What debt? U.S. spending a record $1B on embassy

It's good to know that the United States still leads the world in something — building hugely expensive new embassies.

The previous record-holder for largest and costliest was the $700 million embassy in Baghdad, 104 acres and space for 1,000 employees. However, it will be eclipsed in terms of expense by our still-unfinished $850 million embassy in Islamabad.

But we have topped ourselves with plans for a $1 billion embassy in London, our most expensive yet.

Ever since John Adams was our first ambassador to London, the U.S. diplomatic presence has always been in the elegant and historic Mayfair area. Our current embassy, an uninspiring example of '60s architecture, is in Grosvenor Square.

What with 9/11 security mania, our presence there has not been terribly popular with the neighbors. The blast walls, fences and bollards are unsightly, they say, and the streets and sidewalks are prone to sudden closures.

And then there's the little matter of the "congestion tax," the $12 or so the city collects for the privilege of driving in central London. U.S. Embassy personnel don't pay it on the grounds that diplomats are exempt from local taxes. London says our people have run up almost $50 million in unpaid fees and fines, leading the mayor, Ken Livingstone, to term our then-ambassador "a chiseling little crook," hardly the kind of words that would encourage us to stay.

The upshot is that we have acquired a site in Battersea south of the Thames for our new embassy. The location should solve several problems since, from its description, it is largely free of congestion and lovely Georgian town houses. It doesn't seem like security will be much of a problem, either.

The Times of London describes the area as a wasteland "renowned for its hard-core gay clubs." The other amenities are sparse. The New York Times says there's a car dealership, some warehouses and a postal sorting facility nearby. However, the headquarters of MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service, is said to be not far away, making it easier for the spies to keep an eye on one another.

The plans call for a crystalline, eco-friendly cube that will generate enough power to be able to contribute to the national grid. If the embassy's surplus is large enough and Mayor Livingstone keeps yammering about those congestion fines, the ambassador can threaten to shut off their power.

The new embassy will have a 100-foot-wide moat, very fitting in light of a recent scandal when it was disclosed that a member of Parliament was billing British taxpayers for the annual cleaning of his moat at the ancestral castle. At least the embassy will have an early lead on locating a reliable moat-cleaning firm.