Thai Government finds GT200 bomb detector to be useless

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- A bomb scanner sold to dozens of countries around the world has been shown to be useless at detecting explosives, the Thai government said, raising the possibility that thousands of lives have been lost to bomb attacks because of ineffective screenings.

The Thai government announced Tuesday that the GT200 failed rigorous tests carried out by scientists and the army in Thailand, after concerns were raised that the device was an elaborate hoax.

"We've done a double-blind test where the equipment was only successful in discovering in 20 percent of the cases, when just a random choice would give you 25 percent -- so there's no statistical significance to having the equipment," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN.

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More here.

Here's to hoping the Thai government does indeed pursue legal against the company. Bad enough people use dowsing to find water, but to tell people it will locate explosives?

They're learning... slowly. Now it's just up to all those Middle-Eastern governments that bought into this scam to get in touch with some real scientists before they pay with the lives of their own people.

Now it's just up to all those Middle-Eastern governments that bought into this scam to get in touch with some real scientists before they pay with the lives of their own people.

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People have died already...

From the article

The AED651 has been sold in Iraq and Afghanistan, although the Iraqi army has stopped using it.

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See also this thread Merged: [Ed] Get involved detecting the ade 651 detector / Jim McCormick arrested

Is this "detector" from the same company that sold the bogus ADE651? Good grief, how widespread are these scams?

MattusMaximus said:

Is this "detector" from the same company that sold the bogus ADE651? Good grief, how widespread are these scams?

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Different company, same idiocy. The Thai government has been arguing that the GT200 works, and has always had some general or lower minister arguing their case, but there's been a big push in Thailand (if you can read Thai, google GT200 & Thailand and you'll see a lot of local tv coverage) and as many know, Randi published a lengthy article from a Thai "correspondent" in last week's SWIFT. Heck, I may be responsible for this, myself!!! I sent a link of the SWIFT article to about thirty people in Thailand, telling them to pass it along, and gave them a link to the YouTube page with forty or fifty other stories linked.

The results of their testing, unlike the earlier defence of it, was announced by the PM. That's hefty, and got them straight onto CNN. They're thinking of suing, and Global Technologies is no doubt now bunkering in, expecting the cops to arrive at any minute. Knowing Thailand, I'm sure the PM and cronies made sure that all their own hands were clean and that no one in the Thai Royal Family was somehow involved.

With this and the action on Jim McCormick, maybe the world is going to finally get the message on this useless, dangerous, even deadly device. Thailand has only "minor" (relative to some of the more well-known hot spots around the world) problems with terrorists, but they blew seventy million USD on these things!


Go Thailand! A major victory for critical thinking and the scientific method in a country replete with every sort of woo imaginable.

Foolmewunz, that's awesome! I bow down before your mighty skeptic-fu

MattusMaximus said:

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/77474823c4a54b00a.gif[/qimg]

Foolmewunz, that's awesome! I bow down before your mighty skeptic-fu

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Well, I doubt that I actually had any effect - more a coincidence than anything else. The movement was evidently going on without my meddling for quite a while.

A friend in Thailand says that it is turning out that the purchase was all under the aegis of the previous government so it's now politic to reverse it and make Taksin look bad. If it had been purchased under the new admin, it might still be being defended.

"We've done a double-blind test where the equipment was only successful in discovering in 20 percent of the cases, when just a random choice would give you 25 percent -- so there's no statistical significance to having the equipment," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN.

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Too bad they didn't do that BEFORE shelling out the money for it.

I wonder how easy it would be for another company to do similar things again?
- Will governments learn to be skeptical or are they too open to bribes?

So far, in Thailand, there's no talk of bribery. I have no doubt that there were gratuities passed - it's Thailand after all, but that doesn't seem to be the issue.

I don't think you can legislate "smarts". I don't think bribery had as a big a part in this and the Sniffex sales or the case where the bloke's in jail in England - not so much as just plain gullible stupidity.

When you get leaders of countries who think that voodoo can cure HIV, or that God spoke to them directly about the Middle East.... well, you get the picture.

Yeah, the GT200 bomb detector has a place in the "Really Bad Military Equipment" annals.

godless dave said:

Too bad they didn't do that BEFORE shelling out the money for it.

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What I do like, though, is that Abhisit is discussing the tests in almost the exact same terms we read on this forum when discussing dowsing. If he would've thrown in a comment on ideomotor effect, I'd suspect Jeff or Randi of having written his script.

Frankly, I don't like Abhisit. He's a puppet for the yellow-shirt autocratic snobs and royal family. But I give him his props for this. He may turn out okay, after all.... or at least in some areas.