‘These British machines are falsely finding explosives in coconut trees. But people die when they give false negative reports ’.
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Monday January 4th 2010
Pictures: Andrew Chant/WGPP
The Prime Minister of Thailand will this week be asked to order the withdrawal of British explosives detection equipment known as ‘magic wands’ for testing amid claims they are killing members of the country’s security forces.
The move follows a similar controversy in Iraq two months ago where some 1,500 ‘magic wands’ sold under the name ADE165 by the British company ATSC were ridiculed for their lack of capability by the US military.
Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva will be asked to act on claims that similar machines sold under the name GT-200 have given totally false readings which have led to several deaths in Islamic southern Thailand, the scene of separatist terrorism.
“They are falsely identifiying explosives at the top of coconut trees, but not finding when the bombs are real and people are dying,” said Angkana Neelapaijit, a member of the parliamentary ad hoc ‘Committee on the south’ which will make the demand formal for the machines to be withdrawn and tested.
She added: “Our scientific advisors have compared the GT-200 to bomb detecting with a Ouija board.”
Already the Working Group for Justice and Peace and the Asian Human Rights Commission have called for the detectors to be withdrawn until they have been scientifically tested in Thailand.
Thai military with GT-200
The latest controversy involves the Ashford, Kent, based company ‘Global Technical Co.Ltd.,’ which last year was asked by Quenton Davies, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, to remove a suggested MoD endorsement for the GT-200 from its website.
The Thai Interior Ministry is also promoting the ‘Alpha 6′ detector and supplying some 800 to police nationwide at 555,000 baht each -11,000 pounds sterling to detect drugs.
But ‘magic wands’ known as GT-200 used by the Thai army and sold without cabinet approval under ‘a secret military deal’, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, are the ones of main concern, because they are supposed to detect explosives.
The units allegedly work on the principal of ‘magnetic molecular resonance’ or ‘nano ionic resonance’ and or ‘dia/para magnetism’.
The US Justice Ministry, which issued a warning about similar machines, calls it ‘Molecular Frequency Distribution’ and states in a report: “None of these attempts to create devices that can detect specific materials such as explosives (or any materials for that matter) have been proven successful in controlled double-blind scientific tests”.
A ‘magic wand’ tested by the US Navy called the Sniffex, could not detect 1000 lbs of explosives at 20 feet.
In theory the gadgets works like water diviners. They all come with a wand which is supposed to point out whatever the operator is seeking. If it’s TNT or C4 explosives the operator is looking for, the GT200, will supposedly point him to it. The units have no battery power but work off the power of the operator.
Slip other cards special cards into to the machines and they will detect cocaine, heroin, ice, and the drug of your choice – at 5oo metres, claim the distributors.
Angkana Neelapaijit, also Chairman of Thailand’s Working Group for Justice and Peace said: “They have been compared to using ouija boards. In all cases when the machines fail the operators are blamed. The generals say the machines are good. The people who have to use the machines, the soldiers, say the opposite. They don’t work and can be deadly!
“ I have tried speaking to the Prime Minister and British Ambassador to Thailand. The Prime Minister at the moment supports his Generals’ view. The Ambassador Quinton Quayle did not want to talk.”
Aftermath of undetected bomb in Pattani
The WGJP blames the GT-200 for several deaths. In their report they claim that on October 6th last year near the Merlin Hotel, in Sungai-Golok and October 19th at Pimonchai Market in Yala, bombs went off causing death and several injuries in a car and motorcycle, just a few minutes after the vehicles had been checked with the GT-200 ‘magic wands’.
They also claim that on November 7th three Border Patrol officers were killed when a bomb exploded as they were investigating a suspicious object in Pattani. Again the GT-200 showed negative results.
