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Thai government: GT200 bomb detectors don’t work

gt200.jpg

AP: Thailand: British-made bomb detectors unreliable

Tests conducted by Thailand’s government have found that British-made bomb detectors it bought for a total of $21 million have an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, but they will continue to be used, officials said Tuesday.

Thailand has bought more than 700 of the GT200 devices since 2004 at an average price of 1 million baht ($30,000) each, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said no more would be purchased.

Despite the findings, the government will not ban the use of the GT200, which purportedly screens for explosives and narcotics.

(Emphasis mine.)

Elsewhere, here’s a good CNN TV package and text report on the subject.

And there’s this Bangkok Post opinion piece, about the GT200 and sniffer dogs: “Four-legged bomb detector is more reliable than GT200.”

For background on the device, see this Nov. 3, 2009 NYT story and this Jan. 22, 2010 BBC piece.

And BP has a number of posts on the device’s use in Thailand.

(Image source: The Nation.)

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