[Reader-list] virtual borders

[Curt Gambetta]

Somehow this has slipped past any public debate in the
US. One can imagine the magnitude of 'mistakes' (and
thus wrongful detentions and deportations) endemic to
this system of virtual borders... It seems a flipside
to the dissolution of the sovereignty of national
'borders' (and the identities therein) in a globalized
world, a process made available by the very
technologies that will allow these new 'virtual
borders' to extend themselves flexibly around the
world. i hope this will not set a global precedent (we
can only hope it never sees the light of day!) -curt

> U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors
> 
> May 24, 2004
>  By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOHN MARKOFF 
> 
> 
> WASHINGTON, 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? 
> 
> Interviews with government officials, experts and
> the three
> companies vying for the contract - Accenture,
> Computer
> Sciences and Lockheed Martin - reveal new details
> and
> potential complications about a project that all
> agree is
> daunting in its complexity, cost and national
> security
> importance. 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> Visitors arriving at checkpoints, including those at
> the
> Mexican and Canadian borders, will face "real-time
> identification" - instantaneous authentication to
> confirm
> that they are who they say they are. American
> officials
> will, at least in theory, be able to track them
> inside the
> United States and determine if they leave the
> country on
> time. 
> 
> Officials say they will be able, for instance, to
> determine
> whether a visitor who overstays a visa has come in
> contact
> with the police, but privacy advocates say they
> worry that
> the new system could give the federal government far
> broader power to monitor the whereabouts of visitors
> by
> tapping into credit card information or similar
> databases.
> The system would tie together about 20 federal
> databases
> with information on the more than 300 million
> foreign
> visitors each year. 
> 
> The bidders agree that the Department of Homeland
> Security
> has given them unusually wide latitude in
> determining the
> best strategy for securing American borders without
> unduly
> encumbering tourism and commerce. 
> 
> Whoever wins the contract will be asked to develop a
> standard for identifying visitors using a variety of
> possible tools - from photographs and fingerprints,
> already
> used at some airports on a limited basis since
> January, to
> techniques like iris scanning, facial recognition
> and
> radio-frequency chips for reading passports or
> identifying
> vehicles. 
> 
> "Each of these technologies have strengths and
> weaknesses,"
> Paul Cofoni, president of Computer Sciences' federal
> sector, said of the biometric alternatives. "I don't
> know
> that any one will be used exclusively." 
> 
> Virtual borders is a high-concept plan, building on
> ideas
> that have been tried since the terrorist attacks of
> 2001. 
> 
> But homeland security officials say making the
> system work
> on a practical level is integral to protecting the
> United
> States from terrorist attacks in the decades to
> come. "This
> is hugely important for the security of our country
> and for
> the wise use of our limited resources," Asa
> Hutchinson,
> under secretary for border security, said in an
> interview.
> "We're talking here about a comprehensive approach
> to
> border security." 
> 
> 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. 
> 
> An update issued by the accounting office earlier
> this
> month found that while homeland security officials
> had made
> some headway in meeting investigators' concerns
> about
> management and oversight problems, the progress "has
> been
> slow." The update said major questions remained
> about the
> project's cost and viability. "I don't think there's
> any
> less concern today," Randolph Hite, who wrote the
> reports,
> said in an interview. 
> 
> "This program is going to get more and more complex
> as time
> goes on, and you can't count on human heroes bailing
> you
> out to ensure that the system works," Mr. Hite said.
> With
> the program to be phased in over a decade, he said,
> "the
> question you have to ask is: What value are we
> getting for
> these initial increments, and is it worth it?" 
> 
> Indeed, the costs are enormous, and Congressional
> investigators said they did not believe officials
> had a
> clear handle on the financing. The bid request set a
> maximum of $10 billion, but the accounting office
> found
> that some of the cost estimates were outdated and
> the final
> price tag - when financing from agencies like the
> State
> Department is considered - could reach $15 billion
> by 2014.
> 
> 
> The idea of virtual borders originated in 2002 with
> a group
> of researchers at the National Defense University's
> Center
> for Technology and National Security Policy. The
> group, led
> by Hans Binnendijk, the center's director, was
> trying to
> find new ways to secure the nation's shipping
> containers. 
> 
> "We got interested in this soon after 9/11 as a
> fairly
> obvious problem," he said. 
> 
> The group wrote an article discussing the need to
> inspect
> cargo long before it arrived in United States
> harbors. They
> then briefed a range of government agencies. 
> 
> The virtual border is similar to the idea of an air
> traffic
> control center, officials note. In this case, the
> system
> would allow homeland security officials to monitor
> travel
> on a national level, shifting resources and
> responding as
> necessary. 
> 
> The air traffic control analogy is significant in
> part
> because Computer Sciences and Lockheed Martin have
> traditionally been the nation's two largest
> contractors for
> the Federal Aviation Agency in the development and
> maintenance of the nation's air traffic control
> system. 
> 
> The air traffic control parallel worries some
> executives.
> More than $500 million and 15 years were squandered
> on the
> effort to modernize the nation's aging air traffic
> system
> beginning in the late 1980's and a prime contractor
> was
> I.B.M.'s Federal Systems Division, now part of
> Lockheed
> Martin. 
> 
> Another problem the system faces is the potential
> inability
> to get access to all needed data from foreign
> countries and
> from the United States' own intelligence community.
> Experts
> agree that no matter how good the technology, the
> system
> will rely on timely and accurate information about
> the
> histories and profiles of those entering the country
> to
> detect possible terrorists. It will have no direct
> impact
> on illegal immigrants. 
> 
> The system will lead to a broad interconnection of
> federal
> databases, ranging from intelligence to law
> enforcement as
> well as routine commercial data. 
> 
> Officials say they will work to ensure that the
> privacy of
> foreigners is protected and that the system will not
> be
> used to profile travelers, but civil libertarians
> say they
> are nonetheless alarmed that databases could be used
> to
> monitor both foreign visitors and American citizens,
> and
> they have already challenged it in court. 
> 
> Yet another issue irking some lawmakers is the fact
> that
> Accenture is incorporated in Bermuda. 
> 
> "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.?" 
> 
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?ex=1086414591&ei=1&en=bc6368ad88cbb55e
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------


	
		
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