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posted by martyb on Monday November 04 2019, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-build-it-they-will-come...and-cut-through-it dept.

Smugglers have found an easy way to get through the vertical steel tube Mexican border wall. From https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/smugglers-are-sawing-through-new-sections-of-trumps-border-wall/2019/11/01/25bf8ce0-fa72-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html

The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.

After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, creating an adult-size gap. Because the bollards are so tall — and are attached only to a panel at the top — their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.

The taxpayer-funded barrier — so far coming with a $10 billion price tag — was a central theme of Trump's 2016 campaign, and he has made the project a physical symbol of his presidency, touting its construction progress in speeches, ads and tweets. Trump has increasingly boasted to crowds in recent weeks about the superlative properties of the barrier, calling it "virtually impenetrable" and likening the structure to a "Rolls-Royce" that border crossers cannot get over, under or through.

In other words, no one did any serious pen testing on the wall design, or it would have been obvious that with all that leverage, the top tie-in was easy to flex.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by paul_engr on Monday November 04 2019, @07:46PM (1 child)

    by paul_engr (8666) on Monday November 04 2019, @07:46PM (#915862)

    With a 5Ah or 9Ah 18V pack, you could cut for at least half an hour before it was depleted. I can fit the saw, twenty blades, and five batteries in a backpack that weighed like fifteen pounds total.

    Once the tubes start to rust, you could also probably just hit them with a cold chisel and a 10lb sledge and shear the tubes. When I was a kid we had a basketball pole full of concrete and after a few years, we took it out by just a few hits with a chisel at the base and the whole thing just snapped in half right at the footing and fell over with a gentle tug

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 04 2019, @08:28PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday November 04 2019, @08:28PM (#915903) Homepage Journal

    Depends how heavy a workload you're asking of them as to how long they'll last but, yeah, extra battery packs are absolutely viable.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.