DHS: SBInet system not being mothballed
By Alice Lipowicz
Published on February 29, 2008




Homeland Security Department officials are strongly defending the department’s SBInet border surveillance system being constructed at the U.S.-Mexican border, following critical testimony by a Government Accountability Office director two days ago.

The SBInet Virtual Fence prototype, called Project 28, works and is being retooled for other parts of the border, Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

The $20 million Project 28, built by Boeing Co., is a demonstration of technologies that are likely to be used if the department builds an estimated $8 billion border surveillance system in the southwestern U.S.

“We are not mothballing Project 28. It did work,â€