Neocon citadel arises in Washington, DC
Like the "Death Star" in Star Wars, a new building is taking shape in downtown Washington, DC on Constitution Avenue. The U.S. taxpayer-funded, but non-profit and tax-exempt, U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), an Orwellian name for an institution that will house the leading pro-war neoconservatives and American expansionists and hegemonists, is nearing completion between the U.S. Department of State and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Just a few blocks away from the future citadel for neocons in Washington is the Federal Reserve Bank. The proximity of the USIP to "The Fed" is sure to give rise to further popular opposition to the secretive cabals that run Washington.
The US Institute of Peace building had an original construction cost of $108 million -- not including land acquisition costs. The building was designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates of Somerville, Massachusetts. Moshe Safdie was born in Haifa and he has Israeli, U.S., and Canadian citizenship. His firm maintains offices in Toronto and Jerusalem, in addition to Somerville. Safdie was a generous donor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
The USIP will serve as a virtual State Department for neoconservatives who will bird-dog its larger neighbor at Foggy Bottom to second guess any U.S. foreign policy effort that appears to contradict USIP's anti-Islamic and pro-Israel policies. A past board member of USIP is the noted Zionist polemicist Richard Pipes who has made no secret of his dislike for Arabs and Muslims and is a promoter of the neocon "Clash of Civilizations" line.
USIP, when completed, will also act as an alternate virtual United Nations, bringing together neocon political leaders from around the world to push the corporate fascist agenda that serves as the center piece of neo-conservative ideology. Many of the USIP staff push the notion that the United States must wage "World War IV" against Islam. The USIP's staff includes many individuals who have long-standing links to such neocon organizations as the American Enterprise Institute, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Committee for a Free Lebanon, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Anti-Defamation League, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, American Jewish Committee, Manhattan Institute, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, as well as Henry Kissinger/George Soros-linked globalist organizations as the Asia Society, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Woodrow Wilson Center, and Soros's Open Society Institute.
The USIP will also ensure full employment for Washington's cadre of ex-neocon officials in past administrations, Republican and Democratic.
In the last six months, USIP has been pushing neocon policy initiatives for Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia, Colombia, Lebanon, Iran, Guinea, Russia, Sudan, Iraq, Kosovo, Haiti, Bosnia, Pakistan, and North Korea.
One agenda item that is not found on USIP's marquee is Israel's atrocities against Gaza and the failure of Israel to honestly engage in the peace process. Considering who is involved with USIP, there is little wonder why Israel is normally a "no-go" zone.
To its credit, the libertarian Cato Institute has cited the USIP and its citadel as too costly and it has called for the organization's abolishment. This editor has a better idea for the USIP building -- turn it into a war crimes tribunal building that will hold trials for some of the very people who hope to soon occupy it to formulate future illegal wars.