And again in Pattani, South Thailand, when a bomb was hidden among the dead bodies of a murdered couple in Kok Pho district, officials used the GT200 to check the bodies . The equipment suggested nothing. When officials lifted the bodies up, the bomb went off, claim the WGJP
The WGJP pointed out: “The reading device is ambiguous and subjective. There is no clear indicator. It is vague enough to excuse the authorities’ ineffectiveness. If a false negative turns out they can just blame the operator”.
The MoD says the machines are not used by British forces and do not confirm to British forces requirements.
A spokesman said Global Technical had brought a machine to them for evaluation in 1999. But the machine was not subject to proper MOD testing. “The company cannot market the machine today stating the MoD has confirmed its capabilities.”
Gary Bolton of Global Technical Ltd said the company would be updating its website later this month. Technical information provided by Global and Technical says its performance has been backed by the British Army. However the machine cannot pinpoint explosive, rather narrow them down to an area of four cubic metres.
The full range of the GT-200's bomb detecting capabilities as shown in Thailand. Not everybody believes the claims.
This particular con trick has been running quite a while now. The fraud operates well when corruption in the purchase country is endemic, such as Thailand.
Andrew, its not by any chance April 1st today, is it?
I have watched many rustics use a forked hazel twig to divine underground water. I even knew a well-drilling engineer who used this technique to such success that he had to pay the top whack of income tax. I also saw a local welldriller doing the same thing, with some success. I was taught dowsing in about 5 minutes, as a means to locate waterpipes passing under a road.We used bent welding rods. A 5 baht solution. I wonder how much the snake oil of the british armaments industry charge for such high-tech hocus-pocus.
You might find the following blog post and its comments on these devices somewhat amusing:
http://www.captainslash.com/betong-to-sungai-kolok/
Of course, it probably has nothing to do with saving people’s lives, does it? Some general is raking in the commission from some smarmy home counties git. Some general who probably never goes anywhere near any real action. Some general who is more than willing to see at least one dead soldier a day. Some general who is also willing to see about 3 civilians dead on the same day. Some general who probably wears a jathukham and has a cambodian fortune-teller.
Largactil, dousing is a hoax. So you were taught a hoax in 5 minutes. So what?
That’s OK. There was supposed to be some irony in it. As a bomb detector, it’s a SCAM. It has that much in common with every organised religion, capitalism, Marxism, Thaksinism, democracy and psychology - other quickly learned things of extremely dubious usefulness. But then again, there is something quite exhilarating about a good old communal get together - as the voodoo men in Thai politics know only too well.
I work in Iraq and I know of this piece of crap sold to the Iraqis. People have died because of this piece of junk just like Thailand. Things like this don’t get sold unless someone got big kickbacks to buy it. Simple as that. This company should be closed. People are dieing because it does not work as marketed.The British govenment should not let this thing be exported. Someone made a lot of money and people are dieing.
The company which produced the Sniffex in the US was apparently just a ‘pump and dump’ company.
You might be interested in this snippet:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/techscoop/30563/last-one-in-again
QUOTE Two weeks after the army announced that terrorists in the South were switching from mobile phones to other types of remote controls to set off their bombs, the military announced it would purchase new, updated and more expensive equipment to jam mobile phones; this time, the jammers come from Japan at a cost of (cough)1.5 million baht(cough) apiece; you should be ashamed for what you’re thinking right now, the leaders of the armed forces have absolutely no motive but pure national security and the idea of a kickback on such equipment is hateful thought.UNQUOTE
Indeed, here we have the price in the same article. One wonders if it is “witching sticks” or “wishing sticks”:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/techscoop/30563/last-one-in-again
QUOTE The government admitted that more than two years and 972 million baht later, authorities never even turned on the thousands of surveillance cameras installed to monitor, catch and defeat the insurgents in the South. Security forces in the South were shocked that “high-technology” GT200 witching sticks bought for 700,000 baht apiece during the days of the military junta to detect bombs have done little to detect bombs, prevent bombings or catch bombers; the dowsing sticks peddled successfully by the Electronic K9 company of Singapore and exposed worldwide as nothing but ouija “technology” capable of picking up the operator’s prejudices, have resulted in several spectacular failures, aka bombings and deaths; on the other side, people have been arrested because of the supposed presence of bomb material on their bodies, equally false readings.UNQUOTE
The really sad thing is that trained explosive and drug sniffer dogs are available for much less than the GT200 and they really work; but then when it comes to the quality of the available kick back the GT200 is always going to win.
