Divining Rod’s Deadly Farce Continues
The Thai military yesterday continued its support for the so-called GT200 bomb detectors by performing a demonstration for reporters instead of putting it through scientific tests as demanded by academics. The GT200 is merely a handle with a rotating antenna-like device attached, and a card inserted into the handle containing non-functional electronics. It contains no parts that can detect the presence of chemical compounds found in explosives. The Thai military has paid 900,000 Baht ($27,000) a piece for 500 of the worthless devices whose entire parts were manufactured for under $5. The GT500 is merely a divining rod type device antenna–like attachment appears to swing in one direction or another as though it were indicating something. The swinging motion is actually caused by small unconscious movements of the person operating it. An identically functioning device failed to detect 1,000 pounds of explosives 20 feet away in a controlled experiment. Divining rod devices such as the GT200 have fooled gullible users for centuries.
Colonel Thaveesak Chantarasin, head of the Anothai Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, requested the media to witness the demonstration at a military installation in the western Thai province of Ratchaburi.
The Thai army continues to risk the lives of the public and its own soldiers, well as waste money on this bogus product. The refusal of the army to conduct scientific tests appears to some to show their own lack of confidence in the outcome.
The GT200, which is widely used in the troubled South of Thailand, became controversial after the UK outlawed the export and use of a comparable type of bomb detector named ADE 651 and arrested its manufacturer Jim McCormick for fraud.
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