{"id":2190,"date":"2008-02-28T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T10:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2008-02-28T08:58:48","modified_gmt":"2008-02-28T13:58:48","slug":"its-like-a-dotcom-only-with-our-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2190","title":{"rendered":"It’s Like A DotCom, Only With Our National Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know if I was the only one who heard about the Administration’s plan for a “virtual fence” – sort of like a real fence, only hideously expensive and relying on unproven technology, and which provides no physical barrier to actually crossing it – and recalled the many other “virtual” flopolas of the dotcom era.<\/p>\n

If you did, pat yourself on the back (virtually, if not physically); you were right. The virtual fence is to security what Pets.com was to investment<\/a>, or what PowerAgent was to virtual scamming:<\/p>\n

Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson<\/a> prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security<\/a> officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee.<\/p>\n

Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing<\/a>, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush<\/a> in May 2006 called “the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history.” The virtual fence was to be a key component of his proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration policies, which died last year in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Investigators for the Government Accountability Office<\/a> had earlier warned that the effort was beset by both expected and unplanned difficulties. But yesterday, they disclosed new troubles that will require a redesign and said the first phase will not be completed until near the end of the next president’s first term.<\/p>\n

Those problems included Boeing’s use of inappropriate commercial software, designed for use by police dispatchers, to integrate data related to illicit border-crossings. Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project, and in December, the DHS gave the firm another $65 million to replace the software with military-style, battle management software.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about a few hundred thousand dollars a mile to replace the “software” with railroad-style people-management hardware – a double row of chain link topped with barbed wire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know if I was the only one who heard about the Administration’s plan for a “virtual fence” – sort of like a real fence, only hideously expensive and relying on unproven technology, and which provides no physical barrier to actually crossing it – and recalled the many other “virtual” flopolas of the dotcom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}