Right Wing Nut House

Don’t you just love the game show “Jeopardy?”

I always wanted to audition to be a contestant on the long running syndicated quiz show but somehow never got around to it. No matter. Even though I’d probably do pretty well on some of the categories like history, literature, and science, I’d probably screw the pooch on some other Jeopardy favorites like opera, contemporary TV and music, and the most difficult category of them all, “All in the Family Spin offs.”

But hey! When it comes to border security, our government apparently plays Jeopardy every day! And they do it with our money! Plus, according to the GSA, our government is letting a couple of well connected corporations play too! And the worst thing? The corporations are cheating so that they win every time!

Now you may think that border security is much too important to play games with and I’d have to agree. But just imagine if Alex Trebek were hosting a “Border Security Edition of Jeopardy.” And the great thing is you don’t have to be a Phi Beta Kappa or a Mensa member to play along. Just follow the smell; the stench of corruption and graft permeating the first line of defense between us and the terrorists.

Here’s how we play: There’s a $239 million government program to install cameras and other sensors along the 6500 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders. I’ll give you the answer and you have to figure out the question. No cheating now!

THE ANSWER: A critical network of cameras and sensors installed for the U.S. Border Patrol along the Mexican and Canadian borders has been hobbled for years by defective equipment that was poorly installed, and by lax oversight by government officials who failed to properly supervise the project’s contractor, according to government reports and public and industry officials.

THE QUESTION: What is the $239 million Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (ISIS), which U.S. officials call crucial to defending the country against terrorist infiltrators.

Okay, that was an easy one. How about something a little harder.

THE ANSWER: The GSA inspector general’s report said official inattention to the system “placed taxpayers’ dollars and . . . national security at risk.” A GSA inspection of eight Border Patrol zones found that $20 million had been paid to IMC for work there but that none of its camera systems was fully operating.

THE QUESTION: What is near Buffalo, IMC billed the government for 59 cameras but only four were installed, and in Naco, Ariz., unassembled high-tech gear was found lying in the desert, the report said. “No IMC personnel had been on-site since the equipment was delivered” in 2003, the report added.

IMC took over the project from an Alaskan company in 1999. What’s interesting is that IMC employs the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), who also happens to be a major sponsor of the legislation authorizing the program. Representative Reyes has a novel explanation for the nepotism:

Rep. Reyes said that he never interceded with U.S. officials to help IMC win a contract and that he helped IMC retain congressional funding because he believes cameras “are an important part of our ability to defend the borders.”

I do believe in fairies…I do believe in fairies…

THE ANSWER: The most troubled part of ISIS was in Washington state, where the more than 64 cameras fogged up in cold and rain and sometimes broke down completely, according to Border Patrol officials and the GSA report. IMC-hired workers had done such shoddy wiring of fiber-optic cable at junction boxes that Border Patrol operators couldn’t control the cameras, according to the officials and documents. Electrical wires were found corroding under water in supposedly sealed concrete vaults, they said.

THE QUESTION: What is it was common, the GSA report said, for the government to pay IMC “for shoddy work . . . [or] for work that was incomplete or never delivered.”

But the deal gets sweeter for IMC. Evidently, they subcontracted some of the work out to one of their own subsidiaries in gross violation of federal contract regs:

Over the objections of Border Patrol officials, INS official Walter Drabik chose cameras distributed by a firm called ISAP. U.S. officials and contractors said IMC had bought the ISAP firm without disclosing it to U.S. officials. This allowed IMC to buy cameras from its own subsidiary, substantially increasing profits. Undisclosed self-dealing could be illegal.

The GSA report said officials’ lax oversight of IMC’s purchases of cameras and other gear “created a potential for overpayments of almost $13 million.”

THE ANSWER: About that time (2000), Congress threatened to eliminate the ISIS program, and IMC turned to Rep. Reyes and other allies to help rescue it.

THE QUESTION: What is within months, INS and GSA officials granted IMC a contract expansion worth $200 million, with no competitive bidding.

Okay, stop sputtering. The uninitiated among you may be asking how we go from almost canceling a program to giving a $200 million no-bid contract to a firm that employs a Congressman’s daughter and that has already spent millions of dollars on equipment that either hasn’t been delivered or doesn’t work.

I always liked R.J. Haddon’s explanation of government waste and corruption in the movie Contact:

The first rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

In this case, two separate contracts to a firm with ties to a powerful Congressman as well as current and former Border Patrol agents and administrators.

THE ANSWER: A snake, a worm, and my pet cat Ebony:

THE QUESTION: Who has more integrity and brains than most of the people involved in the ISIS project.