This weeks Weekly Whiner is none other than Donald Trump. The FBI has been trying to get a new headquarters to replace the aging (J Edgar) Hoover Building, built in 1971, on Pennsylvania Avenue. About four blocks east of the White House. And about a block away, across the street, kitty-korner, from the Trump International Hotel which is located in the Old Post Office building.
A lot of good controversy in the total story here for folks with ATDS (Acquired Trump Derangement Syndrome). But, my main issue is the following.
What is the Big Deal?
Having so many FBI members in one place, and in DC is akin to US Navy on Dec 7, 1941 having just about every battle ship in port. Lined up in a nice pretty row and just waiting to be sunk.
Our premier police agency deserves and needs to be more geographically distributed. One cheap and easy to smuggle in Nuclear Device. As in the style of one of my favorite movies, True Lies, encased in lead, in the back of a rental truck, is all it would take to bring DC down. And with it our cadre of well trained and experienced FBI agents.
Something also tells me it would also be cheaper in other parts of the country to pay and house these agents. And have them be quickly available when issues pop up around the country. With modern technology, they could still easily communicate and work as a team. The total team, their data centers, and their equipment, needs to be distributed.
I always look at fondness at the US Government Printing
Office in Pueblo, Colorado.
Would Trump, if he knew about this Printing Office, want to
give them a central office building in DC to consolidate all in one location?
More of the US government should be scattered about the
country as both a cost saving measure, to spread the wealth and knowledge of
the Federal Workers across the land, and to prevent one singular terrorist
disaster from taking out our FBI, and other key government agencies.
Of course, the FBI should maintain a presence in DC, but 11,000 agents? If they must fly to San Francisco, California they need five hours of air time. Why not put some of them in Kansas?
As discussions and funding to replace the building have occurred, there have been calls to distribute the FBI employee load to multiple locations. This is one way to drain the swamp. But Trump has acted like the little Dutch Boy using his finger in the dike to plug the leak.
The Story:
An easy to read timeline exists below in this article. But in Nov/2011, the GSA started a study to find a way to replace the Hoover Building. After millions of dollars and hours of research they came up with three other places, in the suburbs. Meanwhile, Trump, before he announced his candidacy, expressed interest in the site for a hotel, and acquired the Old Post Office across the street from the Hoover Building. Donald Trump becomes president, dismisses Comey, the head of the FBI, and starts to take a bit too much interest in the study. The study gets cancelled in Jul/2017.
Trump appears to favor instead replacing the existing
building with a new building and moving some of the agents to Quantico,
Virginia where the FBI has an existing training facility.
Critics of Trump have these issues (related to the Hoover Building):
- The lease of the Old Post Office could be illegal as he is now an elected official. However the GSA ruled in Mar/2017, with the new legal setup, the lease is still valid. Trump doesn’t benefit as today, legally, he is not the owner, but after he leaves office, he could.
- Some have said his hotel would get more valuable business if the building was replaced rather then picking another location per the original studies recommendations.
- Some have also said Trump fears another Hotel chain may acquire the Hoover building and present competition to his “Trump International Hotel”
- The swamp was going to be partially drained, as some 2300 FBI agents would have transferred to other parts of the country. But, Trump in his zeal, is preventing a distributed deployment of agents across the country. More agents should be distributed across the country. Even in what [tooltips keyword=”Blue Coasters” content=”Blue Coasters are the culturally elite members of the Illuminati that regard middle America as flyover states.”] call the flyover states.
Ideally the FBI could have a small office in DC, where the center of government presently is. But, could more of the FBI be more evenly distributed about the country? If Trump really wanted to drain the swamp he could have asked that the FBI Headquarters be distributed and, located in another area of the country.
Trump instead appears to favor instead replacing the existing building with a new building, protecting his existing hotel from competition?, and moving some of the agents to Quantico, Virginia where the FBI has an existing training facility.
For years the GSA had told both the Bush and Obama administrations that the Edgar J. Hoover building needed to be replaced and a new secure site was required in suburban DC to consolidate 11,000 FBI employees on one site.
Trump has failed to even try and drain the swamp in this
case. Here he has an opportunity. And instead he wants to fertilize the swamp.
His naysayers are crying over spilt-milk regarding his lease as it occurred long before his candidacy. They do have a case if he is trying to prevent another hotel chain from competing with his hotel in the old post office.
2018-Dec-04 – With the House in Democratic hands, the new head of the House Oversight Committee US Representative Gerald Connolly announced he would lead an inquiry into the cancellation of the original study recommendations.
2018-Feb-12 – Asst Attorney General Lee Lofthus announces a plan to build a modern and secure building across the street from the (J. Edgar) Hoover Building. Instead of 11,000 agents on this site. 2,300 to be split out to Huntsville, Alabama for explosive analysis Pocotel, Idaho would receive the a data center, Clarksburg, West Virginia, would receive Criminal Justice, data center, and Biometrics. Leaving 10,000 at the original site.
2018-Aug-27 – An Inspector
General report shows Donald Trump was more involved in the decisions to
scrap plans to move to either Maryland or Virginia.
2018-Jan-24 – Two meetings are held about the FBI
project. The first in Chief of Staff
John Kelly’s office. The second in the
Oval Office confirming an Inspector General report about Trump’s intervention. Trump appears to care about the FBI
headquarter location.
2017-Jul-10 – The FBI Headquarters search is cancelled. It had started in Nov of 2011. Prior to the cancellation the locations under
consideration were; Greenbelt Maryland, Landover Maryland, or Springfield
Virginia.
2017-May-19 – FBI Director, James Comey is dismissed.
2017-Mar-23 – The GSA issues a report stating the President’s Lease is legal. The lease does contain a clause; “No member or delegate to Congress, or elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease.”
2015-Jun-16 – Donald Trump Announces his campaign for
President
2014-Jul-23 – Groundbreaking of the Trump International
Hotel occurs.
2014-Mar-03 – The “Trump Old Post Office Building LLC”,
consumates a Lease
with the GSA to lease the space at
2013-Aug-05 – The “Trump Old Post Office LLC”, creates the first
ground lease with the GSA. This is
22 months before Trump’s announcement to run as a candidate for the Presidency.
2012-Dec-03 – GSA states it would entertain proposals to
swap the Hoover building for larger parcel outside of the city.
2011-Nov – GSA Starts a study to find a new location to
replace the (J. Edgar) Hoover FBI building.