Representative Kelly used the same kind of excuse during Abscam. It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. The "scientists" know the protocol set up to test the samples that would be collected had been tested many times over. The lack of trust for the very science they claimed to be using is troubling.
This is so much Barbara Strisand,BS. In minerals exploration, geologists routinely use procedures to test the accuracy of analytical labs, and W. Tell is right, these procedures are well-established and known to everyone in the exploration company. We always had a written document describing the exact lab-testing procedure.
I do not believe for a minute these bozos are telling the truth and they should be fired.