Free Republic

Security in Iraq has collapsed so dramatically that Saudi Arabia has ordered the construction of a 550-mile high-tech fence to seal off its troubled northern neighbour. The huge project to build the barrier, which will be equipped with ultraviolet night-vision cameras, buried sensor cables and thousands of miles of barbed wire, will snake across the vast and remote desert frontier between the countries. The fence will be built despite the hundreds of millions of pounds that the Saudi kingdom has spent in the past two years to beef up patrols on its border with Iraq, with officials saying the crisis...

Riyad, 28 Sept. (AKI) - Saudi Arabia has announced that it is pushing ahead with plans to build a fence along its border with Iraq. The 900 kilometre fence will be build to improve security and bar terrorists from crossing into Iraq, as well as to prevent smuggling. The barricade will cost an estimated 12 billion dollars, and will take between five to six years to construct. A Saudi security adviser, Nawaf Obaid, said: "The main issue is to seal the border on the Iraqi side since there has been almost no [Iraqi security] presence since the US invasion". Iraqi...

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA - Apparently concerned that fighting in Iraq could spill over into this oil-rich kingdom, Saudi Arabia is considering a major fortification of its 500-mile border with Iraq. "The government is thinking of building an electrified fence along the whole border with Iraq in case things go really badly in Iraq, and it starts falling apart," says a security adviser to the Saudi government, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has not made any official announcement of such plans.It has, however, admitted that it is looking at strengthening its border defenses."We are currently conducting a...

SAUDI Arabia has invited bids for the construction of a security fence along the whole length of its 560-mile desert border with Iraq. The proposed state-of-the-art barrier is part of a comprehensive, hi-tech package to secure the Kingdom's 4,100 miles of borders in order both to improve internal security and bolster the oil-rich Kingdom's defences against external threats. Saudi Arabia is concerned the chaos in neighbouring Iraq could cause an overspill of sectarian violence and terrorism.

Time for input and a little fun, too!

Do you have a problem with illegal immigrants? Here comes the solution! "Saudi Arabia has invited bids for the construction of a security fence along the entire length of its 900km (560mile) desert border with Iraq in a multimillion-pound project that will attract interest from British defence companies. The barrier is part of a package to secure the Kingdom’s 6,500km of borders in an attempt to improve internal security and bolster its defences against external threats."

SAUDI ARABIA has invited bids for the construction of a security fence along the entire length of its 900km (560mile) desert border with Iraq in a multimillion-pound project that will attract interest from British defence companies. The kingdom claims to be winning the battle against al-Qaeda’s Saudi wing but wants to protect itself against Saudi insurgents returning from Iraq.

Opponents of the US House proposal to build a 700-mile fence across the border with Mexico usually argue that the fence will not work. They’re very, very wrong. A similar fence is working remarkably well in India, keeping out Islamist terrorists from Bangladesh. Even more remarkable is the success of the Israeli security fence: Before the construction of the fence, and in many places where it has not yet been completed, a terrorist need only walk across an invisible line to cross from the West Bank into Israel. No barriers of any kind exist, so it is easy to see...

Villagers on the Bangladesh border say the fence will cut them from their homeland TO REACH the baked earth of his mustard field each day, Mohammed Safiqual Biswas must pass coils of barbed wire and armed guards and show his identity card at a security check. The problem is not where Mr Biswas has come from, but where he is going to. His fields lie 60 miles east of Calcutta, right in the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh. Next month India plans to fence off this area of West Bengal as part of a little-known £600 million project...

Villagers on the Bangladesh border say the fence will cut them from their homeland TO REACH the baked earth of his mustard field each day, Mohammed Safiqual Biswas must pass coils of barbed wire and armed guards and show his identity card at a security check. The problem is not where Mr Biswas has come from, but where he is going to. His fields lie 60 miles east of Calcutta, right in the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh. Next month India plans to fence off this area of West Bengal as part of a little-known £600 million project...

Kolkata, India, December 17: India is deploying thousands of new troops on its frontier with Bangladesh and setting up hundreds of more border posts to check illegal migration and movement of armed militants, a top official said. New Delhi decided to bolster its eastern border defences in September to crack down on militants moving in from Bangladesh, although Dhaka denies anti-India elements are using its soil. In recent weeks, Bangladesh has been rocked by a series of bomb blasts believed to be carried out by radicals seeking to make the Muslim-majority democracy an Islamic state. This is a worry for...

