Fake Bomb Detector, Blamed For Hundreds of Deaths, Is Still In Use 152
HughPickens.com writes: Murtaza Hussain writes at The Intercept that although it remains in use at sensitive security areas throughout the world, the ADE 651 is a complete fraud and the ADE-651's manufacturer sold it with the full knowledge that it was useless at detecting explosives. There are no batteries in the unit and it consists of a swivelling aerial mounted to a hinge on a hand-grip. The device contains nothing but the type of anti-theft tag used to prevent stealing in high street stores and critics have likened it to a glorified dowsing rod.
The story of how the ADE 651 came into use involves the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the height of the conflict, as the new Iraqi government battled a wave of deadly car bombings, it purchased more than 7,000 ADE 651 units worth tens of millions of dollars in a desperate effort to stop the attacks. Not only did the units not help, the device actually heightened the bloodshed by creating "a false sense of security" that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians. A BBC investigation led to a subsequent export ban on the devices.
The device is once again back in the news as it was reportedly used for security screening at hotels in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh where a Russian airliner that took off from that city's airport was recently destroyed in a likely bombing attack by the militant Islamic State group. Speaking to The Independent about the hotel screening, the U.K. Foreign Office stated it would "continue to raise concerns" over the use of the ADE 651. James McCormick, the man responsible for the manufacture and sale of the ADE 651, received a 10-year prison sentence for his part in manufacture of the devices, sold to Iraq for $40,000 each. An employee of McCormick who later became a whistleblower said that after becoming concerned and questioning McCormick about the device, McCormick told him the ADE 651 "does exactly what it's designed to. It makes money."
The story of how the ADE 651 came into use involves the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the height of the conflict, as the new Iraqi government battled a wave of deadly car bombings, it purchased more than 7,000 ADE 651 units worth tens of millions of dollars in a desperate effort to stop the attacks. Not only did the units not help, the device actually heightened the bloodshed by creating "a false sense of security" that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians. A BBC investigation led to a subsequent export ban on the devices.
The device is once again back in the news as it was reportedly used for security screening at hotels in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh where a Russian airliner that took off from that city's airport was recently destroyed in a likely bombing attack by the militant Islamic State group. Speaking to The Independent about the hotel screening, the U.K. Foreign Office stated it would "continue to raise concerns" over the use of the ADE 651. James McCormick, the man responsible for the manufacture and sale of the ADE 651, received a 10-year prison sentence for his part in manufacture of the devices, sold to Iraq for $40,000 each. An employee of McCormick who later became a whistleblower said that after becoming concerned and questioning McCormick about the device, McCormick told him the ADE 651 "does exactly what it's designed to. It makes money."
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Re:Security theater (Score:5, Informative)
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I'm not positive but I think war profiteering is supposed to be illegal. It doesn't appear to be prosecuted in modern times, however. We've got a war on *everything* except stupidity (but I think there's a war on illiteracy). With that in mind, I'm now thinking there are a number of business executives who could do well by serving a little prison time. We should let out some non-violent drug offenders to make room.
Its a matter of luck, bad and good. (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of a bad ass do you have to be to get the MOH twice?!? Did he single handedly kill Hitler?
Its a matter of luck, bad and good. Bad luck to be in a situation where the award of a Medal of Honor is appropriate. This happens far more often than such awards suggest. Good luck in the sense that two people witnessed your actions, and that they survived. Many MOH recipients accept the award in memory of those whose actions were as brave or braver than theirs but were never reported or properly witnessed.
There are far more heroes that are unknown rather than known.
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Smedley served in world war I, and that war really *was* a racket. It was everything wrong with 'war' in concept and practice. Empires colliding fighting over which shitty monarchy gets to rule which shitty land. It was poor against poor whilst the rich raked in the rewards.
So you can probably forgive him if he treated the battle cry of yet another global conflict with a degree of suspicion.
I have no idea if any of the "Business plot" stuff is true. There was definately *some sort* of funny business going o
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Lots of nice US backed occupations, police actions, and interventions to ensure US profits flowed for a select few.
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It had *everything* to do with the Banana Wars. We're talking about what mattered to *Smedley*, not your opinion of him, nearly a century later.
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Letting all of your potential allies be destroyed before you lift a finger is a bad strategy if you actually want to have allies for the fight. If the US wouldn't have gone to war while Britain was still in it things would have been very dark indeed. In that case it would be unlikely that the US would liberate Europe itself from the continental US. Europe's future would be slavery under the Soviet Union, Germany, or Italy. That wouldn't bode well for the US.
