Google Blog Search and the famous online acronym of YMMV.

Ten years ago, I first saw the word “Google.” Yeah, there was this dinky search engine with nothing on the page the teacher told us about, but Yahoo! ran the web-search show; this instance was a book about counting. Today, Google makes at the minimum 4 different parts of speech, and infinitely more search results, enough that that book is buried in 193 million hits. Google’s blog search is a tool that indexes millions of blogs (including this one) and will search for keywords. I searched my specialty topics and was faced with everything, from news articles to press releases and campaign propaganda.

After reading the first few blogs, which ranged from copy and pasting of the news to full blown political commentary I finally saw something that caught my eye. A watchdog, (something that the media in general is supposed to do) that discusses, rather critically the government’s handling of port security. However, upon further research, you will realize, after 6 consecutive posts buried about an Abu-Dhabi based floating barrier company, that indeed, this blog is written as a marketing piece. Googler Beware.

Unfortunately, this is the nature of Google Blog Search. You have to look in depth to realize what you’re getting into. Two interesting pieces to look at were: a “FrumForum” blog post about McCain’s war against illegal border crossings in his home state of Arizona, which explains that he is bound by the conservative party’s hopes of regaining political power, however a murder gave his campaign new hope; and secondly, an article about something I’ve already blogged on, the US/Canada border and its (lack of) protection. Screen shot 2010-04-13 at 12.13.32 AM

(By the way, YMMV stands for “Your Mileage May Vary,” a common disclaimer on any piece of advertising claiming good fuel economy for a car, meaning that you probably won’t get anything that great)

Magazines and National Security

If you look through recently published magazines for articles pertaining to National Security, the vast majority would fall under the column of an editorial, or the newer credential which requires even fewer credentials, a blog, generally a polarized and unmediated point of view, expressing solely the author’s opinion, often times without substantiation, but under the credible heading of a reputable magazine. In fact, one of the articles that I found was criticizing just this, Closing by describing the current media image of National Security officials as “barefooted, longhaired hippies”

The most coverage of national security, especially with ports or border crossings will be found in the more “newsy” such as Newsweek or Time. Occasionally, there is an interesting piece, sometimes highlighting progress, other times acting as a watchdog against an ignored security loophole or inefficient or corrupt agency. One recent article in Time discusses the tunnels spanning the US-Mexican border. Now, I mentioned this in a previous post linking it to popular culture in the 2009 movie “The Fast and Furious” but this is a real article (not a blog or an editorial) and discusses how they exist, whether in Mexico or Iran. With an article such as this in such a well-respected magazine, this is likely to increase global awareness, and could potentially make a difference. It is my opinion that this is one of the positive effects of this type of media, that it can be the catalyst to a positive solution. The author alluded to the government’s solutions, but leaves the reader off, implying that there is more that needs to be done. If only this wasn’t one of several thousand.

image: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm598969088/tt1013752

Screen shot 2010-04-09 at 12.31.18 AM

The overlooked majority

How many people today do you think read a newspaper? More than you think. According to Vivian, approximately 116 million Americans read one every day, nearly one third, and that doesn’t even account for the immense number of people reading an RSS feed from the Times. Regardless of the mode of delivery, when there is a major incident breaching our national security, it is fairly consistently printed in nearly every newspaper, nationwide.

Today, this article was about the terrorist attacks against the Moscow (Russia) Metro system. As some of the worlds worst offenders for being cultural imperialists, the articles generally twisted to the “What if: Securing America’s Subways” piece, covering New York and Washington DC, and their efforts to avert a similar attack locally.

With all the focus on the most recent attack on Russia, and what US airports will be first implementing the full-body scanners, you have to turn to more narrow casted (localized) newspapers to find out anything pertaining to the physical borders of this country. Some news is alarming. Searching for local news yielded one article warning of a budget cut for port security in one of the most critical areas of the country (the New York Tri-State area) and another about a new building at the border. If Americans are cultural imperialists, the airports are the subject imperialists of this topic.

Rarer even, are those articles in praise about National Security, the headlines always go to the screw-ups, and whatever is the most visible on a daily basis. This leaves the land and ocean borders out of the news, and honestly is not a good thing. These crossings account for most cross border traffic, and are (and have been exploited) as our weak points, and need some more attention if we want to truly keep our borders safe.

