DHS Scraps Bush-Era 'Virtual Fence' Project After $1B

[RandySF]

The Department Of Homeland Security announced Friday that it is scrapping a Bush-era plan to build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexican border, citing costs -- which have already reached around $1 billion.

The project, dubbed the Secure Border Initiative or SBI-Net, began in 2006 in order "to integrate new and existing border technology into a networked system that will enable personnel to more effectively detect, identify, classify, and respond to incursions at the border," through, among other things, "surveillance and detection tools such as unattended ground sensors, radar, and cameras," according to the DHS website.

But on Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the project "does not meet current standards for viability and cost effectiveness."


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/dhs_scraps_bush-era_virtual_fence_project_after_1b.php?ref=fpi

[spanone]

1. how many contractors got rich off that one, eh george?

bet you know a few of them personally too, huh?

[Fumesucker]

2. I bet we'll have that Afghanistan-Pakistan border sealed off real soon now..

Right?

[demosincebirth]

3. Thats what the wingers wanted for sooo long. What other stupid

idea are the going to come up with now?