U.S. to put high-tech towers along borders: report

[CHIMO]

U.S. to put high-tech towers along borders: report
Last Updated Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:41:20 EDT
The Associated Press

Boeing Co. will be awarded a government contract worth $80-million US to provide new high-tech ways to catch illegal immigrants trying to cross land borders into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, a congressional aide said.

Chicago-based Boeing was among several major defence companies competing for the job. While other companies' proposals relied more heavily on using flying drones to patrol the border, Boeing focused on a network of 1,800 high-tech towers, equipped with cameras and motion detectors, that could feed live information to Border Patrol agents.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/09/20/border-boeing.html

[bluerum]

1. What about NOLA? Throw a few $$$ their way too. nt

[partylessinOhio]

2. Read below

F--k Boeing! They have enough money.

$80-million for towers, $0 for Border Patrol agents. Makes 0 sense.

Money wasted.

[TheFarseer]

3. I think I understand now

We are paying millions/billions of dollars for an "invisible fence" from a fine US corporation that probably lobbied the hell out of a few people. Now they can pay a corporation lots of money, so that's good for them. They can claim they solved the problem to their rabid right wing base. and they still get to keep getting illegal workers, because I doubt very much that the fence will work.

[Keepontruking]

4. US Borders

Didn't Hitler do all this crap with East and West Germany are
we really repeating history???What about all the underground
tunnels they pay off the mexican and American border patrols
to use for years........what would a fence do for that one
house to another ........come on people we have bigger
problems don't get side tracked that is what he hoping
for...................Circus girl

[krispos42]

5. Well, this is at least better than a fence

It is much cheaper, I would think, than trying to build thousands and thousands of miles of 12-foot-high double-layered, razor-topped fence in the desert and mountains, and then trying to patrol it. And this tower idea would probably be cheaper than buying and maintaining dozens of unmanned drones and trying to keep them flying 24 hours a day.

Of course, we could also spend the $80 million on implementing a citizenship-confirmation employment system, then nailing employers of illegal immigrants to the wall when they violate it.

Oh, I forgot... that would put a lot of white male Republican donors in jail, and all those lobbyist bucks would go towards defense lawyers instead of re-election funds.

[Tesha]

6. Why don't we just "outsource"all this to the former East Germans...

Why don't we just "outsource" all this to the former East
Germans, who can supply guard dogs, razor wire, machine
guns, big concrete walls, brutal thugs, etc.?

Tesha

[Tesha]

7. The $80 million number is bullshit.

We're being lied to again, using the ever-popular method
of lying by telling just a portion of the truth.

> The full project had previously been estimated at $2 billion US,
> but the Boeing award will be less, said the congressional aide,
> who spoke on condition of anonymity because the department had
> not yet made its announcement.

$80 million for 1800 towers? $45,000 per tower? I doubt it. This
is probably the funding for the pilot project around the one city,
with the real, full project coming in at $1.999 billion ("less than"
the originally-forecast $2 billion).

Tesha

[CHIMO]

11. Yep

Largest undefended border will become a 'virtual fence'

Aerospace and defence giant Boeing Co. was awarded an initial $67-million contract for a system of sensors, radar and cameras to be mounted on fixed and portable towers along a 45-kilometre stretch of the border in Arizona.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060922.wxborder22/BNStory/International/home

Looks like it could be much, much more.

[Tesha]

12. Thanks!

Thanks for that clarification. I later heard a more-in-depth
story that claimed that the $80 million was for 28 miles of
effort, but my handy calculator suggests that 28 miles ~= 45km,
so I guess we both heard the same details ;).

Tesha

[kineneb]

8. new, high tech Berlin Wall comes to desert southwest

and how well did the original wall work, hmmm?
Are the shoot-to-kill orders next?

"Rocky, I got a funny feeling about this".-Bullwinkle

[Nihil]

9. Wonder how "high-tech" these are going to be?

Is it just a matter of cameras and implanted motion detectors
or are there going to be automatic or remote controlled
"less-lethal" weapons present?

[sutz12]

10. About as high tech as the Diebold voting machines, I'd expect.

:sarcasm: