'Bogus' Bomb Detectors Fail to Spot Real Bomb

(Feb. 22) -- A bomb went off today in a market in Thailand that had just been scanned by a bomb detector that critics claim is nothing more than a scam.

The incident follows several weeks of growing controversy in the Thai government over the GT200 bomb detector, which was exposed last month by the BBC as ineffective.

In a documentary aired last month, the BBC tested the GT200, along with a similar device, and found that it was no better than chance at detecting bombs. After disassembling one of the devices to see how it worked, explosives expert Sidney Alford told the BBC is was nothing more than an "empty plastic case."

Two soldiers were wounded in the bomb blast that went off in in Thailand's restive southern Pattani province, even though the area where the explosives were placed had just been searched using the GT200, the Bangkok Post reported today. "We have to explain to them that the detector's effectiveness has not been scientifically proven," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said after the latest bombing, according to the newspaper.



The Thai government, which has been battling a violent insurgency in its Muslim-majority southern provinces, has reportedly spent more than $20 million on the devices. The bogus bomb detectors have become the subject of national controversy in Thailand, with the army apparently sticking to its decision to use the devices, despite scientific testing.

At a news conference last week, army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda defended the devices, which he claimed had been successfully used by soldiers to spot bombs. "I respect the scientific tests, but at this stage there is no banning order by the government so the army will continue to use it," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Bogus bomb detectors sparked international controversy recently when The New York Times reported on the ADE 651, a wand-shaped bomb detector that Iraqi forces had bought from a British company. The detectors, which cost in the tens of thousands of dollars each, were found to be useless in U.S. government tests.

The detector was compared to a dowsing rod, a device that detects water, oil or some other material, without any known scientific explanation.

Though detectors like the ADE 651 and GT200 have found homes in developing countries, the U.S. government has also been duped into buying alleged dowsing rods. Most famously, Special Operations Command purchased the now widely debunked Sniffex, even though U.S. Navy testing had found it worthless.

The GT200, like the ADE 651, is sold by a company based in the United Kingdom. On its Web site, the company that sells the GT200 says it can detect explosives at distances of more than 700 meters, a claim that, if true, would make it far better than any known bomb detector.

"I don't know of any validated technology that can do what you are describing, assuming that what is being detected is the explosives," Nathan Lewis, a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, told AOL News in an e-mail, when asked about the devices.

Lewis has worked on an "electronic nose" that, similar to a trained canine, could spot the chemicals used in explosives.

Asked what the current state of the art is in bomb detection, Lewis had one simple reply: "dogs."