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My hometown’s port, which is secured by the department of homeland security, through special funding and a specialized zodiac boat to the local police department

The Silver Screen, the Flat Screen and the Government

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from the show The Border‘s homepage

The television often romanticizes the idea of an international boundary, be it a fugitive seeing freedom across a rural border crossing into Mexico (countless movie plots), crossing a frozen upstate New York lake to smuggle in illegal immigrants or a car thief weaving through a shipping yard, so as to close the container full of stolen cars before the Police are able to recognize which container is his. Maybe its for that that you feel a bit of adrenaline upon seeing the almost standard “Halt” sign at any given border crossing. Nonfiction shows on this subject are, as with anything produced by the mass media carefully modified and tweaked to achieve the individual producer or parent’s agenda, and needs to be carefully analyzed.

While the silver screen is slightly removed from reality, there are plenty of nonfiction TV shows that have to do with border crossings. Educational cable channels such as Discovery, National Geographic or TLC have even gone as far as to launch entire series on the war that is border security. Customs and Border Patrol, the national agency for the security of our borders has partnered with National Geographic to launch a series called Border Wars with wild success. This series showcases several different duties of a Border Patrol agent, and is edited and composed for the highest ratings. Even CBP’s press release indicates that they have put their own spin on the show.

National Geographic is not the only network to feature border patrols in their line up. However, in googling “TV shows border patrol” there are two other specials from National Geographic, and then several from Discovery Networks (including TLC, its child) as well as a Comedy Central project, and a series from New Zealand. The only other American nonfiction series comes from ABC, which is a broadcast network, as opposed to the other pay networks. This show is produced with cooperation from the US Department of Homeland Security (which is a parent of CBP) and has been billed as propaganda and has had overall very lukewarm response. Unfortunately, despite being more diversified than the usual US/Mexico border patrol episode, it is still sensationalized enough to stimulate ratings and blur the truth.

Although featuring the issues on land and marine border crossings may raise awareness, it can highlight weak points to those looking to exploit it. While it certainly isn’t like the fictional tunnel that goes from Mexico to the US like you see in the 2009 film “Fast & Furious” that can be accessed before the US Border Patrol is able to pull up the camera feed, it can be used by both sides, friend or foe. What I would like to see, is for an organization like factcheck.org to go through the show and tell us what it is really like on the front lines.

Virtual Borders and the 5 miles of US-Canadian Border fencing.

Like with anything, securing our nation starts with a perimeter. There are over 7,400 miles of land boundaries, and 12,300 miles of coastline. While most people imagine that there is a wall and facility similar to the large US/Mexico border crossings, in reality the protection rages from these massive, intricate walls and roadblocks to what are shockingly the vast majority of our border, completely unguarded and blind border crossings.

To build a wall, with defenses, border guards and border crossings over all 7,400 miles is an unreasonable task. Cost set aside, much of the border is in the remote wilderness, whether a Texan Desert or 150 miles from the nearest inhabitant in northern Maine. While all roads crossings the border have at least a part-time Customs and Border Patrol station, we hear frequently stories about human traffickers or drug smugglers crossing the unguarded desert, and the only way we knew is that the body was found some time later by a routine patrol.

With the push for homeland security, along with the technological advances of late, we are able to better protect our borders without manning and building a wall across the entire border. With tensions rising along the southern border, the US is implementing drones, or UAV’s to silently, remotely and automatically monitor the entire border, from a vantage point that will allow them to see more, and with less effort. With this, via a remote control center, the border agents can be better used where they are needed, rather than monitoring a very small point.

All in all, CBP is still investing in permanent defenses. Their website offers you a map with the update on construction of an actual fence spanning completely from the western tip of Texas to California. The image is to the right. I think that the hybrid system works well, focusing the “hard” border on more populated areas, while using technology to protect the broader, sparser border in Texas. One thing to consider, the Canadian border has a negligible amount of hard defenses, and even less technological defenses. While the US/Mexico border is a risk for immediate crime and drug trafficking, as witnessed by 9/11, the weak security between the two has already been exploited to do even greater damage. fence_map

While NEXUS cards allow commuters to pass from the US to Canada without inspection, there are still thousands of miles of border with nothing but a granite marker every several yards to mark it. When I researched as to why (other than the perceived safety of Canada, being similar and not known for hostility or smuggling at the border) I found that Canada did not feel that it was necessary when the US proposed one. As a result, the border will be monitored electronically.

What strikes me, is that to enter the United States from a European Union flight, you have to complete landing cards, are inspected; to enter by car you are sometimes stopped, and randomly inspected; but to drive across a logging road in Canada be undetected sets off some warning bells for me. I just hope that this loophole is not exploited… again.