical information is simply – ludicrous and absurd to even mention.

The other issues that are completely wrong, is that authorities in Qatar is anything but a friend to the US Government and its allies. It not only supports the basing of military but it is also a country, for example, that invites Israeli nationals for tourism and sporting events.

The last comment is the condemnation of Al Jazeera which you are considering a terrorist supporting news outlet. The ironly is that the vast majority of Arabs in the MENA region consider Al Jazeera to be a secret US media-outlet! The Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera Internationa (in English) channels are quite free to show all events, all perspectives and not one side, which for example the US network FOX unashamably does. Perhaps the problem is that pundits and bloggers like to assume about things they do not watch, and it would be a very good thing to allow Al Jazeera unfetted access to US cable so that people could watch it and know the reality. Al Jazeer in Arabic has its own editorial group which, as it is in one language and aimed at one particular market reflects the rhetorical style that those watching are used to, Al Jazzer in English targets the English speaking world and so the items, editorial crew and others are different. Not all programs are the same or shown.

The point being that the references to Al Jazeera is rather mimicking the ludicrous situation when Rummsfeld and the then VP tried to sensor freedom of the press for all but western journalists because Al Jazeera wanted to show the “other side”. So much for freedom of speech/press.

In summary, this item above is just political make-believe, trying to make an issue out of a non-issue for cheap political scoring and fermenting xenophobia for some silly agenda. I give it 1 out of 20.

Additionally, the land on which the Grosvenor Square Embassy is located has never been owned by the United States, it is leased from the Duchy of Westminster.

Nigel Brooks on November 5, 2009 at 5:14 pm
/Endquote

Well lets look at who the Duke is then if that is your argument.

Major-General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DL (born 22 December 1951 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), is the son of Robert George Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, and his wife Hon. Viola Maud Lyttelton. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2009, The Duke of Westminster is worth £6.5 billion placing him 3rd in the list behind Lakshmi Mittal and Roman Abramovich. He was educated at Harrow School and Sandhurst. In 2005, he became Chancellor of the University of Chester.

Grosvenor is the richest property developer in Britain and one of Britain’s largest landowners, owning vast estates in Lancashire, Cheshire and Scotland as well as great swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia in central London. Internationally the Duke also owns vast estates in Canada and Spain.

Well it appears to me that he is not of the extremist persuasion so I would assume that it would be safe to lease the land from him. Of course we owned the building so that also would mean something as far as security would be concerned. Thus, he would not have had any control over the building as he only gave us the land via a lease.

As far as leased properties inside the U.S. you are correct. I don’t agree with it but somehow our Government has decided that saving a dollar is more important than national security. But we are talking about U.S. Embassies on foreign soil where even our so called friends spy on us on a daily basis.

Additionally, the land on which the Grosvenor Square Embassy is located has never been owned by the United States, it is leased from the Duchy of Westminster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn

“Pwn (below: Various pronunciations) is a leetspeak slang term derived from the verb “own”, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival (e.g., “You just got pwned!”).”

As you pointed out Debbie, the ridiculous risk of our national security goes like this: we can’t expect the world to look after it for us if we’re not going to do the job ourselves. In short, there are some things that simply cannot be out-sourced or contracted out to others in any day and age.

NF: No, the point is that Qatar is owning the US Embassy. It’s a ridiculous risk of national security (not to mention, as you point out, the dollars). DS

Remember our Russian embassy, the one we had built by a company that we knew was directly run by the KGB? (We used it, apparently, because it was the only one capable of actually building something in Russia close to on time with some semblance of quality construction.) When it was done every square foot of it had at least four listening devices and it was essentially useless as an embassy.