[Chertoff:] High-tech border system needs work

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 6, 2007 | Nicole Gaouette

[SwinneySwitch]

Homeland Security chief says that the program is not fully functional, but that security has improved.

WASHINGTON -- -- A much-touted, high-tech system being tested along the border with Mexico failed to meet expectations and is being reworked, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. Still, he said, border security has improved dramatically.

Chertoff said that SBInet, which integrates cameras, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the border, did not satisfy his department during initial tests and that he has asked Boeing, the contractor, to make improvements.

The remarks came during a wide-ranging and occasionally contentious hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security to discuss the department's progress in implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

There were questions on the safety of government-provided trailers used by Hurricane Katrina victims and terrorism -- specifically programs to track foreign students and screen air cargo -- a reflection of the agency's broad mandate.

Lawmakers also asked Chertoff a personal question: Would he leave the Department of Homeland Security to take the helm of the Justice Department, replacing outgoing Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales?

Chertoff's reply: "I'm happy to continue to do this job until the very last day of the administration."

Some exchanges were more barbed, with Democratic lawmakers complaining about what they described as DHS' lack of transparency and its reluctance to cooperate with congressional oversight.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) grilled Chertoff on the agency's handling of air cargo inspections, denouncing the program as a "shambles."

Holding up a redacted report by the DHS inspector general, Markey said it was a "blistering, scalding indictment of the department's handling . . . of cargo inspection on passenger planes."

Congress recently passed a law requiring 100% screening of the cargo placed on passenger aircraft. The report found that the Transportation...

[SwinneySwitch]

"I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money," he said, "unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world."

[sheana]

Homeland Security chief says that the program is not fully functional, but that security has improved.

And we need a new Homeland Security Chief but the odds of that hasn’t improved.

[beethovenfan]

Just build the f-ing fence!!

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

I’ve found that if I want to keep unwanted “guests” out of my yard, an old-fashioned physical barrier (read “fence”) does the trick. A lot better than one of those ultrasonic electronic gizmos you bury underground.

[ClearCase_guy]

I don't think we need a high-tech fence. We just need the basic double-fence that Duncan Hunter talks about. It's straight-forward. It's funded.

Just do it.

[SwinneySwitch]

Virtual Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

"I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money," he said, "unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world."

Which is why you have to bribe Congressmen with private funds.

[Hydroshock]

It does, the necessary replacement part is a lot of barbed wire and concrete streghting from the Gulf to the Pacific.

[sheana]

You also have the will to keep those unwanted guests out if the fence fails.
You wouldn’t let them stay if they got past your fence.

[Travis McGee]

"Border Reality 101"

This is what most of our southern border looks like: there is no government-built fence at all. There is often just whatever is left over from some forgotten cattle fence, built privately to keep U.S. cattle from wandering freely into Mexico. For hundreds of miles there is not even a broken cattle fence, there is nothing at all.

For comparison, below the broken cattle fence photo is a sample of an inexpensive but highly effective double border fence system, with a plowed strip to reveal footprints. This type of system is very cheap and can be built with great speed.

Here is what some of San Diego County has: a wall made of rusty Viet Nam-era runway mats. The corrugations are even horizontal, (to make climbing easier?)

Here is what the border looks like where the runway mat wall exists. Mexico begins on the other side of the ineffective rusty wall, which actually helps the smugglers, by hiding their movements until the occasional USBP vehicle has driven out of sight.

This is how "the game" is played. Smugglers hide on the other side of the wall with their dope and/or their illegals, out of sight of the USBP. They wait for the highly visible white BP vehicle to drive over the distant hills. Lookouts with cell phones and walkie-talkies report on the current locations of the BP units. They know with certainty that "the coast is clear" for an hour or two, and the smugglers and illegals hop the fence and run into the scrub only 50 yards away. From there, they are out of sight, and they walk 1-2 miles to holding houses. Then they wait for nightfall, and are picked up and driven in vans to LA or San Diego.

Next, we see the Duncan Hunter 15' fence, which is already being built along a few "showplace" miles of San Diego, mainly near the ports of entry, where panderng politicians can conveniently show it off to gullible reporters. As you can see, the rusty runway wall is seen at the left side, Mexico begins on the other side. In areas with the 15 foot fence, dope smugglers and illegals will have to cross the open sand ("the government road" as it is called) before starting to try to get over the 15 foot fence.

This new fence is extremely tough, and resists cutting. Attacking the fence would have to be done right out in the open, in full view of cameras. This type of fence, on the U.S. side of the government road, will give the USBP a barrier to patrol, instead of forcing them to chase illegals around 100,000 square miles of wide-open frontier land, which is a fool's errand. Everywhere this modern multiple fence system has been built, crossings by illegals drop to almost nil.

This ain't rocket science, folks. We're not talking about something like the Hoover Dam project, (which we managed to build 70 years ago). The world's last superpower, which put a man on the moon 35 years ago, can build a couple thousand miles of simple and effective fencing.

This is how it's being built in San Diego county, along the last 14 miles out to the ocean. The total cost of the entire fence from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific would be about 5 billion dollars, or what we spend medicating, hospitalizing, educating, and incarcerating illegal aliens just about every month. In other words, the fence would pay for itself immediately.

Or, we can continue our current policy.

[dforest]

Cut the excuses Mikey, get your ass down there and get to work. Earn you paycheck with actions instead of excuses.

[live+let_live]

KISS Keep it simple stupid.

10’ chain link with barb wire top.

Concrete Block

Pre-fab concrete sound barrier like they use along interstates through residential area.

It ain’t rocket science.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

You also have the will to keep those unwanted guests out if the fence fails. You wouldn’t let them stay if they got past your fence.

True. That's what the 12 ga. is for.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

To open border pimp Jerkoff, build the fence!

[Calpernia]

Related thread from this morning - relevant to the virtual fence proposal

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1891915/posts
Border Fence ‘Very Doable,’ Engineers Say

[Condor51]

If DHS employed the same ‘high-tech system’ (and Contractor) on the Mexican border that’s currently used to protect AREA 51 and Groom Lake, a jack rabbit wouldn't be able to cross undetected, let alone 25,000 illegals per week.

oops, almost forgot -- Chertoff is an incompetent jackass.
:-)

[ClearCase_guy]

Very nice presentation. Thanks!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Build the fence already! Some of us peons have said for a long time that ‘high-tech’ is not the way to go here. Fences have a proven track record. But, then again, that is pretty much the point isn’t it? A double or triple fence would work and that scares a bunch of illegal sympathizers.

[Dante3]

Exactly.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money,” he said, “unless I’m satisfied it works in the real world.”

Funny, that never seemed to stop anyone else. By the way, what is “U.S. government money”, anyway?