U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors

[Bombtrack]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?hp

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.

<snip>

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>

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. --------------------------------------------------

Now I'm not even one of those many people here who thinks homeland security is a fascist idea, but this clearly is worth taking a look at closer. We've got to make sure we find out whether this contract goes to Accenture, this excerpt was particularly rich:
< 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. [br />
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.?" ]

[gristy]

1. 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...

[2Design]

2. We continue to encourage more enrons ....and then get the poor

to pay for it.....
the corporations get all the money....and pay very little taxes for it.......this is BS

[Don_G]

3. And Give Them A "Visit" Card

To track them through the Diebold ATM's? Some Corporation stands to make a fortune off of these Gestapo tactics.

[el_gato]

4. and when it's all in place and working it will be applied to U.S. citizens

and you will never be free again

welcome to hell