As directed by Moscow, Communists in the US an
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Security is expensive. So maybe this device doesn't work, but at least it's inexpensive and saved someone some money. Stop thinking of the children and start thinking of the profits!
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I'm no expert but I would expect some kind of tube to collect organic molecules. Do drugs give off electromagnetic waves?
Re: I remember that bullshit dowsing rod. (Score:1)
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So the detector could detect drugs if they were placed directly in its line of sight where they could be seen. This is not the usual place drugs are hidden.
Far better to detect the drugs' aura , which is an evil kind of muddy purple and extends through solid objects. This is done through some kind of magic that you wouldn't understand if you're not in touch with your inner spirit, wooo, woooo, wooo,
At least it only cost tens of millions of dollars (Score:5, Informative)
At least they only got ripped off a few tens of millions of dollars with those fake scanners -- the USA got ripped off of $160M for body scanners that don't work [politico.com]
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what, no jack-worthy nude body pictures the TSA could pass around?
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The body scanners worked just fine. They made money for the people who made campaign contributions to the politicians who won and authorized their purchase.
Hey no fair, you took that quote from the article:
McCormick told him the ADE 651 "does exactly what it's designed to. It makes money."
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One slight difference - the fact that those body scanners are crap didn't contribute to anyone's death.
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I don't know, how much excess radiation was absorbed by those bodies?
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Yes, in much the same sense that I don't know whether the Sun came up on the morning of 19th February, 1862.
Still, if you know of a terrorist plot that was foiled by a TSA body scanner...
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Hang on, no, what I mean is:
If you know of a terrorist plot that wasn't foiled by a TSA body scanner when it should have been...
I think.
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Yes, in much the same sense that I don't know whether the Sun came up on the morning of 19th February, 1862.
Still, if you know of a terrorist plot that was foiled by a TSA body scanner...
Theres been some concern that the backscatter X-Ray scanners (which were rushed into service with little testing or oversight, and which are no longer used) caused more radioactive damage to the skin than expected, and possibly exposed workers to higher than expected X-ray doses. But the additional cancer risk was so slight that it could take years to show up. But it's *possible* that some of the machines did lead to premature deaths.
Re:Fake God Detector, Blamed For Hundreds of Death (Score:4, Insightful)
You probably blame religion for stuff like the Paris bombings or the Inquisition, but really it's bullshit. It's all about people, not religion.
Look at the brave old USSR, which was officially godless and atheist, and see how many millions died in prison camps or politically-driven mass murders. Same with Cambodia.
I know it's comforting to have something to blame for all the problems in the world, but that's basically the same as joining a religion because its dogma is a comforting way to see the world. Truth is, people have killed, stolen and raped each others forever, it has nothing to do with religion or politics, it's just how people are.
So we've heard it all about religion. Religions are stupid, religious books are fables, god is a security blanket blablabla. Can we please move beyond this? It feels as dated as SCO bashing.
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Truth is, people have killed, stolen and raped each others forever, it has nothing to do with religion or politics, it's just how people are.
No it's not.
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -- Steven Weinberg
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And what makes bad people do good things, if not religion? Mother Teresa comes to mind.
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And what makes bad people do good things, if not religion? Mother Teresa comes to mind.
'Mother' Theresa did many bad things, and was definitely a bad person. Try again.
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How is the parent not yet modded Troll?
A) Anybody who wants to study the science behind those things can do so, and there is quite sufficient evidence (replicated continuously in labs all over the world) for the latter two (assuming you mean Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and yes, speciation through evolutionary response to environmental pressure has been demonstrated in the lab). The effect of the first is still hotly (haha) debated, but the basic science behind it - humans emit literal
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How is the parent not yet modded Troll?
You might find yourself lacking opportunities to breed with anybody that has an IQ above room temperature, but such it the price of being vocally moronic.
Given the level of discussion that is your contribution to this thread, I'll take your alleged evidence (which is, as usual, not presented but merely stipulated) with a bag of salt.
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> Biology needs an Einstein.
that may be true, but, unlike religion, science will seek out a better theory and adopt it as soon as it proves out to be a better explanation of observed evidence.
if that happens with theory of evolution, fine. there's no scientist who will resist that kind of revision. in fact it has happened many many times.
