Glitch Renders 'Virtual Fence' Unusable

The virtual fence is broke, and needs to be fixed. Meanwhile, the guard is leaving the border.

Guard to cut Mexico border force in half

Despite protests from border states, the chief of the Army National Guard said Wednesday that he has ordered the withdrawal of 3,000 of the 6,000 National Guard members sent last year to deter illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum said the remaining troops can be moved anywhere along the border, if needed.

"If Arizona really, truly needs more troops, we can move them from neighboring states to Arizona. We can weight the effort there if it is necessary," Blum said, adding that further reductions are planned.

"We will ultimately work ourselves out of a job by the end of next year," he told reporters.

Blum also said that after six years at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, some Guard units are still struggling with less than half the equipment they need to do their jobs at home. He said it will take an extra $13 billion over the next five years to get them 90 percent of what they need.

Blum also joined other military leaders in criticizing congressional efforts to legislate the length of troop deployments or rest times. While the thought is well-intentioned, he said, it would be "unhelpful," and the unintended effects could make things worse rather than better.

Blum said the Guard often finds itself in a bidding war to keep special operations soldiers from leaving to join the more lucrative security firms, such as Blackwater USA.

The Guard has two special forces units, including about 5,000 soldiers headquartered in Alabama and Utah, and Blum said they are "constantly being recruited" by security companies. Blackwater, the main provider of security escorts for U.S. government workers and other business contractors in Iraq, has been suspended from working in Iraq after an incident this week in which as many as 11 Iraqi civilians were killed.

The border drawdown was ordered by Blum because the Guard has made sufficient progress in its border mission since being assigned along the border starting in May 2006, he said.

Border state lawmakers have sought to halt the drawdown.

"Arizona remains a problematic border in the Southwest region, and the long-planned drawdown in personnel and patrol is premature," Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano recently wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"The drawdown of Operation Jump Start's strength level is ill-timed and should be halted and re-examined," Napolitano said, referring to the government's name for the Guard deployment to the border.

Similarly, Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Bush to reconsider the drawdown of Guard troops.

"We strongly believe," they wrote in July, that Operation Jump start "should continue with the same number of National Guard personnel, or more, as have been deployed over the past 12 months."

Blum replied that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has approved the reduction in Guard forces.

"My ultimate customer is the federal law enforcement agency charged to secure the border, and they are telling us this is what they want," Blum said.

The 3,000 guardsmen are scheduled to be withdrawn by Oct. 1. As of this week, 3,182 Guard personnel remained at border posts, down from 3,721 last month, said Randy Noller, a spokesman for National Guard headquarters.

Guard personnel have been assisting U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations near Tucson and Yuma, Ariz., El Paso, and along the border in California and New Mexico.

Along the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico, the Guard has focused on building roads in remote regions so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents can move quickly to intercept illegal immigrants; building fences and towers with sensing equipment to spot illegal immigrants; providing reconnaissance with aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles; and providing logistics and intelligence analysis.

The vitual fix has a glitch, it doesn't work properly.

Glitch Renders 'Virtual Fence' Unusable

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Because of a software glitch, the first high-tech "virtual fence" on the nation's borders remains inoperable, three months after its scheduled debut.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he is withholding further payment to the prime contractor, Boeing Co. (BA), until the success of the pilot project stretching 28 miles near the border southwest of Tucson.

Nine 98-foot towers laden with radar, sensors and sophisticated cameras have been built in an area heavily trafficked by illegal immigrant and drug smugglers. The towers, each a few miles apart, are intended to deter or detect border crossers and potential terrorists and enhance the ability of Border Patrol agents to catch them.

More testing is expected by early October, Chertoff told the House Committee on Homeland Security this month in Washington.

"We are now looking to begin acceptance testing in about a month," Chertoff said - meaning the point at which contracting officials give the go-ahead for testing - "and we will then kick the tires again."

Of Chertoff's remarks, Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said only: "We're working with our customer to solve some remaining technical issues."

The virtual fence is the first stage of a plan to smother the Mexican and Canadian borders with 1,800 such towers, all aimed at enabling the U.S. Border Patrol to pinpoint crossings and improve their ability to intercept crossers.

About three-fourths of the $20 million cost for the 28-mile project has been paid, homeland security officials said. The fencing was announced as part of a $67 million initial contract awarded last September to Boeing, the bulk going to set up program management, systems engineering and planning support.

The virtual fence system is supposed to coordinate camera, sensor and radar sightings and provide a common operating picture to agents on the ground to intercept those entering the country illegally.

"The integration of all the systems into a common operating picture continues to be the challenge," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. Boeing has put new people on the project who are working to resolve the problems, he said.

In June, with the towers up, a radar problem caused a brief delay. Then, federal officials said there was a software problem.

In his Sept. 5 testimony, Chertoff said the original plan was to begin acceptance testing in June "so that we could make a determination that we were satisfied with the product and take possession of it I think in July."

Acceptance testing is "a little bit like buying a car. We didn't want to get stuck with a lemon," Chertoff said.

The individual components worked well, but the system integration did not, he said.

Boeing has "retooled their team on the ground and replaced some of the managers. ... They are now working through the problems of system integration as we speak," Chertoff said. "I think they put their A-team in place to do it."

As for the testing, Chertoff added, "We should get it done well before the end of the year."