U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors(Homeland Sec. 15 B)

[maddezmom]

ASHINGTON, May 22 — The Department of Homeland Security is on the verge of awarding the biggest contract in its young history for an elaborate system that could cost as much as $15 billion and employ a network of databases to track visitors to the United States long before they arrive.


The contract, which will probably be awarded in coming days to one of three final bidders, is already generating considerable interest as federal officials try to improve significantly their ability to monitor those who enter at more than 300 border-crossing checkpoints by land, sea and air, where they are going and whether they pose a terrorist threat.

But with that interest have come questions — both logistical and philosophical — from Congressional investigators and outside experts. Will a company based outside the United States, in Bermuda, get the megacontract? How much will it end up costing? What about the privacy concerns of foreign visitors? And most critical, for all the high-end concepts and higher expectations, can the system really work?

~snip~

The program, known as US-Visit and rooted partly in a Pentagon concept developed after the terrorist attacks of 2001, seeks to supplant the nation's physical borders with what officials call virtual borders. Such borders employ networks of computer databases and biometric sensors for identification at sites abroad where people seek visas to the United States.

With a virtual border in place, the actual border guard will become the last point of defense, rather than the first, because each visitor will have already been screened using a global web of databases.

~snip~
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?ex=1085976000&en=dcef4902a6ed0426&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[Earth_First]

1. International Travel ID #: 00974231

[gristy]

2. I just gotta stop reading the news...

But the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report in September that "the program is a very risky endeavor," given its enormous scope and complexity. "The missed entry of one person who poses a threat to the United States could have severe consequences," the report said.

Fearmongering. Same thing they used to sell missile defense. And the war in Iraq.

"I don't want to see the Department of Homeland Security outsourcing its business to a Bermudan company," said Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has pushed to close a loophole allowing foreign bidders on federal contracts.

Federal officials say they are satisfied that Accenture, which has about 25,000 employees in the United States and less than a dozen in Bermuda, meets the definition of a United States company and is eligible for the contract.

Accenture, for its part, sees the issue as irrelevant.

Jim McAvoy, an Accenture spokesman, said, "The real question is: Should the federal government be forced to select an inferior bid because the bidder is incorporated in the U.S.?"

The article never comes out and says it, but Accenture is incorporated in Bermuda. We're going to award a $15B contract to a company that pays no U.S. income taxes due to its incorporation in Bermuda? All the while said company and its 25,000 employees enjoy the benefits and privileges of operating in the U.S.?

sigh...

[Earth_First]

3. Privitization of Fascism

ain't it grand? Accenture gave 67% of it's political donations in FY00 to the GOP,

[frank frankly]

4. was Accenture involved in the Florida felon voting purge?

sounds familiar. certainly a Good Old Boys company.

yikes.

[Earth_First]

5. I am not entirely sure about the Florida debacle...

however I do know that they have a vested interest in electronic voting, they purchased the Saudi (surprise, surprise) Osan Ltd.,

[Nihil]

7. Isn't Accenture the re-badged Arthur Anderson?

Or is it the re-badged Anderson Consulting (i.e., after the "Anderson"
name became somewhat tarnished by certain accounting scandals ...)

[brokensymmetry]

6. Wonder why.

Will a company based outside the United States, in Bermuda, get the megacontract?

Now, why would they do this? Unless they want a company that is beyone US laws and US control...

Surely they wouldn't do that. Would they? :tinfoilhat:

[frank frankly]

8. this is not my future. i want no part of this madness.

such expensive, impossible nonsense.