Stories in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post , along with congressional testimony by the GAO, caused a frenzy in the media and blogosphere this week with suggestions that the Department of Homeland Security was “mothballing” the effort to build a virtual fence along the southern border. After millions spent and high expectations set, the idea that the Department was dropping the effort — known in typical government bureaucratese as “P28″ — caused quite a stir. However, Secretary Michael Chertoff responded assertively in a post on the DHS Leadership Journal, saying that the idea that the virtual fence is being dropped is simply inaccurate.

“Mothballing the concept?” asks Chertoff increduously. “We just formally accepted the project last week, and have a budget request of $775 million next fiscal year to continue to develop and deploy technology and tactical infrastructure along the border – precisely P28’s purpose.”

The Department also posted inaccuracies in the media’s take on the virtual fence with a news release.

UPDATE: The Department today put out an additional statement on P-28, the virtual fence. Part of it reads:

P-28 was designed to be a demonstration of critical technologies and system integration under the broader SBInet initiative. Specifically, its purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of the SBInet technical approach developed by Boeing, and to show that this type of technology could be deployed to help secure the southwest border of the United States. The intended objective has been achieved – after successful field testing, we formally accepted it from Boeing last week. We have a system that is operational and has already assisted in identifying and apprehending over 2,000 illegal aliens trying to cross the border since December.

Additional Update: Washington Technology writes:

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.