The FBI Is Falling to Pieces – Literally

Published in El País
(Spain) on 22 October 2015
by Yolanda Monge (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Stephen Routledge. Edited by Laurence Bouvard.
A stone, perhaps the biggest to detach from the building to date, is held by a net, which protects pedestrians walking down 9th Street from being struck by an FBI that is collapsing. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has a piece of cement in his office from the Edgar Hoover Building, a stronghold in the heart of Washington that is becoming less impregnable every day. Never before was the literal so true: The FBI is falling to pieces.

It took 12 years to erect the Edgar Hoover Building, which cost $126 million in 1975. For more than a decade, FBI officials have warned that it is necessary, imperative even, to replace the building that has gone from being a symbol of strength to yet another chapter in the book known as Government Inaction — not the only example in Washington. Three years ago, the federal government started the search for a new location to accommodate 11,000 bureau workers, and today it has been whittled down to three places: Greenbelt, Landover and Springfield, all within three miles of Interstate 495, known as the Capital Beltway, and two miles from a metro station.

The funding allocation is a bigger problem still. Congress has no intention of approving an expenditure which further destabilizes its already precarious accounts. So far, the solution involves an exchange: the current building, considered by some to be the ugliest building in the world, for real estate land in the aforementioned places. Although the Edgar Hoover Building is valued at $5 billion, the FBI, which is dedicated to combating the threat of international terrorism and cybercrime in the 21st century — it has just published its latest list of the most wanted fugitives opposed to the Vietnam War — costs between $1.4 and $2 billion.

Having reviewed the numbers, it looks as if there will be a net on 9th Street for a long time to come.


Una piedra. Quizá la más grande desprendida del edificio hasta el momento y recogida por una red que protege a los viandantes que caminan por la calle Nueve de ser alcanzados por un FBI que se derrumba. James Comey, director de la Oficina Federal de Investigación, tiene en su despacho un trozo de cemento del edificio Edgar Hoover, fortaleza cada día menos inexpugnable en el corazón de Washington. Nunca antes la literalidad fue tan certera: el FBI se cae a pedazos.

Hicieron falta 12 años para construir el Edgar Hoover y el coste total fue de 126 millones de dólares de 1975. Desde hace más de una década, autoridades del FBI advierten de que es necesario, cuando no imperativo, reemplazar el edificio que ha pasado de ser —no es el único ejemplo en Washington— un símbolo de fortaleza a un capítulo más del libro Inacción gubernamental. Hace tres años, el Gobierno federal abría la búsqueda de un nuevo emplazamiento para acomodar a los 11.000 trabajadores del Bureau y a día de hoy ha quedado reducida a tres lugares: Greenbelt, Landover y Springfield, todos ellos a menos de cuatro kilómetros de la carretera interestatal 495 (conocida como Capital Beltway)... y a 3,5 de una boca de metro.

La adjudicación de fondos es todavía un problema aún mayor. El Congreso no tiene intención alguna de aprobar gastos que lastren aún más sus ya precarias cuentas. Hasta el momento, la solución pasa por un intercambio: el actual inmueble, considerado por algunos como el edificio más feo del mundo, por terrenos de una inmobiliaria en los lugares antes citados. Aunque la valoración del Edgar Hoover está en 500 millones de dólares y se estima que el coste de un FBI a la altura del siglo XXI, dedicado a combatir la amenaza del terrorismo internacional y el crimen cibernético (cuando se inauguró el actual en la lista de los fugitivos más buscados estaban opositores a la guerra de Vietnam), está entre los 1.400 y los 2.000 millones.

Vistos los números, todo apunta a que habrá red en la calle Nueve durante largo tiempo.
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