*Customs and Border Protection and Singapore have agreed not to move ahead with a pilot program of the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) in Singapore. CBP says that based on results of ongoing SFI trials in other ports, it has “decided to focus on high-risk trade corridors in order to maximize the security benefit realized given the limited resources available to all governmental and private sector operators in the international supply chain as the most effective strategy to initiate 100% scanning.” CBP says it will work with Singapore on alternative approaches to improving container security through risk management and a total supply chain security approach.
*CBP has issued a stop work order to Secure Border Initiative network prime contractor Boeing [BA] to give the agency time to work with the Interior Department to go through the process of gaining access to land for the deployment of sensor equipped towers that will maintain a virtual watch over parts of the U.S. Southwest border. CBP also says that the technology Boeing will deploy on the virtual watchtowers needs more integration testing. Meantime, CBP says it is looking at possibly transferring some funds that were planned to go to Boeing for the start of two system deployments in FY ’08–TUS-1 and AJO-1–and instead use them to procure and deploy physical fencing along the border with Mexico. Prior to the deployment of TUS-1 and AJO-1, SBInet will focus on completing ongoing system-level integration testing as well as beginning formal qualification testing, CBP says. TUS-1 and AJO-1 refer to two stretches of the U.S. border in Arizona.