U.S. Blows $5.7 Bil on Cyber Defense System That Doesn’t Work

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Judicial Watch

Reckless government spending is at full throttle with the example du jour a $5.7 billion cyber defense system created to protect computers at federal agencies against hackers. Despite its mind-boggling price tag the system is seriously flawed and uses features already available in much cheaper commercial-grade products, according to a federal probe made public recently.

The problem, besides sticking it to taxpayers for the exorbitant cost, is that the multibillion-dollar system simply doesn’t work. Nevertheless, the bloated agency handling this particular boondoggle, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), insists the program, National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS), is effective despite its documented failures. This is par for the course at the monstrous agency created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation safe. DHS has been involved in a number of transgressions that have left the country incredibly vulnerable, especially on the southern border where Islamic terrorists have teamed up with Mexican drug cartels to enter the U.S.

Now it’s leaving sensitive computer systems throughout government vulnerable to web threats, even after spending an astounding amount of money. It gets better, or rather, more enraging. Most of the features used by the government’s specially created NCPS are available in commercial security network appliances that are already used by federal agencies. In fact, DHS admits that some commercial products, which cost a lot cheaper than $5.7 billion, likely contain more features than the agency’s fancy NCPS. You can’t make this stuff up! It’s all documented in a federal audit made public with lots of redactions, presumably to protect national security.

DHS: Inept $1 Billion Bioterror System Is All We Have

JUDICIAL WATCH

After squandering a billion dollars-87 million in the last year alone-on a useless system to detect biological attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists on wasting more money on the flawed program because the government has no back up plan to deal with bioterrorism.

It’s only taken 12 years and an enormous waste of public funds to figure out that the faulty system, known as BioWatch, can’t get the job done. Nevertheless, DHS apparently believes that it may eventually work properly if taxpayers keep throwing cash at it. One senior DHS official, Jim H. Crumpacker, tries to justify further investing in BioWatch by stressing that bioterrorism “remains a continuing threat to the security of our nation” and BioWatch is the government’s only “biosurveillance system designed to detect the intentional release of select aerosolized biological agents.”

Obamacare’s Mysterious Missing Billions

Townhall

Obamacare, depending on who you ask in the GOP, is either a calculated Trojan Horse designed to collapse and release single payer health care upon the American public, a flawed piece of legislation that needs badly to be revised, or the greatest evil inflicted on the American public since slavery. But what if it was something far simpler: namely, free money for Democrats? A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to congressional requesters provided to this author suggests that this explanation may, in fact, be the correct one.

Buried in the document’s appendices is a stunning statistic. Out of $5,509,074,183 in grants allocated to state-based exchanges, $1,453,766,433 was spent on actually building the IT infrastructure of Obamacare websites. More suspiciously still, nearly $2.4 billion was authorized for IT spending, and of the over $5.5 billion total, apparently only $3.2 billion was actually spent. However, despite the exchanges being $2.3 billion under budget, only a scant $300 million has been returned to the federal government so far.

WH Rules: Violation in Terrorist Swap Punishable By Jail, Suspension, Removal of Office

Judicial Watch

The law violated by the Obama administration when it secretly exchanged five Guantanamo terrorists for an Army solider captured by the Taliban after deserting his post is punishable by jail, suspension and removal of office, according to written White House rules.

The nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), confirmed this week that the president broke a “clear and unambiguous” law when he swapped the high-level terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, an Army sergeant who went AWOL in Afghanistan in 2009. According to rules issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the violation is serious and can carry severe consequences. They include fines, imprisonment, administrative discipline, suspension from duty without pay or removal from office, the rules specifically state.