> According to darwinists, our bodies mutated slowly for millions of years one at a time, so that our genome could have parts that look exactly like viral code from p
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Why don't you publicly question the theory of evolution or global warming then? You'll either be labeled a creationist or be told that there's "overwhelming evidence", end of discussion. The whole "question everything" thing only applies to whatever is not covered by the dogma. Total hypocrisy, just like those christians who take charity seriously unless you're gay.
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What unmitigated bullshit!
Here...written in terms so simple even you should be able to grasp. Read and learn:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.... [discovermagazine.com]
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There's nothing to learn in that article. It's just one more global warming zealot who goes on a rant about people who disagree with his dogma, and he even does the usual: put them in the same basket as holocaust deniers.
Oh wait: were you trying to provide an example of unmitigated bullshit? Because if that's the case, good one!
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here's the thing. evidence doesn't need someone's approval. you needn't "present it to someone".
facts, evidence, reproducible experiment are not up for debate, they're there, full stop.
if evidence is legit, legit scientists _will_ notice.
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See this is why it is not worth the time to present evidence to idiots like yourself.. because you wouldn't know what to do with said evidence if it were dropped in your lap due to your scorching case of confirmation bias and Dunning Kruger effect.
Again no evidence, just posturing and figure skating to hide the fact that you have no fucking clue if such "evidence" actually exists or not, you just gobbled up the dogma and perpetuate the cycle of blissful obedience.
People like you think that you are like Copernicus, bravely facing the hordes of idiots, but really in that story you're more like the Church who couldn't tolerate people arguing with the dogma and sent the heretic to jail..
Time for a game of russian roulette ^ 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Whereby McCormick gets to detect which one out of six bombs is not a bomb and is then forced to detonate it.
As an aside, really!?, a ten year sentence? Either this whole story is total bullshit or someone has no concept of proportionality - doesn't taking the name of a media-multinational in vain result a longer sentence than this?
Re:Time for a game of russian roulette ^ 2 (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually, I'd give him a choice - ten identical doors. He gets to use an unmodified ADE651 to pick which one to open. Nine out of ten have real (big) bombs mounted under the door frame. The remaining one has nothing. We give him an option at sentencing - he can either do life in prison, or pick a door and possibly go free. If his device works, that shouldn't be an issue at all.
Should make great pay-per-view.
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Not even a floor, just the top of a mine shaft.
However revenge fantasies are stupid and capital punishment requires too much messing about to avoid killing off the wrong people by mistake. Just try the fucker for his crimes and let him rot in jail - oh wait - already done - case closed.
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Simpler approach: drop him in the middle of a minefield with his device, and wish him luck.
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As an aside, really!?, a ten year sentence?
10 years is the maximum sentence for fraud in the UK.
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As an aside, really!?, a ten year sentence?
10 years is the maximum sentence for fraud in the UK.
Yes, but this is more like manslaughter.
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Whereby McCormick gets to detect which one out of six bombs is not a bomb and is then forced to detonate it.
As an aside, really!?, a ten year sentence? Either this whole story is total bullshit or someone has no concept of proportionality - doesn't taking the name of a media-multinational in vain result a longer sentence than this?
Russian roulette would actually be safer as the weight of the bullet pulls the cylinder down on the spin.
Yep (Score:1)
We have something similar at work, it's called McAf~` &j # ' NO CARRIER
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You don't have the McAfee removal instructions [youtube.com] yet? (NSFW)
10 years is not enough (Score:5, Insightful)
A fraud which has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of people should be punished with way more than 10 years.
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A fraud which has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of people should be punished with way more than 10 years.
Using him as a one time mine detector?
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Bonus points of a sizable chunk lands and sets off a second mine...
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Sadly mines aren't designed to gib you into chunks, which would be merciful. They're designed to maim you, because a dead soldier just needs a bodybag, but an injured soldier consumes medical resources and food, occupies personnel, and reduces morale by sitting around being all maimed.
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A fraud which has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of people should be punished with way more than 10 years.
Manslaughter for each person killed due to the fraud sounds about right.
Re:10 years is not enough (Score:5, Insightful)
What about the people who procured these units and didn't test them, either before the sale, or before deploying them? Complete lack of due diligence. Are they not liable too?
10 years??? (Score:2)
Re:10 years??? (Score:4, Interesting)
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And when you kill a man, you're a murderer Kill many, and you're a conqueror Kill them all ... Ooh ... Oh you're a God!
-Dave Mustaine, Megadeth
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics... [azlyrics.com]
Re:10 years??? (Score:4, Funny)
... Ooh ...
Megadeth
I probably imagined that a bit camper than it actually is.
