Homeland Security Axes Bush-Era 'Virtual Fence' Project

[NHSparky]

Homeland Security Axes Bush-Era 'Virtual Fence' Project

January 14, 2011 12:49 PM
ABC.com

LINK

(excerpt)

ABC News' Jason Ryan reports: The Department of Homeland Security today officially scrapped a Bush-era program designed to use radar technology to detect illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a DHS official and a congressional source.

The project, called "Virtual Fence," was rolled out under the Bush administration in 2006 with much fanfare about how technology could help secure the border. Illegal immigrants crossing the border would be detected by a radar and picked up by remote cameras, which were monitored by border patrol agents.

But numerous internal and Congressional reviews found consistent performance problems with the project's systems, which only spanned 53 miles of the vast U.S.-Mexico border.

A DHS assessment released today found that "the SBInet system is not the right system for all areas of the border and it is not the most cost-effective approach to secure the border. However, some elements of the SBInet development have provided useful capability."*

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And the flood into the country continues.  Way to go, Big Sis.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Good.

It was a stupid idea, designed to do nothing more than reward contractors and create the transparently-false impression that Congress was actually doing something.  Without large reaction and capture forces on a short leash to react to alerts, all this thing was good for was getting a more accurate count of how many smugglers and illegals were coming across, and where.  Actually having reaction forces on hand would inevitably led to gunfights and casualties, so that necessary part of this idiotic plan was obviously NEVER going to happen. 

[NHSparky]

And yet nothing is exactly what they're doing.  I'm pissed that this isn't a very effective system, but compared to nothing...oh, hell.  I give up.

Last American out of California, take down the flag and turn out the lights.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I look at it as 'It wasn't accomplishing anything but providing political cover and costing a lot.  Now it still won't be doing anything,  but it won't be providing any cover or costing anything, and maybe we can move on to something that might be more than expensive cosmetics.'

[TVDOC]

I look at it as 'It wasn't accomplishing anything but providing political cover and costing a lot.  Now it still won't be doing anything,  but it won't be providing any cover or costing anything, and maybe we can move on to something that might be more than expensive cosmetics.'

Unfortunately short of building a wall similar to the one between Israel and Gaza, the problem will never be solved by a government lacking the political will to apply "deadly force" to seal the border.  Were deadly force broadly applied, the illegal immigration problem would be over (or vastly reduced) within a month.

Sadly this is highly unlikely to occur.......I agree that this system was nothing except window dressing.......

doc

[DumbAss Tanker]

I'm in 100% agreement, doc.

[NHSparky]

While I'm of course opposed to wasting money, I'm even more stridently opposed to doing NOTHING, which is basically what this boils down to.

Oh well, that doesn't work, guess we'll just throw up our hands and walk away!  Some leadership we've got.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The old has to die for there to be a new.  Until this waste is shitcanned, it will BE the entire border control program, defectively conceived from the start but trying to swim with every anchor and chain the open border proponenst can attach to it, costing ever more and achieving ever less.  Pooring more money down this rathole is like slapping the paddles on a month-old corpse and screaming "Live, damn you!" until the cows come home.

[Alpha Mare]

While I'm of course opposed to wasting money, I'm even more stridently opposed to doing NOTHING, which is basically what this boils down to.

Oh well, that doesn't work, guess we'll just throw up our hands and walk away!  Some leadership we've got.

Maybe it works too well.

Despite what the media is reporting, we learned that the system is passing its most important test: Border Patrol agents like the system and they say that it greatly improves agent safety and situational awareness. This allows agents to coordinate law enforcement actions at the time and place of their choosing with a properly equipped and informed team.

According to the agents we met with, SBInet has been instrumental in the apprehension of thousands of illegal aliens and more than $25 million worth of narcotics seizures. Simply put, the system lets agents do their job more effectively, get home safely, and provides vastly improved security to communities along the border. SBInet also allows the Border Patrol to deploy agents more effectively. For example, the number of agents required in the area where the first deployment took place, south of Tucson, has dropped from 24 to four—allowing the Border Patrol to put agents in high traffic areas where the system is not yet deployed.

 We were shown video evidence of agents in the field receiving communications from their team back at headquarters who were using SBInet to watch a group of illegal aliens on television monitors. The field agents were expertly guided to the illegal crossers, allowing them to safely apprehend the group when and where they wanted to; a strategic capability that does not exist elsewhere along the 2,000 mile southern border.

While we heard a lot of good things about SBInet, we were disappointed to hear that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had not been to Arizona to see the system in action.

 SBInet works, the Border Patrol agents like it, and it’s cost effective.  While DHS may be unsure whether to go forward with further deployments of the system, the department should check with its agents in the field before making a final decision. 

http://www.hstoday.us/blogs/guest-commentaries/blog/conversation-with-border-patrol-agents-makes-need-for-sbinet-clear/7525badd6633fbd78f0f8218f9fa849c.html

[JohnnyReb]

Homeland Security Axes Bush...what did they axe 'im?

[DumbAss Tanker]

The problem with this system is that it is only a tripwire, there is no physical impediment.  This leads to an obvious weakness which for (Real, not innerwebz) OPSEC reasons I would rather not go into.  A high-tech information system WITH a truly serious physical barrier would be fine.  This system isn't.