Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Homeland Security Blows 1.3 Billion Building A Fence That Doesn’t Exist
Flopping Aces ^ | 06-20-10 | Skookum

Posted on 06/20/2010 4:32:32 PM PDT by Starman417

Our New Flag pictures

The Department of Homeland Security Reports that it has nothing to show for spending 1.3 Billion during the last five years to build a fence to keep out illegal aliens, the fence along our border with Mexico doesn't exist and the money is gone.

Mark Borkowski, executive director of DHS's Secure Border Initiative, told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight that the department will likely scale back its plans to install sensors, cameras and radar towers along the Southwest border.

Borkowski's admission came after withering testimony from Randolph Hite of the Government Accountability Office on the state of the virtual fence program, known as SBInet.

Hite said SBInet has been troubled since its outset and plagued by frequently changing milestones, management weaknesses and performance shortfalls. As a result, he said, the Department has little to show after spending most of the program's $1.3 billion budget.

“In effect DHS is saying it will have to invest more than a billion dollars into SBInet before it will know whether doing so was economically justified or cost effect vis-à-vis other technology alternatives,” Hite said.

Apparently, management weakness is an excuse to waste or abscond with 1.3 Billion dollars, in private industry people would be fired and prosecuted; our government seems to think we should give them another billion dollars to see if they can manage the money more efficiently.

How convenient, Chris Carney, (D-PA) makes a show of reprimanding the DHS and then stresses the point that the fence may not be effective; reiterating the views of the Administration.

Read more at floppingaces.net...


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: aliens; border; fence; immigration

1 posted on 06/20/2010 4:32:33 PM PDT by Starman417
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Starman417

I was occationally “creative” with my military procurements, but ....these guys are good.


2 posted on 06/20/2010 4:35:27 PM PDT by Delta 21 (If you cant tell if I'm being sarcastic...maybe I'm not.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

last 5 years ? Blame Bush !


3 posted on 06/20/2010 4:35:29 PM PDT by stylin19a (Never buy a putter until you first get a chance to throw it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stylin19a
last 5 years ? Blame Bush !

Bush needs to share the blame, that's for certain.

4 posted on 06/20/2010 4:37:05 PM PDT by airborne (Why is it we won't allow the Bible in school, but we will in prison? Think about it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

another example of outright fraud...


5 posted on 06/20/2010 4:37:12 PM PDT by ldish (Looking forward to Independence Day)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417
...the fence along our border with Mexico doesn't exist and the money is gone.

Gee, do you suppose the money (our hard earned labor as individuals) is in a lock box somewhere and we can eagerly anticipate it's showing up to save the day? /MS

6 posted on 06/20/2010 4:40:37 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417
Some things have been more important than protecting the states.

Child abuse, human and drug smuggling, bribery, money laundering.
These are just some of the crimes committed by employees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as highlighted in a report issued by the DHS’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) in May.
From October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009, the OIG reviewed 16,777 complaints from which the Inspector opened 1,056 cases, closing just over 1,021 of them.
Of those cases, 283 arrests were made, 248 indictments handed down and 241 convictions were ruled.

7 posted on 06/20/2010 4:41:55 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States shall protect each of them against Invasion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stylin19a
Blame Bush!

That's original.

8 posted on 06/20/2010 4:42:35 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Starman417; Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; ...

The list, ping


9 posted on 06/20/2010 4:46:34 PM PDT by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ldish
another example of outright fraud...

Fraud, a word soon to be used as complacently as the word "trillion" is if the destructor in chief has his way.

10 posted on 06/20/2010 4:46:39 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

S.R. Hadden: [over video feed from Mir space station] I wanna show you something.
[shows satellite feed to Ellie]
S.R. Hadden: Hokkaido Island.
Ellie Arroway: The systems integration site.
S.R. Hadden: Look closer.
[zooms satellite feed to reveal second machine]
S.R. Hadden: First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors. Who, also, happen to be, recently acquired, wholly-owned subsidiaries...
Ellie Arroway: [speaks with Hadden] ... of Hadden industries.
S.R. Hadden: They still want an American to go, Doctor. Wanna take a ride?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/quotes?qt0379356


Napolitano was governor of Arizona, remember. That has worked out so well........


11 posted on 06/20/2010 4:49:52 PM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spirito Sancto.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

One of the comments to the article:

“JustAl
5 Here’s one thing it did.