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Crime doesn't pay? LOLOLOLOL (Score:3)
It's clear as can be that I'm in the wrong business.
Here I've been working and making an honest living all these years when I could have cobbled some 100% bullshit gadget together and sold enough of them to retire to my own tropical island and live in luxury for the rest of my life.
Who says "crime doesn't pay"? Seems like it pays pretty damn well to me....
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You don't see the blowjobs on high ranking suits this bastard had to perform to get the contract.
The basic problem is deliberately broken contracting processes. He thought he could get away with this. Let him go, if he snitches out every crooked politician and purchasing officer. Then let him go, to the families of those that died with his gadget in their hands.
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Here I've been working and making an honest living all these years when I could have cobbled some 100% bullshit gadget together and sold enough of them to retire to my own tropical island and live in luxury for the rest of my life.
Apart from the bit where you spend 10 years in jail and have the police "pursue your wealth" under the Proceeds of Crime [wikipedia.org] act.
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Apart from the bit where you spend 10 years in jail and have the police "pursue your wealth" under the Proceeds of Crime [wikipedia.org] act.
Except that he'll probably be out in 2 to 4 years at the most, and unless he's a complete dolt he's put his money where it can't be found or seized. It's not that hard to do with a little preparation.
Hell, for ten million dollars I'd happily serve a few years in prison knowing that I'd have a payday like that waiting for me when I got out. He'll probably do his time in some lame-ass minimum security facility, but even if he's in a Supermax prison he'll still come out ahead.
The moral of the story is that "if
Anybody test it on Ahmed's clock? (Score:2)
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It seems Ahmed's clock is even more lucrative than those fake detectors.
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Capitalism in action (Score:2)
Meanwhile (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, in the United States our own "glorified dowsing rods" the TSA continues to rake in somewhere around $8 Billion dollars a year in direct costs alone (likely tens of billions when you factor in economic losses, increased road deaths and secondary costs) and is 95% ineffective at finding lighters and knives. And chances are no one responsible for that debacle is ever going to see a fine let alone a prison sentence.
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Meanwhile, in the United States our own "glorified dowsing rods" the TSA continues to rake in somewhere around $8 Billion dollars a year in direct costs alone (likely tens of billions when you factor in economic losses, increased road deaths and secondary costs) and is 95% ineffective at finding lighters and knives. And chances are no one responsible for that debacle is ever going to see a fine let alone a prison sentence.
The difference here being that the actual risk in the US is negligible whereas the risk where these bomb dowsers are being used is substantial.
If you lived somewhere that there were real chances of a bomb being used you would want something that worked as well as possible, even if it was imperfect.
It works (Score:2)
You must be holding it wrong.
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You must be holding it wrong.
He should have sold it as an iPhone app, then he'd have had plausible deniability.
Cost =/= Worth (Score:2)
At the height of the conflict, as the new Iraqi government battled a wave of deadly car bombings, it purchased more than 7,000 ADE 651 units worth tens of millions of dollars
It cost tens of millions of dollars. It is worth tens of dollars as scrap. Sometimes, you don't get what you pay for.
Ineffective but very visable (Score:2)
Injustice (Score:2)
You can be imprisoned for life for swindling people out of money, but contributing to the murder of thousands of people through fraud is only 10 years? The guy should have been given 3 boxes and an ADE 651. If he detects the bomb, he gets to live.
It serves its purpose (Score:2)
That's why you need the new SCAM101 (Score:2)
Fake Bomb Detector, Blamed For Hundreds of Deaths, Is Still In Use
Sounds like someone needs to buy a few of my fake bomb detector decectors.
The real problem (Score:2)
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The real problem is that apparently no scientists were involved in the decision to purchase these things.
I imagine some palm-greasing of tame experts went on too. There surely must have been some sort of validation process, however sketchy?
Facepalm (Score:2)
I was out camping with a larger group. You know, all those friends of friends who say the darndest things. As topics bounced around I was reminded of this device and mentioned it, saying "it was basically an explosive finding dowsing rod" and one of the people pipes up
"Well nothing wrong with that then, dowsing rods work just fine"
What do you even say?
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GP is clearly referring to the science of pseudo-suede, known colloquially by the portmanteau psuede.
Re: Psuedoscience is for cows. (Score:1)
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Businesses sell BS every day. Atomic grade, deadly bullshit is common. Visit a 'natural health' store, anywhere.
But they convince themselves and don't go on record: 'of course [InsertBSproduct] is bullshit'.
