OBAMA administration shitcans Shrub's & Boeing's "virtual fence" at Southern Border

[UTUSN]

The Southern border: That would be the one the 9-11 terra-rists did NOT pass through as opposed to the Northern border. So HERE's one item that will save some tiny bucks. Shrub's penchant for striking at WRONG targets showed his real motives: Getting even with old, personal enemy-cartels (Iraq) and pandering to his base's (Minutemen) prejudices.

The comments inside of the Gawker link are revealing, too, for good and ill.


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http://gawker.com/5734435/virtual-fence-scrapped-after-wasting-1-billion

'Virtual Fence' Scrapped After Wasting $1 Billion

After blowing $1 billion on an electronic "virtual fence" along the border with Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security yesterday finally ditched the $7 billion project in favor of surveillance drones and human patrols. Bravo, DHS. Money well spent.

Send an email to Jeff Neumann, the author of this post, at [e-mail].




http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/us/politics/15fence.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
.... Ms. Napolitano’s decision brought a long-expected close to a project carried out by the Boeing Corporation under a contract first signed in 2005 under President George W. Bush, which had been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Originally estimated to cost more than $7 billion to cover the 2,000-mile length of the border, it was the subject of more than a dozen scathing reports by the Government Accountability Office.

In a pilot program in Arizona, it cost about $1 billion to build the system across 53 miles of the state’s border. Officials said the new approach, using mobile surveillance systems and unmanned drones already in the Border Patrol’s arsenal, would cost less than $750 million to cover the remaining 323 miles of Arizona’s border. ....

But officials moved slowly to cancel the project because it had been ensnared in the contentious debate over border security. Many Republican lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of being lax on enforcement, and they have said they would not consider an overhaul of immigration laws that President Obama supports until the border is tighter. ....

Ms. Napolitano said she had concluded that the original concept of the project, to develop a single technology that could be used across the entire border, was not viable. Boeing had built a complex system of sensors, radars and cameras mounted on towers that was supposed to lead border agents to the exact location of illegal crossers. But the system functioned inconsistently in the rough terrain along much of the border. ....

In a statement, Boeing noted that officials said they would continue to use equipment it had designed. “We appreciate that they recognize the value of the integrated fixed towers Boeing has built, tested and delivered so far,” the company said.

Representative Peter T. King, the New York Republican who is the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, criticized the administration for being slow to end (HUH?!1) the program. “I continue to have very serious concerns about the Obama administration’s lack of urgency to secure the border,” he said.

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[tularetom]

1. You mean they aren't gonna build the "dang fence"?

That ad of McCain walking out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with the bald headed sheriff (whose county wasn't even on the border) still makes me LMAO.

[UTUSN]

2. Also sadly hilarious was Univision's coverage of the early Minutemen events at the AZ border

Univision's news crews are top notch, wholly competitive with whatever other outlets. The on-air reporter went through the professional steps, giving background and interviewing the "president" of the Minutemen, who was a Hispanic tool/sell-out/puppet, giving the tool total un-ironic coverage.

After the interview, the reporter did the wrap up. And the camera, seemingly on its own, started panning away to the side, kept going and going, ending up at a stack of humongous bags of concrete mix being used in the fence building.

On each neatly stacked bag was the Spanish name of the concrete manufacturer and the phrase, "PRODUCTO DE MEXICO"!1



So, will all those today's TeaBaggers look for the many similar items of wingnut budget WASTE like the border fence?!1 Somehow, I think not.

[Kolesar]

3. Best thread title of the morning!...eom

[SidDithers]

4. The 9/11 terrorists didn't pass through the Northern border either...nt

Sid

[UTUSN]

7. Which doesn't alter their not having entered via the Southern one.

But, O.K., having taken your prompting for doing the research myself, I'll take the correction. Iraq didn't do the attacking either, but that didn't stop Shrub from setting that as another false target, which is really my point.

Oh, and besides that the reporting back in the day and consequent belief for months/years was that they *did*.

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http://www.zeenews.com/news662455.html

9/11 terrorists didn't come from Canada, US told

.... Writing to the US Senate candidate, Doer said, "None of the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States from or through Canada.''

He said there have been no terrorist attacks on the US from Canada.

"Extensive investigations by US law enforcement authorities have established that all the hijackers entered the United States directly from third countries - not Canada - with visas issued by American diplomatic missions overseas,'' the envoy said.


Citing the 2004 report of the 9/11 Commission and the 2007 report on Canada-US Relations, the Canadian ambassador said, "Both confirmed that none of the 19 September 11 hijackers entered (the United States) by Canada.'' ....

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[somone]

5. Can the taxpayers get their money back?

[UTUSN]

6. Oh, there won't be savings. This is only the "virtual" part of the fence.

And Shrub set the course firmly on princeling cash-throwing. It might as well be a fence of literal cash: More and more thousands of border agents, electronic document readers that are not used, dune buggies, horses, river boats, helicopters, the months of training expenses for all of those new personnel, palatial buildings for headquarters, and really/literally who-knows-what-else, besides passports and other documents that weren't required B.S. (Before Shrub).

[Initech]

8. Hey teabaggers!!! This is excessive government spending!!!