Suckers For Punishment: DHS Hires Boeing (Again) to Build Surveillance Towers On U.S.-Canada Border

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 8:32 AM on April 1, 2009.

So, remember the "virtual fence" being built along the U.S. Mexico border? The one George W. Bush bragged would be "the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history"? If memory serves, it quickly became an embarrassing failure for the Department of Homeland Security -- a 28-mile blunder and a financial boon for Boeing, which was paid tens of millions of dollars for to complete the project.
Of course, the "virtual fence" is far from completion -- Gregory Giddens, then-head of the DHS Secure Border Initiative, estimated last year that it would be finished some time in 2011. But now there's a new director in town, retired U.S. Air Force colonel Mark Borkowski, who told the Arizona Daily Star earlier this year that he is "not committed one way or another" on continuing Boeing's contract to finish it. "We are going to be doing some analysis this year of what are the right priorities for this program," he said. "Those analyses will advise what we do in terms of future contracts and whether or not we use Boeing."
That was February. Now, it appears there's a whole new "virtual fence" in the works. Never mind that messy border web to the south; "The U.S. Border Patrol is erecting 16 more video surveillance towers in Michigan and New York to help secure parts of the U.S.-Canadian border," the Associated Press reports, "awarding the contract to a company criticized for faulty technology with its so-called 'virtual fence' along the U.S.-Mexico boundary."
That company, of course, is Boeing, which was awarded the $20 million project to erect the towers.
Despite his earlier remarks, Borkowski told the AP that he is confident Homeland Security will not run into the same problems it had with Boeing in the past. "Boeing spokeswoman Jenna K. McMullin said the company has 'learned quite a bit from our previous SBInet experience and demonstrated how to implement lessons learned.'"
Well, that's reassuring.
So what are the American people getting for $20 million?
Surveillance cameras in their backyards (literally).

"Borkowski acknowledged that as cameras pan an area it might point at a private residence," according to the AP, but "said that is not the cameras' intended targets." Besides,"only law enforcement officials will be operating the cameras." (Also reassuring!)

According to the AP, "eleven of the towers are being installed in Detroit and five in Buffalo, N.Y., to help monitor water traffic between Canada and the United States along Lake St. Clair and the Niagara River" -- hotbeds of illegal immigrant activity, to be sure. "The cameras will be used to zoom in on a boat that left Canada, for instance, and watch where it goes and what it does, said Mark Borkowski."

"So the idea is to have cameras watch, and then agents are freed up to respond," Borkowski said in an interview with The Associated Press. The cameras will cut down the agent's response time by minutes, he said.

At the same time, "Borkowski said the additional technology on the northern border may not lead to more arrests."
"Generally, there is not as much traffic between northern border points of entry as there is along the southern border."
The Associated Press has more.

Tagged as: boeing, virtual border fence, u.s. canada border, jenna k. mcmullin, gregory giddens, dhs secure border initiat

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.