House of Paine

border blimp or revenge of the sado geeks

SBI  I   =  SDI  II

"We are launching the most 

technologically advanced 

border security initiative 

in American history,"

                     prez Bush

                this past monday 

                           on network TV



===============================


 

patroling 6k miles of border ....

wow 

"Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman,

 three of the largest,

 are among the companies that said they would submit bids 

within two weeks 

for a multibillion-dollar federal contract

 to build what the administration calls 

a "virtual fence" along the nation's land borders"

"Using some of the same

 high-priced, high-tech tools 

these companies have already put to work

 in Iraq and Afghanistan

 like unmanned aerial vehicles

 ground surveillance satellites

 and motion-detection video equipment 

the military contractors are zeroing in

 on the rivers, deserts, mountains and settled areas

 that separate Mexico and Canada

 from the United States"



"Through its Secure Border Initiative, 

the Bush administration intends 

to not simply buy 

an amalgam of high-tech equipment 

to help it patrol the borders 

 a tactic it has also already tried

 at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars

 with extremely limited success

 It is also asking the contractors

 to devise and build a whole new border strategy

 that ties together the personnel

 technology and physical barriers" 

"The equipment these Border Patrol agents use

 how and when they are dispatched 

to spots along the border

 where the agents assemble

 the captured immigrants

 how they process them and transport them

 all these steps will now be scripted

 by the winning contractor

 who could earn an estimated $2 billion 

over the next three to six years 

on the Secure Border job "



"Boots on the ground is not really enough

The tools of modern warfare must be brought to bear

 That means devices like the Tethered Aerostat Radar,

a helium-filled airship

 made for the Air Force

 by Lockheed Martin 

that is twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp

 Attached to the ground by a cable

 the airship can hover overhead 

and automatically monitor

 any movement night or day

 (One downside: it cannot operate in high winds.)"



" Northrop Grumman is considering offering 

its Global Hawk,

an unmanned aerial vehicle

 with a wingspan nearly as wide as a Boeing 737

 that can snoop on movement 

along the border from heights 

of up to 65,000 feet" 



" Closer to earth

 Northrop might deploy

 a fleet of much smaller

 unmanned planes 

that could be launched from a truck

 flying perhaps just above

 a group of already detected immigrants

 so it would be harder 

for them to scatter 

into the brush and disappear"

"Raytheon has a package 

of sensor and video equipment

 used to protect troops in Iraq

 that monitors an area 

and uses software to identify

 suspicious objects automatically

 analyzing and highlighting them 

even before anyone is sent to respond" 



"If the system works,

 Border Patrol agents will know

 before they encounter 

a group of intruders

 approximately how many people have crossed

 how fast they are moving

 and even if they might be armed" 

"The government's track record 

in the last decade 

in trying to buy cutting-edge technology 

to monitor the border 

 devices like video cameras

 sensors and other tools 

that came at a cost of at least $425 million 

 is dismal"

"Because of poor contract oversight

 nearly half of video cameras

 ordered in the late 1990's

 did not work or were not installed"

" The ground sensors 

installed along the border

 frequently sounded alarms

 But in 92 percent of the cases

 they were sending out agents 

to respond to what turned out to be

 a passing wild animal

 a train or other nuisances"

"a more recent test

 with an unmanned aerial vehicle 

bought by the department 

got off to a similarly troubling start

 The $6.8 million device

 which has been used in the last year 

to patrol a 300-mile stretch 

of the Arizona border at night

 crashed last month "

"With Secure Border

 at least five so-called

 system integrators 



 Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop

 as well as Boeing and Ericsson 

 are expected to submit bids " 

The winner

 which is due to be selected before October

 will not be given a specific dollar commitment

 Instead, each package

 of equipment and management solutions 

the contractor offers 

will be evaluated and bought individually"

---------------------------------------------------------

sounds like  

        sado-geek/profiteer heaven 

                    don't it