SBInet: "Can we Get a Refund?"

Two House subcommittees held a hearing today on the ongoing problems with the multi-billion dollar “virtual border fence” being built by Boeing Corp. along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Earlier this week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano froze funding out of concerns that the program, called SBInet, was plagued with problems. More than $1b has already been spent but the system has only been installed along 28 miles of the 2,000-mile border.

At the current rate of 28 miles every 4.5 years, it would take 320 years – or until the year 2330 – to deploy SBInet technology across the Southwest border.

The GAO’s latest findings reveal that 1) he number of problems in the program are outpacing those being fixed and 2) about 70 percent of SBInet testing procedures apparently were changed at the last minute to “pass the test” rather than qualify the system.

    Asked Chairman Chris Carney, D-Pa., “Can we get a refund?”

    Laura Duffy, Salon Owner

    I wonder how many U.S. attorney nominees are part owners of a hair salon.

    Main Justice reports that Laura Duffy, President Obama’s nominee for U.S. Attorney in San Diego, reported receiving a $23,637.50 distribution in 2009-2010 from Gila Rut, an Aveda salon in Chula Vista. Duffy has a 45 percent ownership stake in Gila Rut in Chula Vista.

    She also reported earning $35,400 from nine speaking engagements at the Aveda Business College Seminar.

    DHS Halts Border Security Boondoggle

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ordered an immediate freeze on all funding of an expensive “virtual fence” of tower-mounted cameras and sensors along the U.S.-Mexico border called SBInet.

    The program has been “plagued” with cost overruns and missed deadlines, DHS Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano said today in a statement.

    The delays mean that Border Patrol agents have had to use existing cameras that don’t work well. Thanks mostly to the Senate ,the Border Patrol also has no leader, but that’s another story. 

    As of July, the government had given $1.1 billion to SBInet contractor Boeing Co. according to this GAO report.

    A 2006 DHS strategic plan estimated that installing the system along the Southwest border would cost $7.6 billion through fiscal 2011.

    SBInet is really another name for C3I or C4I (command, control, computers, communications, and intelligence) — an Orwellian integrated surveillance system that can cover a huge area.

    Greece hired a consortium led by SAIC to install a similar system for the 2004 Olympic games, but the system was delivered in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

    The DHS says it is re-allocating $50 million of $100 million in Recovery Act funding slated for SBInet to off-the-shelf cameras, light detectors, radios, cameras, laptops.

    It’s unclear to me what prolonging a wasteful program has to do with economic recovery. Update: If you take a look at Recovery.gov, you’ll find one of the reasons — I’m not making this up — is helping the steel industry by building all those towers.

    The Boeing SBInet core team includes

    • Centech — Arlington, Va.
    • DRS Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group — Palm Bay, Fla.
    • Kollsman Inc. (an Elbit Systems of America company) — Merrimack, N.H.
    • L-3 Government Services Inc. — Washington, D.C.
    • L-3 Communication Systems West — Salt Lake City, Utah
    • Lucent Technologies — Murray Hill, N.J.
    • Perot Systems — Plano, Texas
    • Unisys Global Public Sector — Reston, Va.
    • USIS — Washington, D.C.

    Partying With SD's Coughlin Stoia

    “Paying Plaintiffs to Sue,” Forbes:

    Conferences, at least, bear the patina of educational merit and an opportunity to curry favor with the officials who help pick legal counsel. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins hired Bill Clinton (who reportedly charges $150,000 and up) to appear at a seaside event at San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado last September.

    This forum on “The Future of Corporate Reform” had pension officials enjoying an oceanside clambake, closing day at Del Mar racetrack, a ride on an America’s Cup-winning vessel, balloon rides and a four-course French banquet. Coughlin Stoia’s conference partner: the Corporate Library, a for-profit governance watchdog. Coughlin Stoia insists clients hire it for its winning record. The Corporate Library characterizes the conference as “an intensive, engaging and informative event that combined many hours of speeches, panels and dialogue with opportunities for informal conversation.”

    More on the Future of Corporate Reform

    More on Coughlin Stoia here and here.

    Michael Lewis' The Big Short

    My review of Michael Lewis’ new book, The Big Short, is up on bookforum.com

    Here’s a snippet:

    The cast of characters in Lewis’s highly readable chronicle of the collapse (and what led to it) includes a misanthropic former medical resident, a money manager who saw himself as Spider-Man, and a pair of men in their thirties who started with $110,00 in a Schwab account they managed from a backyard shed in Berkeley, California. “Each filled a hole,” Lewis writes. “Each supplied a missing insight, an attitude to risk which, if more prevalent, might have prevented the catastrophe.”