After all the fuss and the promises about “securing the border first.” After President Bush in May of 2006 called the virtual fence “the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history.” We find out that there are so many problems with what Boeing has developed, the project will have to be delayed another three and a half years while the project managers and bureaucrats work out the kinks.
This will put completion near the end of the next president’s first term in office, which almost certainly means “never.”
According to the article in the Washington Post,
“Investigators for the Government Accountability Office 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.
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.”
Read the whole sickening thing here, including the part where Richard M. Stana, the GAO’s director of homeland security issues says:
“The total cost is not yet known,” testified Richard M. Stana, the GAO’s director of homeland security issues, because DHS officials “do not yet know the type of terrain where the fencing is to be constructed, the materials to be used, or the cost to acquire the land.”
Good Lord. Six-and-a-half years after 9/11. Nearly a year after the Amnesty Bill went down in defeat, and this is the best we can do.
Just wait until these same people start providing you with universal health care. Who knows how long you’ll have to wait for an MRI.