I have been living here for a number of years and am constantly amazed by the examples of wreckless self interest being put before thailand and the lives of its people that I see around me.
Given that “thePrime Minister at the moment supports his Generals’ view” Does this tell us more about the Prime Minister’s mental capacity or his relationship with the generals. One would have thought with his oxford education he could manage to google “gt200″ and read the pages
It’s what I so politically-incorrectly refer to as the “Fur Coat & No Knickers” syndrome. I fully agree about dog-training - although inadequate nutrition is frequently a problem. For example, alsatians are overbred to the point where their backlegs easily give out at a fairly early age - unless they receive really expert care. The main man was certainly right to point out that even street dogs can be trained to take on some of these roles, and may well be a bit more resilient than ‘imported’ dogs.
I suppose we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that dogs are a bit controversial in that area. They’re acceptable checking luggage, but likely to cause offence in house and building searches. And we all know that religious buildings are not always off-limits to the terrorists. And whereas you can’t always pussyfoot around these issues, it is perhaps worth bearing in mind that this problem arose because the area was used for the (so-called) punishment exile of all the complete fritterwits and out-&-out conmen in the civil service.
an oxbridge education will never change an in-bred outlook.
andrew, do i get a teashirt for posting the shortest post on your blog!
your answer i suspect will be “no” - that way YOU get the teashirt.
( i’m a size L )
My bullshit detector just went haywire. First thing I would be doing is asking where are they being used now, which airports? Of course they *are* being used in airports. And lets set up a simple demo, 5 boxes in a line, spaced apart, and one has a bomb in it. Switch around and redo. It’s getting it right more than 20 % isn’t it?
Heads should roll over this.
From 2008 http://teakdoor.com/thailand-and-asia-news/37041-thailand-using-low-quality-tear-gas.html
“”Our team has used a GT200 substance detector and found no substance used in making bombs. We’ve already checked the clash scenes and the bodies and clothing of the injured victims,” she said.
However, she said the detector had collected chemicals from the scenes and victims that could be used for comparisons later.
Pornthip said the Royal Thai Police would next week show how the different types of tear gas worked.
“Then we can collect the chemicals from their demonstration and compare them with what we found at the clash scenes,” she added.” Etc etc etc
This can’t be for real…
Just read on BBC news that the guy who ran the company who sold them has been arrested!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8476381.stm
Or is that a different ‘magic wand’?
Andrew, are you on extended leave or something? All very quiet on the site…
Yep. Its a different one - the ADE 165 - but the same con. The British govt has banned it for export to Iraq now saying there is no evidence it works as a bomb detector. However they have banned it on the basis it might cause danger to allies.
Extended leave, yes, enforced by the lack of any real news!
I was in the international zone in Bagdhad yesterday. Iraqis security forces are still using this piece of junk. The low level Iraqi soldiers and police who are using them have no idea it does not work. People are dieing becuase of this piece of junk. It is criminal what this company did.
Tragic. The British govt should obtain a list of all the countries where these things have been sent and issue a formal warning.
Of course the figures in the Iraqi sale do not add up, and they probably will not elsewhere, so the buyers do not care if it is a con.
Iraqi sales US$80 million plus. Receipts in the UK 11US$ million are the figures quotes. Rest went on ‘commissions and training’.
Talking of Thai ’smart’ military spending, how is our glorious blimp with high res cameras doing? Still on the ground, I guess… Still, must look good and makes them feel proud!