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Posted on 06/30/2007 4:42:00 PM PDT by deport
SASABE, Ariz., June 21 — If the effort to catch people illegally crossing the border here in the southern Arizona desert is a cat-and-mouse struggle, the Homeland Security Department says it has a smarter cat.
It comes in the form of nine nearly 100-foot-tall towers with radar, high-definition cameras and other equipment rising from the mesquite and lava fields around this tiny town.
Known as Project 28, for the 28 miles of border that the towers will scan, the so-called virtual fence forms the backbone of the Secure Border Initiative, known as SBInet, a multibillion-dollar mix of technology, manpower and fencing intended to control illegal border crossings.
If successful, hundreds of such towers could dot the 6,000 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders.
But glitches with the radar and cameras have forced the project to miss its June 13 starting date, just as Congress focuses anew on border security in the Senate measure to overhaul immigration law.
Officials at the Homeland Security Department insist that Boeing, which has a $67 million contract to develop the project and others, will soon put it back on track, though they are not providing a new completion date.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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I want a real fence. You can virtually watch it if you wish.
Pretty. Now how about putting guys in trucks and building a wall? I prefer cast concrete.
All these nifty gizmos are worthless when the power goes out - just build a wall, a barrier wall!
wow. a virtual border wall.. is that to stop virtual terrorists?
I Like Ike.
The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer
"Reform" must conform to the following principles:
I dunno... Number Five on a pole doesn’t look that intimidating.
I am in total agreement.
BUILD THE FENCE!
This creation their building won’t even slow the aliens down.Never mind deterring them in the first place.
A virtual fence is like having virtual walls and doors in your home,Worthless.
It needs a big frickin laser beam on it or it's just a virtual census.
28 miles times 5280 feet divided by 9 cameras means each camera covers 16,426 feet, or over 3 miles.
Your local 7-11 has better camera coverage.
Yep, they sure are serious about border enforcement, aren’t they.
OK I just photo-shopped the rest.
We’re done. Everyone have a beer. /s
Wow, what a great idea! Not only the wall we’re demanding, but a tourist attraction as well! Count me in.
So, what else is new?
As one Border Patrol agent said, without agents to put the arm on the crossers, it’ll just let us count how many get away.
How vulnerable is this ET looking thing to 30’06? The coyotes will find out pretty soon I’d bet.
I want a friggin double tall walls
Yoko Ono recordings would be torture.
Only considered torture if you present her image nude from what I heard.
I want both — a real fence and a virtual fence so if they get through the fence, we can see where they are at and people can be sent to that location to arrest them. Just a virtual fence won’t work IMHO.
Yeah, but I bet these cost a lot more
From the article as to how this high tech stuff is supposed to work:
The information is to flow over a high-speed wireless network into laptops in dozens of Border Patrol vehicles that, in theory, would respond quicker and more efficiently to breaches than they do now.
“We are living the dividing line between the old Border Patrol and the new patrol of the future,” said David Aguilar, chief of the Border Patrol.
“It will not only detect, but identify what the incursion is,” Mr. Aguilar added, a step up from the existing ground sensors, fence cameras and footprint tracking that can lead to “false positives.”
It should have a .50 Cal of it's own to shoot back, (first.)
Good point! Another suggestion would be to replace the White House fence with a “virtual” fence. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Good point! Another suggestion would be to replace the White House fence with a “virtual” fence. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Virtual fence is a hi tech cash cow for corporations. Cost alot of money to create fraught with technical delays due to complex hardware/software issues. Wait till you find out that the next 28 miles is covered by hardware from another vendor and getting them to talk with the hardware of this vendor. IMHO the hi tech fence is another way of providing corporate welfare and delaying the border fence. In ten years we will cover maybe 300 miles of a 1900 mi border and by then the children of illegal immigrants will become voters, vote in politicians that will dismantle the fence and let corporate America get all the Mexican workers they can get. NOTE: The US has put up over 2300 miles of noise barriers on our major highways but cannot do the same for 1900 mile US Mexican border.
Well it can certainly detect illegal aliens, even BEFORE they cross, about the time a 30.06 takes it out, you will know they are coming.
Problem with virtual fence is armed coyotes can drive thru it. The BP will intercept and upon meeting coyotes in vehicles filled with illegals and pintle mounted machineguns, out BP following SOP on not causing a major incident on the border will be forced to withdraw upon orders from their superiors. The first BP officer who fires will risk losing his or her career. The pro globalist bureaucrats within the HSA has gamed this one out.
A pile of razor-wire would cost less and do more good.
Land mines would be even cheaper and would be a better deterrent.
My guess is that multi-million dollar arrays of electronics can easily be destroyed by an accurate rifle and would probably take weeks to replace, recalibrate and reconnect properly to their network. So you have one guy in a pickup go along and knock out 10 or so of them and a few days later you cross the now unwatched border.
Two little words: “land mines”
Is this fence really for illegal immigrants or selective searching?
I want a fence. This ensures everyone is pretty well caught; not selective like those stupid cameras who are really spying on what?
It may or may not be a virtual fence, but I think this approach is a real waste of money.
Instead, I think that you should first put up a pair of strong, 12-foot hurricane fences with a few strands of barbed wire at the top of each, and plow clean between them. That is your primary system, and it alone will keep out a very large percentage of the casual borderjumpers.
Then I would say that you should set up your secondary systems, which are the reinforcing systems that are for stopping those who try to go over, through, or under your primary system, the fences.
Finally, you work on capturing those who manage to evade your primary and secondary systems.
Like any security system, it's not going to be perfect. It's there to discourage people, and it is a layered defense; you establish stronger defenses at natural access points. But you start with the easy wins and work up to the harder goals.
I don't think that you should start with an expensive and fault-prone "virtual" system and then try to fill in its inevitable chinks.
If it works, what’s not to like? I’m all for enforcement, and whatever works is fine with me. And if it keeps out half of the illegals who are coming across the border, then that’s a whole lot better than what we have now.
A lot of folks here would rather have nothing at all if they can’t get perfection.
As for me, I want progress, and if this works I want lots of it, and the sooner the better. This is a good start, and if anything we need much more of it.
The problem with a virtual fence is that it will feed information on border incursions back to the Bush administration. That will do a lot of good. </sarcasm>
But I'm sure the government took that into consideration before they placed it up on that pole.
Is this fence really for illegal immigrants or selective searching?
A virtual fence to match our virtual deportation program.
Now we can watch the illegals cross and scatter in real time!
A virtual fence to match our virtual deportation program.
Now we can watch the illegals cross and scatter in real time!
Nice target.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
now I feel safe...
The illegal aliens will never figure out they dont have to climb over those 100 foot towers...but could just run on passed them...
/s
The current administration doesn’t want the border closed. They are afraid of (among other things) what will happen in the US if the flow of illegal DRUGS gets slowed down or stopped. Chaos in the streets of most major cities, druggies freaking out and filling the local ER, murder rate skyrockets, shooting war on the border, etc. I wonder if they get a cut on profits....
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