Fake bomb detectors still in use

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

The Baghdad Operations Command announced Tuesday that it had purchased an additional 100 detection devices, but General Rowe said five to eight bomb-sniffing dogs could be purchased for $60,000, with provable results.

Iraqis, being Muslim, will refuse to work with dogs.

[Federate]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

Iraqis, being Muslim, will refuse to work with dogs.

True, which is what led them to choose the fake bomb detectors in the first place I guess. They don't want 'unclean animals' running around all over the hundreds of Baghdad checkpoints sniffing people. For more info on the views on dogs in Islam, check this Wiki-article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_animals#Dogs

[KanadaHye]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

I can't see them opposing them for sniffing out bombs though. I know Turkey is known for its Kangal breed of dogs which are like giant shepherd dogs. Maybe its more of a Shia thing.

[Federate]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

I can't see them opposing them for sniffing out bombs though. I know Turkey is known for its Kangal breed of dogs which are like giant shepherd dogs. Maybe its more of a Shia thing.

Turkey as a state is largely secular which is why bomb sniffing dogs are not a problem. And unlike Iraq, it does not have checkpoints at every corner of the capital so even if they have a problem with the dogs, they will be of relative limited use compared to Iraq. The article I linked says both Sunnis and Shi'as consider dogs unclean though.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

Has anyone seen these being used in airports or anywhere else for that matter?

http://science.discovery.com/videos/discoveries-this-week-bomb-detection.html

[londontsi]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

Iraqis, being Muslim, will refuse to work with dogs.

Just for the record pigs have a better smell sense than dogs.

Pretty sure not be a solution to the problem.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

I can't see them opposing them for sniffing out bombs though. I know Turkey is known for its Kangal breed of dogs which are like giant shepherd dogs. Maybe its more of a Shia thing.

It's not just dogs for sniffing out explosives that some Muslims find objectionable. It also includes guide-dogs. There was a bizarre photo circulating a few months ago of a blind Muslim woman and her "guide pony", which she was (thanks to someone taking anti-disability discrimination laws to the extreme) actually allowed to take onto public buses!

[KanadaHye]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

It's not just dogs for sniffing out explosives that some Muslims find objectionable. It also includes guide-dogs. There was a bizarre photo circulating a few months ago of a blind Muslim woman and her "guide pony", which she was (thanks to someone taking anti-disability discrimination laws to the extreme) actually allowed to take onto public buses!

Maybe she's allergic to dogs

[Siggie]

Re: Fake bomb detectors still in use

Thailand is still using these bogus detectors while there are blast after blast at the Malayasian border.

Thailand's army chief vowed Thursday that troops would continue using a British-made bomb scanner that failed a series of tests, as a fresh blast in the troubled south wounded 13 people.

The government and army have both faced criticism since Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Tuesday that tests showed the scanners, on which Thailand has spent 21 million dollars, performed worse than sniffer dogs.


Human Rights Watch issued a statement Thursday calling on the government to stop arresting people based on evidence gathered using the GT200 wand, made by British firm ATSC.


But army chief General Anupong Paojinda told reporters that the machines, which are widely used in the insurgency-hit, Muslim-majority south, would stay in use and had proved successful on 300 occasions.


"What the army is trying to tell the public as well as the media is that low-ranking soldiers in the south have used it and have had success in protecting people's lives," Aung he told press conference.


"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.


The detectors have already been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anupong's comments came hours after a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in the southern town of Pattani, which has been hit by frequent attacks since a separatist insurgency broke out in the south in 2004.


The blast wounded 13 people, two critically, a hospital worker said.


In nearby Yala province a 26 year old man was shot dead by suspected insurgents late Wednesday, police said.


More than 4,100 people have died in bomb blasts, shootings, beheadings and crucifixions during the six-year insurgency in the southernmost Thai provinces bordering Malaysia.


The region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until it was annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand and tensions have bubbled there ever since.

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