Bomb Detectors Banned

[BusyB]

ADE-651, a "sniffer" or rather "devining"!! type bomb detector used in S. Thailand is banned and owner arrested for fraud. This only weeks after the Thai military insisted it works. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/22/b...ors-iraq-arrest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8476381.stm

Device is blamed for allowing even car bombs to get through security cordons. Is apparently based on a chip which does nothing.

Wonder how come it works down south?

[Briggsy]

Quite incredible story. When I read about amazing cons like this, it staggers me how govts, including the Thai government here, part with huge sums of money and yet do no checking or product research.

[BusyB]

Quite incredible story. When I read about amazing cons like this, it staggers me how govts, including the Thai government here, part with huge sums of money and yet do no checking or product research.

I'm also wondering if they'll continue using them down south? What ARE they gonna do?

And for that matter, what are they gonna SAY? Not so long ago they were claiming to have tested these things and found them working! mmhhh ...

Edited January 23, 2010 by BusyB

[GungaDin]

Until Auntie did an investigation, no one took any notice of the reports that it was a fraud at least 3 years ago.

http://explosivedetectorfrauds.blogspot.com/

[cysampan]

During Nov 2008, I was stuck in the traffic in bangkok, in a taxi, as a royal convoy was passing. A Thai soldier/policeman was walking down the length of a wall using this device. I really did wonder at the time what it was, but he looked very confident. This is very embarrassing for all concerned. 'FarangLawkKonThai'! Some people are going to be very angry.

[Jdietz]

A 'Bomb Devining Rod'? No batteries or power supply, just an antenna that works the same as twigs would and a box with $0.25 worth of salvaged chips...

Wow. Just wow...

words fail me.

[noise]

A 'Bomb Devining Rod'? No batteries or power supply, just an antenna that works the same as twigs would and a box with $0.25 worth of salvaged chips...[/quote

post deleted, no AP quotes allowed--sbk

[GungaDin]

22nd October 2008 10:28 AM

First red flag I can find.

Any earlier?

[Jdietz]

They don't work, but are very cheap to mass produce, and at a $16,000++ retail price, think of the kickbacks!

[thepodest]

I can't wait to find who's the dumbass that initiated the purchase for Thai military.

[Briggsy]

I can't wait to find who's the dumbass that initiated the purchase for Thai military.

It's the general with the new mansion built on the proceeds of the kickback with the top of the range Merc sitting out front.

[AleG]

Incredible, go read the Wikipedia entry on the ADE 651 and weep. Hundreds of people probably lost their lives over this scam.

Jim McCormick (The scam... inventor of the thing) refused to be interviewed for the Newsnight investigation, but told The New York Times that ATSC would remain in business: "Our company is still fully operational."[11] He told The Times that ATSC had been dealing with doubters for ten years and that the device was merely being criticised because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights."

Flashing lights for crying out loud!

I'd say*, put this guy (and all the peddlers of the magic wand around the world) in a room with 100 boxes, 99 have a bomb that goes of when the lid is opened and one has a key to get out of the room. Hand them the magic wand and wait for the pop.

*No, not really, just throw their sorry bums in a cell and let them rot.

[Jdietz]

People are gullible and greedy, I knew that. Exactly HOW gullible and greedy never ceases to amaze me.

[IanForbes]

Who cares about being safe? The Thais certainly don't. Who wants to slowly rot away in some hospital bed. It's better to go out with a big bang.

[hawthorne]

I must be tired...I thought it said Boob detectors banned

atleast they did realize they were fake, that has to be some reassurance.

[DP25]

Typical farang scam. Selling faulty machines to 20 countries that killed thousands of people in Iraq. Who cares about being safe? The farang certainly don't.

[Carib]

I have actually handled one of these devices and they work, it also depends on the one handling them.

This was all in relation to aircraft safety. I have seen a guy finding one , yes ONE, 9 mm cartridge in a huge hangar, nobody of the ones evaluating these devices thought it could be done.

They wanted to see it again, and again the cartridge was found, this time in a warehouse filled with cargo what was being flown in and out.

With the same device but different card ( chip) cocaine even in very small amounts could be found.

[CLOD]

The boss of the company selling them was intervied on television .

He wouldn't show his face though as a condition.

[BusyB]

#18 CLOD,

That’s presumablybecause someone might want to kidnap him to extort his secret formula! 

