Posted on 03/16/2010 5:04:46 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Janet Napolitano scraps U.S.-Mexico fence
By JEN DIMASCIO | 3/16/10 7:14 PM EDT
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.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34528.html#ixzz0iO5om4vq
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Thanks friend. Just needed to hear that.
Twice as much as they did build of real fence. That is, they built about 650 miles of fence, some of it pedestrian barriers, part of it vehicle barriers. They spent as much on the “virtual” experiment as they did on the actual fence, and have nothing to show for it after four years. With the money they pi**ed away on this “virtual” fence, all of which went to Boeing, they could have built double-layered barriers from the Pacific to the Texas border, with a road between the barriers.
Yes, see post 62.
If you can "deem" something passed, I suppose you can "deem" something as not passed, too...
The timing is “curious”, isn’t it?
It might be better than virtual fences, or fences for so many feet and then an opening. And some cities don’t want a fence, like Brownsville.
This can in no way be interpreted as "easing up on border security," because the "virtual" fence was never functioning in the first place. The Border Patrol is there, the actual fence is there, the drones are flying over Arizona.
All that said, where they did build double layer fence, because Duncan Hunter insisted on it, in San Diego, it works as advertised. They should have stuck to the original plan.
One other point, although illegals continue to stream in, they are not coming at near the rate they were three or four years ago. The big problem, the gorilla in the mist, is drug smuggling and the cartels.
Correct. She did the right thing. They should have done this three years ago.
Thx.
hmmmmm
Pretty much what I would expect to come from the Obama gang. Security just isn’t their priority.
Friday, September 22, 2006 (And it’s just gotten worse under Obama...)
The SBI Net contract -”virtual fence”- LOOK who will handle the money!
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff announced Thursday, the implementation of a high tech, high priced deal with Boeing for “virtual border security”. What will be interesting about this is if David Norquist, recently appointed by Pres. Bush to handle the finances at homeland security does as bad a job as he did with handling the more than questionable spending on Haliburton with the Defense Dept. Norquist is the brother of Grover Norquist, the White House policy maker for immigration/amnesty/open borders and founder of the Islamic Institute.
May 27, 2006 - The Senate also confirmed David L. Norquist as Homeland Security’s chief financial officer, and former Secret Service director Ralph Basham as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Several Senators including Joe Lieberman challenged documented missteps and questionable spending of billions in defense contracts handled by Norquist.
DHS Nominee for CFO Grilled About Role in Hiding Alleged Overcharges by Halliburton
Department of Homeland Security chief financial officer nominee David Norquist faced more questions at his confirmation hearing about Halliburton subsidiary KBR than about his plans to handle the department’s complex financial management system.
Senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday focused on Norquist’s role at the Department of Defense in allowing prime Iraq contractor Halliburton subsidiary KBR to conceal alleged overcharges in an investigation by a United Nations oversight board.
As the deputy undersecretary of defense and comptroller, Norquist was asked by the panel about more than 450 redactions in documents drafted by the Defense Contract Audit Agency. That agency found more than $177 million in overcharges, according to committee ranking member Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn.
DOD provided the documents to the U.N. oversight board, claiming the redactions were necessary to protect proprietary information for KBR.
It is “very troubling that a contractor implicated in an overcharging scandal would be given the final say on what information to provide to the U.N. oversight board,” Lieberman said.
“This episode is relevant to today’s hearing because DHS needs a CFO who puts taxpayers first, who is committed to sound financial management and transparency and who is willing to confront agencies that may be shirking their legal responsibilities.”
From Chertoff’s press release, he states,
“Now, what is SBI Net? Well, SBI Net, first of all, is a partnership — a partnership with Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, which will be the prime contractor and the integrator for our technology effort at the southern border and at the northern border. What we are looking to build is a virtual fence, a 21st century virtual fence
The SBI Net contract is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity type of contract with a performance period of three years, and three one-year option periods. What that means in plain English is we’re not buying the entire contract at once. We have the overall framework. We have the partner. We have the general terms of the contract. But we will be rolling out segments of this, starting in the highest priority, highest traffic areas.
One of the critical requirements that we laid down in this process of procurement was the government always had to have control of the driver’s seat. We have a partner here. We look forward to working with the partner. But the control of the process lies with the government, and that means at every step of the way, as we roll out additional segments of the border under this contract, we will have the opportunity to negotiate the best price. We’ll have the opportunity to look for alternatives, if we think there are cheaper or better alternatives that have become available. And we will be driving the process using the operators as the principal decision-makers here at every step of the way.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=SBI+Net
Both parties have lied about this issue.
Still, it is insane.
And a mine field.
Thanks for the ping!
BUMP!
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