Israelis Win Contract To Secure US Borders

2006-10-07

Richard Moore

Does this mean we'll soon see suicide bombers sneaking through the borders? 
Hezbollah rockets over Texas?

rkm

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Original source URL:
http://rense.com/general73/iwn.htm

Israelis Win Contract
To Secure US Borders
By Christopher Bollyn
American Free Press
10-5-6

On Sept. 21, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS), announced that a consortium headed by the Chicago-based Boeing 
Company had won a multi-billion dollar contract to install sensors and radar 
along the U.S. border. The deal, the first part of a multibillion-dollar 
government plan designed to reduce illegal entry along the Canadian and Mexican 
borders calls for cameras, sensors and even unmanned planes.

When Chertoff was asked why DHS had chosen the Boeing-led group he declined to 
comment. The reason for Chertoff's silence, however, is telling: the Boeing team
includes an Israeli military subcontractor which will play a key role in 
"securing" the U.S. border.

Of interest is the fact that Chertoff's Israeli mother played a key role in 
creating that country in its infancy.

The Boeing team, which will implement the DHS program called the Secure Border 
Initiative (SBI) along the northern and southern borders of the United States, 
includes a Merrimack, N.H.-based surveillance technology firm called Kollsman 
Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd. of Haifa, Israel.


The Israeli-American team includes Unisys Corp., DRS Technologies Inc., L-3 
Communications Holdings Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc., Perot Systems Corp. and 
the Israeli-owned Kollsman, which makes the thermo-imaging cameras used to 
monitor Israel's borders.

As Chertoff announced the awarding of the contract, estimated to be worth some 
$2.5 billion, he was giving a very lucrative and sensitive contract to an 
Israeli company with close ties to the Israeli military. The contract reportedly
does not have a set value. Payments will be announced as parts for the system 
are ordered.


The work will be done in phases, with the first piece being a 28-mile stretch 
near Tucson, Ariz., Chertoff said. This first phase will cost $67 million, he 
said. Boeing's proposal includes some 1,800 towers along the borders with 
cameras developed by Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. which can reportedly spot 
people up to 9 miles away.

Elbit Systems says it is "the prime contractor and systems integrator for the 
Israel Police Border Control System, a computerized system for registration and 
control deployed at every Israeli border crossing.


"Elbit Systems has developed and integrated multi-layered solutions 
incorporating cutting-edge biometrics, optical ID and RFID [radio frequency 
identification] technologies. Our perimeter security solutions have also been 
adapted for energy infrastructures and offshore installations," the company's 
web site says.

"We are looking at a technology that is advanced and can pick a face in the 
crowd," Wayne Esser, capture team leader of the Boeing team, told Washington 
Technology.

Elbit provides Israel's military with a border security surveillance system with
integrated sensors, radars, a "smart fence" and cameras.

TIES TO ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE

Kollsman is not the only player on the Boeing team with ties to Israeli military
intelligence. As AFP has reported previously, Unisys Corp., chaired by Lawrence 
A. Weinbach, has integrated Israeli security software into the computer products
it sells to the U.S. government and other clients. Software from Check Point 
Software Technologies of Ramat Gan, Israel, for example, is integrated into 
Unisys products.


Elbit Systems is directed by a high-level board that is comprised of former 
Israeli major generals, colonels, ambassadors, and former chiefs of Israel's 
largest banks and companies. The company's only non-Israeli director on its 
board of 18 members is Timothy Taylor, the British-born president and CEO of 
Elbit Systems of America. Taylor speaks to the U.S. media for the Israeli-owned 
company while the former Israeli fighter pilots and generals run the company 
from Haifa.

SBI is a Chertoff initiative that is meant to be "a comprehensive plan to 
control our borders and stem the flow of illegal immigration. "What we are 
looking to do is build a virtual fence," Chertoff said. "We want to know when 
anybody or anything is crossing the border."

While the Israeli press was quick to report that an Israeli company was part of 
the SBI border security program, Chertoff failed to mention it. "Elbit System's 
subsidiary Kollsman announced it would supply technology to identify threats, 
deter and prevent crossings, and apprehend intruders along U.S. borders," 
Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

Huntleigh U.S.A., another Israeli-owned security company, provided passenger 
screening at Boston's Logan Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Huntleigh,
which is wholly owned by the Israeli company International Consultants on 
Targeted Security (ICTS) apparently failed to intercept the Arab terrorists who 
hijacked the two planes that hit the World Trade Center, according to the 
government version. Now, the same administration that failed to stop the terror 
attacks of 9-11 is hiring an Israeli-owned company to help protect the entire 
U.S. land border.

Christopher Bollyn is a much-traveled international journalist currently based 
in Chicago, serving as Midwest bureau chief for American Free Press. He has 
written extensively on a wide variety of subjects including the controversy 
surrounding computerized voting systems, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the many 
unanswered questions surrounding the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Lest we forget - Israeli security companies had the contracts for the security 
at the airports where the alleged 'Arab terrorists' were allowed to pass through
to board the 911 flights. -ed

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