Having done business almost monthly in the Mexican border towns for a decade I noticed that ever since the left’s assault on the 2nd amendment, you know. “90% of the guns causing the violence in Mexico come from the US blah, blah..” Well, now I see something quiet often that I almost never saw before. We’ve diverted a fair number of our people at the border from searching cares coming into the US from Mexico. . . and tasked them with searching cars leaving the US for Mexico. Yes sir, we have reduced our security in the vain hope of finding talking points for the anti-gun left.”

June 20th, 2010 at 2:38 pm


12 posted on 06/20/2010 4:59:17 PM PDT by Bhoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

Our dry land border with Mexico runs just under 700 miles. If $1.3 Billion had been used for the installation of a physical fence, the construction cost could have run as high as $352 per foot, for labor, bulletproof and unscalable materials, and profit.

Any contractor in the world would be delighted to respond to an RFP for a deal like that.


13 posted on 06/20/2010 5:11:47 PM PDT by earglasses (I was blind, and now I hear...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

It was the virtual fence that Bush built.

Then Napolitano turned it off a couple of months ago.

LOL


14 posted on 06/20/2010 5:19:34 PM PDT by TomGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

Holy sh!t!


15 posted on 06/20/2010 5:20:44 PM PDT by pbmaltzman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: earglasses

Here in the WDC area the govt has build many, many miles of 20-30 foot high concrete “sound walls” around the highways. I believe it costs about $1 Million per mile. If that is correct they could have built 1300 MILES of unassailable border fence. I guess they would say the usual: Shut up. Get to work and pay hour taxes. There is nothing to see here. Move along, Citizen.


16 posted on 06/20/2010 5:21:57 PM PDT by hal ogen ($10 (I think) amounts through the internet from all over the world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: earglasses

“Any contractor in the world would be delighted to respond to an RFP for a deal like that.”

Dream on. By the time the unions, politicians, and environmentalists get done with a project, you couldn’t touch it for 352 dollars an inch. Sheriff Joe, on the other hand, could probably get the materials donated and the labor for free.


17 posted on 06/20/2010 5:23:12 PM PDT by bitterohiogunclinger (America held hostage - day 507)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

Hmmm . . . how many M-I-L-E-S of “primitive” double wall low tech fence made from ordinary concrete, rebar, and concertina wire would 1.3 billion dollars have bought? With a “no mans land” between the two walls I bet it would have worked better than the nonexistent “virtual fence” we’ve already paid for ! ! !


18 posted on 06/20/2010 5:30:07 PM PDT by GravityFree (Death is not the end, nor the beginning of the end, but only the end of the beginning.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GravityFree

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese shipping containers are abandoned at Norfolk and other ports. They ship nothing back and it’s cheaper to leave them and construct new ones. Place them end to end, two deep and two high, fill them with sand and you be having a wall. At the projects completion please forward me whatever savings from the 1.2 billion are realized. If you need me I’ll be in the basement designing my castle in the Scottish highlands.


19 posted on 06/20/2010 5:53:49 PM PDT by davius (You can roll manure in powdered sugar but that don't make it a jelly doughnut.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

Obamah-Care is a lot more “Complicated!”


20 posted on 06/20/2010 6:15:25 PM PDT by TexasCajun
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417; AuntB; Liz; dennisw

Imaginary “virtual” fences are only meant to gull virtual idiots and sheeple.

Not to stop the criminal alien invasion.


21 posted on 06/20/2010 6:16:58 PM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: earglasses

They could give that contract to 30 different builders, with bonuses for early completion, and have the entire border fenced in a couple of months.

IF they wanted to stop the invasion.

They don’t.


22 posted on 06/20/2010 6:18:33 PM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

“”known as SBInet.””

Last week Greta interviewed some guys who have a system installed on the AZ border - paid for with their own $$$$ - and they mentioned SBInet and the millions they have received from the government. They said their system has been responsible for cutting down border crossings by 40,000 per month (I think they said) and the SBI system doesn’t work at all. They said they didn’t care whose system was used and they weren’t complaining about using their own money - they just want to see something in place that works. I looked up SBI online the next day and it’s a Boeing (?) system. That’s what I get for watching interesting things at the end of the day - I can’t remember the numbers or names. All in all, I found it pretty interesting and had never heard the SBI name before.


