Is The Thai Military Showing Good Sense In Not Buying GT-200 Devices?

While some in the Iraqi Military have insisted their worthless ADE-651, GT-200, and Alpha 6 devices actually work despite overwhelming evidence they are nothing but a dowsing rod scam, the Thai government has finally shown a wise restraint in delaying a planned purchase of more GT200 detectors. The people of Thailand should commend their leaders for this action and encourage them to cancel the purchase entirely, as well as prosecute the people who committed the fraud against the nation's police and military. The video of Thai officers being killed after these devices failed should be enough to prove the danger of the fraud that resulted in the death of at least 4 officers.

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Army may delay purchase GT200 bomb detector
BANGKOK, Jan 28 (TNA) - Thai army chief Gen Anupong Paochinda on Thursday asserted that the British-made GT200 bomb detector used in the security forces operations in the three restive southern border provinces is effective, but the army may delay the new purchase of the controversial gear for reasons of transparency.

Gen Anupong commented following criticism by many parties on the effectiveness of the GT200 bomb detector after the British government banned exports of the ADE651 bomb detector to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ADE651 bomb detector is manufactured by the British-based company Global Technical, and is similar to the GT200 bomb detector, widely used in security operations in Thailand's Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces in which insurgency attacks have killed more than 4,000 lives since violence erupted 2004.

The army chief said he has recently been told by the Fourth Army Area commander who oversees security in the far South that the device is effective. Without them, it would be more difficult for security forces to carry out their work.

Gen Anupong said no verification has been made regarding the percentage of the device's effectiveness, but he said that concerned agencies will look into it.

Regarding the planned purchase of another lot of the scanners, Gen Anupong said that the army may consider delaying the purchase for transparency, but must study the purchase process carefully to avoid facing possible legal action from the seller.

Meanwhile, Jessada Denduangboripant, lecturer at the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, told the House committee on National Security that the GT200 bomb detector is simply a bogus device, while questioning how the scanners are widely used in many agencies despite its unually high cost at about Bt1.4 million each.

The academic pointed out technical errors in detecting bomb of GT200 occurred more than twice as earlier reported.

There are many cases which the device failed to detect bombs and that caused huge loss of lives and property he said, adding that the scanner also gave wrong results in many drug-testing cases. This destroys the people's confidence on state agencies as legal action has been wrongly taken against many innocent people.

Mr Jessada added that he is surprised over the qualification of the GT200 bomb detector which claims it can detect many materials from bomb-making substances, drugs, chemical substances, uranium, gold, ivory, banknotes and even biologic substance such as corpse.

No scientist in this world can prove how the GT200 bomb scanner is able to effectively detect different kinds of materials, he said.

Following Mr Jessada's explanation, the House committee resolved to continue further probe on the case with the army and academics given that it is considered the matter of life and death of people in the restive region. (TNA)

Political News : Last Update : 20:02:40 28 January 2010 (GMT+7:00)