Refuting Bush in 20 Seconds

It's easier if one is just reproducing Greg Sargent's refutation.


Bush claimed

Earlier this year, a newspaper published details of a new anti-IED technology that was being developed. Within five days of the publication -- using details from that article -- the enemy had posted instructions for defeating this new technology on the Internet. We cannot let the enemy know how we're working to defeat him.

This is odd, since the technology called Jin was described in public last June in Defence Industry Daily

"The new system, dubbed the Joint IED Neutralizer (JIN), uses a directed-energy-discharge system mounted on a remotely operated armored vehicled to detonate IEDs without putting troops or engineering personnel in harm's way. "

They also have a photo. The only difference between the technical details published last June and the technical details in the LA Times article denounced by Bush is that the LA Times describes the "directed energy" as an electronic shock like artificial lightning.

Time to find that the secret blown by the LA Times was public domain last June. Seriously 0, since Sargent noted it. Time to find independent proof ? 20 seconds.
I clicked on the first hit of my first google search which was for jin AND ied.


One more click and I learn that I could have learned last June that the energy was high voltage electricity

"Developed by Ionatron, Inc. (Tucson, AZ), the JIN is a directed-energy-discharge system mounted on a remotely operated armored vehicle. The system uses high-voltage electrical discharges from a remote-controlled boom to prematurely detonate IEDs."

Now it is no doubt true that information useful in evading JIN is available on the web less than 5 days after the LA Times story, since it was there more than five months before the LA Times story.