This guy thought he could get away with it. Look at his history. I bet you he's done similar before, but his connections kept him in tea and crumpets.
Look at who this guy knew, the ones trying to look inconspicuous and hoping the sacrifice will be sufficient. I smell an upper class twit conspiracy
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Yes. Walls and checkpoints do work. Remember how it was basically a daily thing to hear about a bus or market bombing in Israel 10, 20 years ago? Then they built that electronic wall and those checkpoints, and while bleeding heart liberals tear their shirts open in outrage over the unpleasantness experienced by Palestinians, the bus and market bombings have stopped. The fuckers had to go in the next country, hiding behind women and children to throw rockets at Israel, and that problem more or less got solve
Re:aren't these aimed to prevent not detect? (Score:5, Insightful)
France has far more experience of terrorism than the USA. You may have heard of a country called Algeria. You may have heard of another called Lebanon. You may have heard of a few things that happened in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. You haven't? Why are you giving advice then?
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"Finds its way in"? You may have noticed that the folks behind the French attack were born there.
As a society, France isn't doing a very good job of helping immigrants feel like Frenchman -- even two or three generations out. Meaning you get folks who feel like second-class citizens, easy to radicalize and recruit.
And, for that matter, the US has no small problem with homegrown terrorism either. Hello, Oklahoma City bombing. Hello, burning churches. Looking at terrorism as a problem that comes from outside
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Kind of my point. If you knew enough to understand you wouldn't have written "France and other countries will learn", but you've clearly not bothered to pay much attention to the issue you are commenting on and thus what is considered normal general knowledge seems mysterious.
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Kind of my point. If you knew enough to understand you wouldn't have written "France and other countries will learn", but you've clearly not bothered to pay much attention to the issue you are commenting on and thus what is considered normal general knowledge seems mysterious.
No, what is mysterious is the way you put words and sentences together but as a whole they mean nothing. Are you Estonian or something like that? I've heard this kind of babbling from an Estonian janitor at work. The guy is very friendly but omg the way he speaks reminds me of that robot lady that drives airships from her bath in BSG.
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To put things in simple English since you seem to have trouble with it, there are plenty of subject matter experts in France that do not need advice from someone like you that has apparently been living under a rock and had no idea of the very long list of incidents that have occurred there. I'm not French but I do not ignore international affairs to su
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Do you get the idea now about how your initial post insulted just about everyone?
And you know that how? Did you organize a poll? Made phone calls? Went door to door with a clipboard? Or are you just so full of yourself that you can't help but project your own feelings on "everyone"?
I don't know what led you to get your panties in a bunch like that, and to be honest I can't say I really care, but really take a chill pill dude.
As for the whole "France has more experience in terrorism", a simple Wikipedia search proves you wrong. Compare the ranks of the USA and France on this simple scale
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Your comments about Israel's efforts to keep the pot from boiling over instead of solving anything in a local situation were another thing to demonstrate how worthless your advice is.
Why do people get off on telling others what to do when they know less than what the average person on the street does?
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Why do people get off on telling others what to do when they know less than what the average person on the street does?
Maybe the first step to get an answer to that question would be for you to explain why you, personally, are doing it?
You call people stupid, you claim to know what "everyone" thinks, and also you claim to know more about terrorism than Wikipedia. Feel free to keep piling up bitter comments and outrageous claims, but I think the extent of what you can contribute to this debate has been fully explored.
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The Israeli situation is both very different and nobody is pretending it is anything other than managing the risk.
I haven't put forward anything other than pointing you towards massive holes in your understanding of the issue - so sorry - you are not fooling anyone by trying to offload your faults onto me. Maybe you should start with wikip
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For the knowledge of others to be useful some understanding on your part that you can link it to is required. You've just given an example of a failure in that respect and in using a metric for a purpose it was never intended for. That metric does not prove what you have written in any way.
Just accept the criticism at face value.
I'm not even going as far as you did in telling you what to do.
I'm just poi
Nope, not American. You fail - again (Score:2)
Nope, he's not American. You, however, have kept up your perfect record of being entirely ignorant of the facts every time you post your Leninist garbage.
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Don't confuse dumb with corrupt.
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Some of the Gov officials did test it, and I seem to recall that McCormick's excuse for any bad results was always along the lines of operator error, inadequate training and, get this, the operator had to believe the device would work, otherwise it would not work.
It was standard pseudo-science bullshit. If it doesn't work, it's not the fault of the pseudo-science, it's because of those involved giving off bad vibes.