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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (22875)	6/18/2005 6:14:28 AM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Respond to of 361513

Maybe we are starting to turn the corner when an Alabama Republican starts asking questions (and starts thinking of fiscal responsibility) ~ Border cameras a waste, Rogers says Friday, June 17, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF News Washington correspondent WASHINGTON - A government contract to line the nation's borders with remote surveillance cameras wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and weakened security, said an Alabama congressman who helps oversee the Department of Homeland Security. "What we have here, plain and simple, is a case of gross mismanagement of a multimillion-dollar contract," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said. Rogers, as chairman of a homeland security subcommittee, said Congress will press ahead with an investigation into the contract because the federal government is preparing to spend $2.5 billion for a bigger and supposedly better border surveillance system. "We want to put the fear of God into everybody's heart," Rogers said. "Who's to say that $2.5 billion contract couldn't morph into $40 billion with no better results?" Rogers heads the subcommittee on management, integration and oversight, which is developing a penchant for squeezing the spending habits of government agencies. The contract at issue Thursday was the focus of an inspector general's report in December, which found the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's remote video surveillance program had management, equipment, installation and cost problems. "It's certainly up there among the headline problems we've seen," said Joel Gallay, deputy inspector general with the U.S. General Services Administration. His report found an original $2 million contract that was not competitively bid and was later expanded to $200 million without review. He also gave examples of expensive equipment left on the desert floor and contractors providing cheaper cameras but charging the higher price. The inspector general is coordinating with other agencies, including the FBI, in an investigation into the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System, or ISIS. Installed at 246 sites: The original contract was awarded to International Microwave Corp., which later was purchased by L-3 Communications. Thursday, L-3 President Joseph Saponaro disputed many of the inspector general's conclusions. He said the GSA, which handled the contract, was charged $100 million for equipment to be installed at 246 sites along the American borders. Where they were properly maintained, they worked, he said. "L-3 does know, without doubt, that IMC did not improperly substitute cameras and overbill the contract as alleged in the report," Saponaro said in prepared testimony. Democrats and Republicans on the subcommittee sided with the inspector general and spread the blame around several agencies. "Someone is going to have to answer for what happened here," said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla. Rogers said he was unable to schedule someone from the Department of Homeland Security to testify Thursday. A spokesman for the department, which was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks by merging several agencies, said the ISIS system was left over from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and not well-managed. "Certainly there can be lessons learned from the ISIS program, from the technology to integration to implementation as well as ... procurement," spokesman Russ Knocke said. "We're fully aware of what its shortcomings were and we'll certainly be mindful of any of those shortcomings in anything that would come next, mainly ASI." The America's Shield Initiative will use a massive system of sensors and cameras and other surveillance techniques to catch illegal border crossers. al.com

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (22875)	6/18/2005 8:26:23 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361513

"With blogging, an awkward term, we designate a fairly beautiful thing: the extension to many more people of a First Amendment franchise, the right to publish your thoughts to the world. Wherever blogging spreads the dramas of free expression follow... A blog, you see, is a little First Amendment machine." journalism.nyu.edu