How America’s Largest, Most Secure Embassy Works

Video written by Amy Muller

[Alex-jslg]

But how does its smallest, least secure embassy work?

[bipolarminddroppings]

A government building project expected to cost around 500mil only ended up costing 750mil? Wow, that's actually quite impressive considering where it was being built...

[juliegolick]

Sam didn't send his correspondent Amy to test the security of the embassy? What is journalism even coming to these days?!

[azn]

speaking of Disney World, an original idea was that it would have it's own airport and nuclear power plant. Walt wanted it to be as self-sufficient as possible

[iitzwinter]

Someone take this guy to Space Mountain

[Generalth]

Hi Sam!

Big thanks to Amy for ditching work so she could go ride Space Mountain over and over again. She deserves a raise!

[MartoLun]

3568 toner cartridges is 892 per color, if we assume all their printers are color. Let's guessproximate they have double the cartridges for black, meaning 713 full refills.
If they have 7 printers, that's 100 refills. If they have 14 printers, that's 50 refills. If they have 28 printers that's 25 refills.

So, no. Probably not too much toner.

[bubbledoubletrouble]

1:34 This appears to be based on the claim that the Magic Kingdom cost $400 million to build. There are no firm sources for this figure, and none of the sites that use this figure indicate that this figure is inflation-adjusted (the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971). If it isn't adjusted for inflation, then the cost to build the Magic Kingdom in 2009 (when the embassy opened) dollars would be $2 billion, making the embassy about 1/3 the cost of the Magic Kingdom.

[bermuda]

I used to live on military bases as a kid, all of them had "American Clubs" and they were really just buffets, some of them had bars. Basically "fancy, " slightly more expensive dining you could go to on more special occasions. They would host events for various groups every sunday (?) but you could eat there whenever. One of the bases my dad was stationed at was in England and the Club there was always *empty* like, we were the only ones there. Meant fast service at least.

[TKSSLCHN]

"What the hell is an acre?"
"An acre is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet)"
Wat.

[Desturel]

Considering how many documents the government prints out on every occasion, I'd imagine the toner cartridge spending is in line with any other agency that's working abroad.

[ezikhoyo]

So it's basically more like an Military Base like Ramstein, but without the Airstrips?

[thecrowcook]

Fun fact, when you are in school to be one of those marine security guards, at any point during your schooling one of your instructors can just say "I don't like you" and that's it. You're done. No more embassy training for you

[liamfoxy]

So what I'm getting from this is that the Bagdad embassy needs to install a Space Mountain

[ryankohnenkamp]

Plot twist: Sam is just mad because Amy went on Space Mountain to do "research" and he didn't...

[error_pl]

The shape of the embassy looks like the shape of oklahoma

[trianglemoebius]

When I was in the military, I was stationed at the Baghdad Embassy for a few months, and I have fond memories of the American Club.

It's a pretty normal club, but in the old definition of club, a-la "Golf Club". No crazy raves or anything, it has the vibes of a country club mixed with a golf resort. The reason it's specifically called the "American Club" is because, being on an Embassy, it's considered to be on sovereign American soil, and operates on American law instead of Iraqi law.

While this is true of everything in the complex, most places still have a lot of local visitors/staff, so they choose to at at least follow local customs as guidelines. The American Club is staffed and caters to Americans, however, so it serves things like alcohol and pork. It's also the only place in the complex to serve Rip It, which anyone who has served will confirm is what *truly* matters.

[ileutur]

Every other embassy in my city looks like a regular house. The US one looks like a futuristic fortress. I wonder why

[CaravelClerihew]

There's an American Club here in Singapore as well. It's pretty much a mini resort full of food and loud Americans, where all the coasters have the US Seal stamped on it.

[OmerE.C]

You forgot the part where it's also a giant legal CIA base in the middle of the middle east