Posted on 04/12/2005 7:37:34 PM PDT by axes_of_weezles
Hundreds of sensors and cameras designed to detect undocumented immigrants along U.S. borders were not working last year or were not installed in a timely manner, according to an audit report.
Federal inspectors visited three Arizona sites last year, Nogales, Naco and Tucson, and found none of the remote surveillance systems was fully operational.
snip
In Naco, auditors said they found equipment in storage and camera poles lying in the desert next to a border patrol station while in Nogales, the equipment had been delivered but installation was still in progress last summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at kvoa.com ...
I heard the "low tech" border patrol wasn't working much either.
Right you are. Border Patriot BUMP!
Notify the crowd...
A whole lot of things haven't been working for a long time. Faulty equipment is only the tip of the ice berg. Nice to know at least this much is being reported.
I think it's a duplicate, different source. A ping couldn't hurt, though!
Maybe get some new discussion this way.
Remember, our weapons' systems and other Government-contracted items are being built by the lowest bidder!
Are these the sensors the Minutemen were setting off?
build the Wall...........
I don't think so...the longer article talked about mast mounted video/infrared sensors, not underground motion sensors.
The cameras are in use down here, some have even been shot out from across the border.
I'm all for the Minutemen, even IF they occasionally and inadvertantly set off sensors. The Minutemen have alerted the BP to illegals, discouraged the illegals from crossing in the Minutemen areas based on illegals' fear of detection, and generally complicated the law-breaking, among other benefits.
That said, respectfully, isn't it jumping the gun to say that the BP is lying about the sensors?
The article says SOME (not necessarily all) sensors are not working and none of the sensors are working COMPLETELY in the three mentioned locations.
Therefore, some sensors could still be working sufficiently at the Minutemen area to trigger the alleged false alarms, right?
We don' need no steekin' sensors. We have the crack Border Patrol keeping our borders safe, or at least that's what the MSM is saying every day that the Minutemen have been out there.
I would guess that they would use the Cameras to get an accurate count of the new "Migrants"
The problem is, this is an audit. It shows incompetence and technical illiteracy, and possibly a conflict with the Unions, since automated sensors and cameras would be used to verify sensor alerts versus a truck roll. This is exactly what the BP was bitching about.
It shows technical incompetence, period.
It shows poor program management.
It shows a waste of resources, tax money - mine and yours.
I suppose you dont mind tax money being wasted.
Cast the pearls amongst the swine.
Yeah, it's really kinda hard to set off sensors that aren't working. I wonder if it's the BP's fault, or if this is the fault of those who want to allow illegals a clear path into America? You know, like an order from the top? Nah, what am I saying, there's no way our government would do such a thing. < / sarcasm >
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1381429/posts
Near Buffalo, N.Y., IMC billed the government for 59 cameras but installed four, and in Naco, Ariz., unassembled high-tech gear was found lying in the desert, the report says. "No IMC personnel had been on-site since the equipment was delivered" in 2003, the report says.
Looks like AP is copying the ComPost.
Sorry did not check on the same keywords.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS HOLDING, INC 8,449,899 $ 2,260,292,852 $ 0.98%
INTERNATIONAL MICROWAVE CORP 1,789,368 $
KDI PRECISION PRODUCTS, INC 35,636,881 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS 17,600,248 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS ANALYTICS C 12,557,117 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS CORP SPACE 12,236,544 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION 2,119,969,355 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS ILEX SYSTEM 235,615 $
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS WESTWOOD CO 34,572,422 $
L-3/HENSCHEL 1,859,281 $
LITTON INDUSTRIES, INC 3,928,457 $
PACORD INC 1,874,390 $
POWER PARAGON, INC 7,381,986 $
WESCAM INC 2,201,289
And here's an older article from the Detroit Free Press. Cameras aren't on lookout at the border.
Excerpt:
The surveillance contract will come under further scrutiny as part of a rare national review being conducted by the internal auditing arm of the General Services Administration. The review was launched after auditors discovered considerable financial waste and bogus contracts after looking into a fraction of the nation's technology and defense contracts, said Eugene Waszily, assistant inspector general for auditing for the administration.
"Because of the seriousness of the deficiencies" in the sample audit, he said, "the agency requested that we review all of them."
The General Services Administration purchases about $5 billion annually in technology-related service and products for border agencies and the military, according to auditors.
A Connecticut-based company called International Microwave Corp. was awarded a $200-million government contract in 2002 as the only prime contractor to install the camera system along the northern border.
Shortly after the award, IMC was acquired by L-3 Communications Inc., a global company based in New York that deals in defense communications and surveillance systems.
Company officials could not be reached late Friday.
What does it matter if the sensors are not working as long as Uncle Ned got the contract?
I would not fault L3 per se. I would blame IMC. They probably misrepresented themselves to get bought out by L3.
I have used some of L3's equipment. It is well manufactured and works.
I find fault with the BP managers; who did not put the contractors feet to the fire.
GSA has some blame, too, they probably sold the BP the bill of goods.
Outsourcing has it's price.
L-3 (LaPenta, Lanza, and Lehman Bros.) buys promising mid-cap defense contractors and gets fat on their expertise. L-3 usually lets the original management of the acquired company stay on and manage the contracts.
I guess IMC was a bad purchase. That happens.
There are hundreds of sensors in Yuma Sector and they do work. (Whether the Minutemen are setting them off is a different issue). What this article is talking about is some other stuff that got botched, never delivered, or didn't work properly.
See #13, and #14
"WE DID THIS WITH 1960'S TECHNOLOGY"
You would not believe the number of times people told me how it simply 'can't be done'.
Surprise surprise! Did Homeland Security hire Vicente Fox to put the sensors and cameras in place, one wonders silently to one's self?
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