#17 Carib,

That sounds impressive, but doesn’t sound like a scientific double-blind test. Perhaps the results are in the realm of random, or there are “other” explanations to which you weren’t privy. You say you’ve handled it, but someone else found the "prizes" - BBC and various scientists certainly weren’t impressed.

Nice to see the Nation’s finally cottoned on . Maybe we can expect some official military response now. 

Can't we? 

Nation?

Edited January 25, 2010 by BusyB

[Hawk]

The thing is just a glorified dowsing rod, a metal coat hanger would have been so much cheaper.

Dowsing rods and pendulums do indeed work but only for certain people.

And the English ex cop was indeed being honest when he said it could detect just about anything because it is a dowsing rod.

A metal coat hanger can be used very effectively as a dowsing rod and costs about 5 baht.

[GungaDin]

Here's Jimmy, someone said he was a Scouser, true?

That would make him a true "Scallywag".

Jim McCormick Photo BBC

[WarpSpeed]

Another perspective, though not excusing it's fraudulent intent is that just like a placebo to a patient the bombers had no idea either, so it certainly had some deterrent effect up until this point which I suspect will now provide for a rise in bombing attempts and sadly............Likely successes too..

Edited January 25, 2010 by WarpSpeed

[Carib]

Like said, I have used/tried it ( didn't work well with me using it though) , and seen it work, like everybody I was very very surprised and "HAD TO" redraw my scepticism even though I didn't really want to. The device is too simple to work....but it did what it was supposed to do in the hands of the right person.

This device is used by a lot of "agencies" worldwide and has been around for a long time, countless people have worked with it, played with it and practised with it, and tried to proof that it is a useless invention... now how come they always ordered more instead of sending it back with a note to bin it ?.

Army, customs, law enforcement, everybody did it`s best to proof it wrong, are they all mistaking?? Was I ?? Were the ones who later on used it to look for the things they were supposed to find and found them wrong?

I am still sceptical about a lot of these things even if I did see it myself, To me it is still like a lie detector. Some countries absolutely have fate in them, and in some countries it is absolutely forbidden to even use them .

Now it is even used in a hand held version by some. Another hoax??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23926278/

[Jdietz]

Don't be so gullible, please, unless you have a vested interest in selling off more of these things, then you're excused.

What you experienced was a carefully rigged sales show. You don't also think magicians -really- make aircraft and trains disappear, right? The giveaway was that 'it didn't work so well (if at all) for you'

These things have to pass a double blind test (however it would be hard to compare it with =another= empty plastic box), not just an 'I've seen it with my own eyes' test.

So far no repeatable independent test have been successful, and I seriously doubt they will, after all the card is a ripped out supermarket tag with a sticker 'BOMBS' or 'COCAINE' printed in bright colors on it, and the 'card reader' is a plastic box with a hole in it, and nothing else but air.

Please step back a bit and think about it a bit longer.

Edit: grammar

Edit2: Actually forget all of the above, I now have gold detectors for sale, based on the same principle. The only thing I had to do was change the detector card, and adjust the length of the antenna a bit to attune to the specific ionization frequency of gold. One day working a Pattaya beach netted me almost 30,000 Baht worth of lost golden chains, rings, and one Krugerrand. PM me for more details, and, as it is basically re-engineered from this already existing technology, it can be yours for a lot less then the original detector!

Edited January 25, 2010 by Jdietz

[Carib]

Read again Jdietz. Nothing gullible in what I wrote. No interests in the contraption at all, no sales show either, we got "the thing" in the box and did all the handling ourselves + a couple of phone calls that was all.

It is not my business, finding stuff, I was just like others trying to show that it was an expensive hoax and that we shouldn't rely on it. If it had been me as the one and only handler, it would probably have gone down like a hoax. But others had a very very high score.

Explanation?? I don't have any.

At that time I was satisfied that if I took a plane out and all within it had also been checked by one of the persons good at handling the " thing" that we were OK at the point of arrival and wouldn't get arrested for trafficking something we were not aware of.

Was " stuff" detected?? Yes definitely.

And I don't have to step back and think about it longer, I did give it a lot of thought at that time, now about 6 years ago and couldn't come up with an explanation of what I witnessed and about what was found.

Coincidence?? Not if you see someone unaware of where the stuff is he is looking for finding it. I couldn't really argue for but not against the thing either, but put my trust in the handler who really scored. Maybe I shouldn't have?? Well I am still a free man.

[GungaDin]

The "chip" is exactly the same as used in my local library books back in Aus.