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Homeland Security Department Blamed for Border Fence Project Delays, Budget Problems
FoxNews.com ^ | October 21, 2010

Posted on 10/21/2010 5:50:30 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch

The troubled four-year-old federal program to install a virtual fence along the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico is behind schedule and overbudget -- and the Department of Homeland Security is at least partly to blame, for not adequately policing contractor Boeing, a new watchdog report concludes.

The department's Secure Border Initiative Network, or SBInet, is intended to utilize cameras, ground sensors and radars designed to let a small number of dispatchers watch the border on computer monitors, zoom in with cameras to see people crossing and decide whether to send Border Patrol agents to the scene.

But the Government Accountability Office found that while DHS has put in place some oversight controls for reviewing Boeing's work, it "has not effectively implemented other controls" which have led to "costly rework and contributing to SBInet's well-chronicled history of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits on time and within budget."

In other words, Homeland Security did a poor job of keeping Boeing on task.

GAO also criticized Boeing for providing project information to DHS that was "replete with unexplained anomalies, thus rendering the data unfit for effective contractor management and oversight."

This year, Homeland Security froze funds for expanding the fence after a string of technical glitches and delays. Originally, the virtual fence was supposed to be completed by 2011; that date has slipped to 2014.

The project has cost the government $672 million.

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said in a written statement that Customs and Border Patrol agreed with the recommendations.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: California; US: District of Columbia; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; arizona; california; dhs; districtofcolumbia; immigrantlist; mexico; newmexico; sbinet; texas; virtualfence
"The project has cost the government $672 million."

Fire Janet!

1 posted on 10/21/2010 5:50:33 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch
A stupid unworkable fiasco when the Bush admin started it, and it is still stupid and unworkable today. Boeing, DHS, blame whomever one wants. It is a money sink and that's all.
2 posted on 10/21/2010 5:53:53 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: tuffydoodle; secondamendmentkid; re_nortex; Lorianne; Wage Slave; HushTX; HoustonCurmudgeon; ...

Virtual ping!


3 posted on 10/21/2010 5:57:43 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Nemo me impune lacessit)
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To: SwinneySwitch

A virtual fence, is virtual insanity. How about a physical fence, with armed border patrol backing it up.

But,we all know there will never be any real stoppage of the future voters coming into our once great nation illegaly. The globalists have an agenda of turning us into another 3rd world nation, and we are almost there.


4 posted on 10/21/2010 5:58:36 PM PDT by Clovis_Skeptic (The answer to 1984 is 1776!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

A virtual fence, is virtual insanity. How about a physical fence, with armed border patrol backing it up.

But,we all know there will never be any real stoppage of the future voters coming into our once great nation illegaly. The globalists have an agenda of turning us into another 3rd world nation, and we are almost there.


5 posted on 10/21/2010 5:58:51 PM PDT by Clovis_Skeptic (The answer to 1984 is 1776!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

A virtual fence, is virtual insanity. How about a physical fence, with armed border patrol backing it up.

But,we all know there will never be any real stoppage of the future voters coming into our once great nation illegaly. The globalists have an agenda of turning us into another 3rd world nation, and we are almost there.


6 posted on 10/21/2010 5:58:57 PM PDT by Clovis_Skeptic (The answer to 1984 is 1776!)
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To: Clovis_Skeptic

sorry about the multiple post?????????


7 posted on 10/21/2010 6:00:45 PM PDT by Clovis_Skeptic (The answer to 1984 is 1776!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Lets see here...South Koreans sleep unmolested by the North Koreans..courtesy of the US taxpayer. Just exactly why is it a Texan hasn’t the same privilege?


8 posted on 10/21/2010 6:01:53 PM PDT by mo
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To: SwinneySwitch
SBInet started before Janet Napolitano showed up, and it was screwed up back then. There have been some useful technologies that have been developed under SBInet, but the whole net part has been a disaster.

My understanding is that SBInet has been pretty much cancelled and the remaining funds are being used to capture the portions of SBInet that work and invest in local detection technology projects.

9 posted on 10/21/2010 6:06:08 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Liberals are just damn scary. Conservatives better get a handle on America or we will become a footnote in future history books.


10 posted on 10/21/2010 6:07:42 PM PDT by devane617 (November!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

11 posted on 10/21/2010 6:24:20 PM PDT by SnuffaBolshevik
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To: Clovis_Skeptic

Excellent post...bears repeating. Post it again!


12 posted on 10/21/2010 6:35:46 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: SnuffaBolshevik
Nice! But shouldn't try a few more of these first?


13 posted on 10/21/2010 6:39:48 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

Ping!


14 posted on 10/21/2010 6:52:10 PM PDT by HiJinx (I can see November from my front porch - and Mexico from the back.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Project could have been completed in 6 months.

BRING BACK DUNCAN HUNTER!


15 posted on 10/21/2010 6:57:44 PM PDT by Kimberly GG ("Path to Citizenship" Amnesty candidates will NOT get my vote! DeMint, 2012)
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To: SwinneySwitch
In the mean time, DHS has a new building they just finished at the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg. The front gate is no longer monitored, but this building has it's own fence and guarded gate. Nobody says why it is there.

Nothing to see here. Move along!


16 posted on 10/21/2010 6:58:43 PM PDT by WVKayaker (Faith is putting all your eggs in God's basket, then counting your blessings before they hatch.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Obama couldn’t find a “shovel ready” project and here was the biggest one anyone could think of sitting there waiting for funding!


17 posted on 10/21/2010 7:14:13 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: AdmSmith; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; Delacon; dervish; ...
Thanks SwinneySwitch. Off-the-shelf webcams and a broadband trunk line, along with buried powerlines, could have gone in within a year, easily, and the system cheap and easy to maintain as upgrades were slowly developed and installed.

And three layers of chainlink fencing, with human / dog patrols within each of the two layers, just for starters, could have gone up in weeks.
The troubled four-year-old federal program to install a virtual fence along the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico is behind schedule and overbudget -- and the Department of Homeland Security is at least partly to blame, for not adequately policing contractor Boeing, a new watchdog report concludes.

18 posted on 10/21/2010 7:47:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

They spent all the money on green and white Tahoes cruising up and down I-10 and I-20.


19 posted on 10/22/2010 7:30:25 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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