23 posted on 06/20/2010 6:30:02 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

Sorry - re: my last post - the number is 4000 illegals a year (not 40,000 per month) but you can hear the audio of the interview on Greta’s On the Record site....posted below. It was on June 18 in case you have to look around for it. Their radar covers the gunnery range at the Marine Base in Yuma.... I said I didn’t remember numbers real well watching TV at the end of the day but glad I found this anyway. Greta asks them about the SBInet system.....They mention the amount of federal dollars spent on the SBI system and then governor Napolitano stopping the program. It’s very interesting to listen to.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/index.html#/v/4244437/arizonas-illegal-immigration-radar-system/?playlist_id=157968


24 posted on 06/20/2010 6:54:34 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417
Homeland Security Blows 1.3 Billion Building A Fence That Doesn’t Exist

There, all fixed.

Cheers!

25 posted on 06/20/2010 8:50:15 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417

lulz, the only fence that got built for $1.3 billion was the one around DHS Napalitano’s house in AZ.........


26 posted on 06/20/2010 8:56:05 PM PDT by cranked
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starman417
Apparently, management weakness is an excuse to waste or abscond with 1.3 Billion dollars, in private industry people would be fired and prosecuted;... More likely the project would be declared a great success and promotions given to the leaders.
27 posted on 06/20/2010 9:05:18 PM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (The new improved version of NUC 1. This version will remember his password.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

Ping!


28 posted on 06/20/2010 9:05:59 PM PDT by HiJinx (I can see November from the rocker on my front porch...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

who got the money


29 posted on 06/20/2010 9:23:01 PM PDT by dalebert
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dalebert

That’s the question, isn’t it.


30 posted on 06/20/2010 9:27:08 PM PDT by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: airborne
Bush needs to share the blame, that's for certain.

Yes he does. He and members of his administration called our Minutemen VIGILANTES! It also took much screaming from the electorate to get a REPUBLICAN Congress to do anything about a fence.
31 posted on 06/21/2010 6:15:58 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve - STUPAK)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: stylin19a

Bush is as much to blame as anyone. The effort to keep our borders UNSECURED is a CFR/OBL/bipartisan effort. Bush used the same blackmail as Obama....supposedly the border is not securable without without an amnesty.

It irritates me to no end that those, like Duncan Hunter, who would have effectively secured it, were intentionally swept under the carpet as presidential candidates. It’s no coincidence that he was NOT a member of The New World Order’s Council on Foreign Relations.


32 posted on 06/21/2010 9:58:12 AM PDT by Kimberly GG ("Path to Citizenship" Amnesty candidates will NOT get my vote!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee; AuntB; Liz; dennisw; mkjessup

” Imaginary “virtual” fences are only meant to gull virtual idiots and sheeple.

Not to stop the criminal alien invasion.”

” They could give that contract to 30 different builders, with bonuses for early completion, and have the entire border fenced in a couple of months.

IF they wanted to stop the invasion.

They don’t.”

It only took 22 posts to get to the truth.

The whole thing was a scam to begin with

!) Bush didn’t want a fence

2) He concocted this “virtual fence” BS to mollify the public. Most of us knew it was a scam. He had his stooge Chertoff in there, lying his butt off every month or so.
Like Travis said, if they were serious, they could complete an impenetrable “San Diego “ type fence in a couple of months.


33 posted on 06/23/2010 5:46:36 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Kimberly GG

” It irritates me to no end that those, like Duncan Hunter, who would have effectively secured it, were intentionally swept under the carpet as presidential candidates. It’s no coincidence that he was NOT a member of The New World Order “

Bush is almost entirely to blame. He never intended to build any fence, and he perpetrated this whole scam.


34 posted on 06/23/2010 5:56:51 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker; AuntB; Travis McGee; dennisw; mkjessup; Tennessee Nana; TADSLOS; Kimberly GG
” Imaginary “virtual” fences are only meant to gull virtual idiots and sheeple. Not to stop the criminal alien invasion.”

Cheaper, sure-fire solution---landmine the border.

35 posted on 06/23/2010 6:58:40 AM PDT by Liz (If teens can procreate in a Volkswagen, why does a spotted owl need 2000 acres? JD Hayworth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Liz

Could be done in a couple of weeks. Cheap too!


36 posted on 06/23/2010 7:12:48 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson