Perhaps one could simply uplink to unmanned Global Hawks/Predator/ (resurrected) Dark Stars, flying 'lazy eights', equipped with airborne lasers.
Silicon spots in the deserts. ;)
Posted on 03/17/2010 10:09:13 AM PDT by Mount Athos
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put the brakes on SBInet, the $3 billion plan to build a virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost-effective way possible,” Napolitano said in a statement Tuesday. “The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines.”
With that in mind, Napolitano is withholding funding for the program’s first deployment until a review she ordered in January is finished. And she’s taking away $50 million in stimulus funds from the Boeing-managed program. Instead, that funding will be put toward “other tested, commercially available security technology along the Southwest border.”
The project’s halt comes amid rising violence along the U.S. border with Mexico that has Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urging Americans to heed the recent State Department travel warning to delay visits to the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua.
The move also comes about a week after the DHS inspector general found more problems with the project.
Responding, Boeing spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said the company has always recognized the importance of developing the program quickly and affordably for Customs and the Border Patrol.
“We are fully committed to delivering border security technology that successfully assists them in their mission, and we will continue to support the Department of Homeland Security as they examine the future of securing the nation's borders,” she said.
It’s not the first time, though, the virtual fence has been singled out. The program was a problem child during the Bush administration, and its woes have recently resurfaced.
Napolitano had signal changes recently in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“I am not satisfied with SBInet,” Napolitano said, adding at the time that the first section would be completed.
“But before we go across that border with this – these big towers, SBInet,” she added, “we are going to reevaluate how those technology dollars are used and whether there are other technologies perhaps that have been developed since SBInet was contracted that would be more mobile, better, easier to maintain and easier to operate.”
How the hell can she steel monies that are allocated to the fence?
This was settled 4 years ago ad the fence isn’t complete yet.
The congress passed it, funded it, and thyis hag wants our money for some tard-dem bs.
This my dears, IS the Government OF the PEOPLE, By the People and For the People...we’ve come a long way Charlie Brown.
She just needs to announce that the borders are wide open. Then arm the citizens.
“Virtual fence” was sleight-of-hand and a boondoggle from the git-go.
How about an old-fashioned non-virtual or REAL FENCE to keep people out? How quickly can we get that project “shovel-ready?”
Couple this with increased border guards, and maybe, just maybe, some very large dogs. I think this would deter all but the Drug runners, and we can shoot them.
I know they would just dig tunnels, but that costs money.
The seismic industry today uses a machine that shakes the ground violently to take seismic readings of what is under the ground. If this doesn't collapse tunnels, it would at least expose them. If there happens to be some criminal trying to enter this country illegally, so much the better.
Perhaps one could simply uplink to unmanned Global Hawks/Predator/ (resurrected) Dark Stars, flying 'lazy eights', equipped with airborne lasers.
Silicon spots in the deserts. ;)
4 man gun towers with night vision every 500 meters ... cheap and efficient with trained men arriving home in need of translating their MOS into a transitional civvy job.
OK! So Napolitano won’t go forward with the virtual fence. The question is when will she build the actual fence?
Between Bush, the Democrats, and this anti-American administration, this country is probably crammed with terrorists and drug dealers already.
Anything Napolitano says must be considered with suspicion. Especially after that memo she sent to law enforcement last year saying that Iraq War veterans and people with pro-life stickers on their cars should be subject to careful scrutiny by police.
That woman does not have her job by accident. If Barack Obama chose her she is no good.
Add to the above the fact that the American is besotted with pity, tolerance, equality in the areas of social and economics together with a life 'philosophy' of eating, drinking, drugging, copulating, evacuating the bowels and snoring means we are in bad shape. Adding to the problem is the constant barrage of propaganda directed against all areas of Western Civilization.
What in blazes is a virtual fence?
I’ve seen commercials on TV for an invisible fence for your dog. You bury a wire around the perimeter of your yard and if the pooch tries to cross then he gets a shock.
How is Janet going to get all those wetbacks to put on shock collars before they cross over?
The only viable alternative to a fence is watch towers and snipers.
Minefields are cheap and effective. If we can send the census out in 10 languages, I’m pretty sure we can have minefield warning signs in two.
Anyone entering from the US side would be stopped, questioned, and deposited on whichever side deemed appropriate. Those entering form outside would be stopped, the first 1,000 feet would be verbal instruction, the last 500 feet would be by any means necessary.
This would keep some of our already trained troops in the military and provide some REAL security.
Kay Bailey Hutchison must have been whispering in her ear after the governor defeat.
The “virtual fence” was an excuse to do nothing,
of course they’re going to drop it as well,
because they want NO fence.
I go with that, and bunkers with MG emplacements and cleared fields of view. Add in a concrete fence topped with barbed wire and you’re set.
“What in blazes is a virtual fence?”\
It was a Bush Boondoggle for Boeing.
March 16, 2010
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1268769368466.shtm
“Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost effective way possible. The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines. Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security will redeploy $50 million of Recovery Act funding originally allocated for the SBInet Block 1 to other tested, commercially available security technology along the Southwest border, including mobile surveillance, thermal imaging devices, ultra-light detection, backscatter units, mobile radios, cameras and laptops for pursuit vehicles, and remote video surveillance system enhancements. Additionally, we are freezing all SBInet funding beyond SBInet Block 1’s initial deployment to the Tucson and Ajo regions until the assessment I ordered in January is completed.”
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