INDIA is accelerating the construction of a 2,500-mile fence to seal its border with Bangladesh amid growing fears that its Muslim neighbour could become “a new Afghanistan”. Indian officials and western diplomats have been alarmed by an increase in terrorist attacks by militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and by the Dhaka government’s failure to crack down on them. One group said to have links with the government claimed responsibility for 500 synchronised explosions in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts in August. India’s cabinet has decided to speed up work on the 8ft security fence, which is intended to keep out...

DHAKA, Aug 7: Making it clear that India would go ahead with the fencing of the over 4000-km border with Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh today said this would help curb activities like smuggling and illegal migration and contribute to peace and tranquility for people living in these areas. "A strong fence is useful for both sides to achieve their common objectives for mutual benefit," Singh , who is on a three-day visit here, said in an interview to Bangla daily ‘Jugantor’. Due to the porous nature of the borders, there was considerable cross-border criminal activity which included...

DHAKA: India on Saturday told Bangladesh it would go ahead with the fencing of the border between the two countries, calling it a measure to prevent the movement of troublemakers. "Fencing is a continuous process going on for the last 20 years. We do not consider it as something defensive or offensive, but a preventive measure to check trans-border movement of anti-social elements," Border Security Force (BSF) director general R S Mooshahary said here at the end of four days of border talks. He said India would continue fencing outside the 150 yards of the borderline. If there is any...

• The International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ or UN Court) issued an opinion on July 9, 2004 on the legality of Israel's Security Fence.  The ICJ ruling is advisory and not legally binding.  • The court decided that it has jurisdiction to issue a ruling and ruled that Israel's construction of the fence is illegal and must be halted.  The court based its decision on an outdated route of the fence and did not take into consideration the threat that Palestinian terrorism poses to Israeli security.  The ICJ has never issued a ruling that condemns terrorist attacks against...

Bangaon, India -- The twisted razor wire that separates this lush border town from neighboring Bangladesh is a symbol of the tangled ethnic politics playing out across the South Asian subcontinent. While India has worked to create a regional free-trade bloc, it has also been building a $1 billion security fence along its 2,500-mile border with Bangladesh. The concertina fence, which snakes awkwardly though jungles, mountains and villages in five Indian states, mirrors a fence being built along the 1,800-mile western border with Pakistan at a cost of $3 billion. When the fences are completed in 2007, the Hindu nation...

Security Fences Around the World By Jonathan L. Snow February 23, 2004 Background ·          Security fences have been built around the world, often in disputed territories, with the purpose of disrupting the movement of terrorists, smugglers, and illegal immigrants. These fences frequently cause difficulties for civilians living along the border zones.·          While security fences are common throughout the world, Israel's decision in 2003 to build a terrorism prevention security fence in disputed West Bank territory was met with protests by the international community and a hearing at the International Court of Justice (the UN court).  No other security barrier has...

When the International Court of Justice in The Hague starts hearing complaints against Israel's security fence in the West Bank on Monday, India will be busy constructing a fence of its own. After 15 years of fighting in Kashmir that have left more than 65,000 dead, the Indians are using cement, razor wire, and electronic sensors to stymie a menagerie of Pakistani guerrilla forces. "The fence will be a permanent barrier at the border to prevent militants from entering," the head of India's Border Security Force in Jammu and Kashmir told The Washington Post last summer. "Why should we wait...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP)- In a bid to stop arms smuggling and terror attacks, Saudi and Yemeni officials will meet soon to review plans to build a fence along their frontier, a pan-Arab newspaper reported Monday. Lt. Gen. Talal Anqawi, head of the Saudi border police, told the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat that the concrete fence would be effective in preventing smuggling and infiltration, especially by car. The newspaper said the meeting was being held to avoid an escalation of Yemeni objections to the fence. Anqawi refused to call it a barrier, and said the fence was well within Saudi territory and...

The new security fence runs 3,034 miles along a contorted path that lurches east, then west, and then doubles back - the antithesis of a straight line as it contrives to include this village and exclude that one. Many in the international community charge that in addition to being a grievous breach of human rights, the fence is part of a scheme to monopolize water resources, stealing the flow of rivers and further depriving people who already have little access to water. The course of the security fence divides families, separates herdsmen from their traditional grazing land and it can...