No, seriously. You are NOT going to believe this. Just like I couldn't when I first stumbled across it.
Yesterday, while browsing a forum related to Pakistani aviation, I came across an interesting bit of controversy regarding the small handheld explosive detectors that are being used by the Airport Security Force - I'm sure we've all seen them in action. The guy walks by your car holding a small cylindrical object with an antenna coming out of it. If the antenna turns and points to your car, your car will be searched. If not, you're ok to go. The extremely sophisticated device, called Advanced Explosive and Narcotics Detection Equipment. It is said to cost up to $60,000 per piece.
Well, here's the thing:
It's fake. It's a fraud. The damn thing doesn't work and it's not designed to work. These devices were initially manufactured by a company called ATSC in England. It was said to be a ground-breaking development in security, but scientists were immediately skeptical of the device. Over time, it turned out they were right because the owner of ATSC, Jim McCormick has been arrested and is being tried for fraud.
The british government has banned the export of the device, called ADE 651.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8471187.stm
What's even more disturbing is that the governments of Iraq and Pakistan, or at least their security agencies, continue to use these devices, in spite of the information that is now available. A quick search on wikipedia reveals that
According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry's inspector-general Aqeel al-Turaihi, he had investigated the device in 2008 but found it "inoperative" and costly and recommended that Iraq should not buy it. He told Reuters: "There was corruption associated with this contract and we referred to this and submitted our report to the Minister of the Interior. We said that the company which you made a contract with is not well-regarded internationally in the field of explosives detectors, and the price is very high and not commensurate with the abilities of this device." Al-Turaihi said that the buying process had been "marred by suspicions over the equipment and the efficiency and value of the contracts. There were senior officials involved in these transactions." The initial investigation did, however, find it could detect some bombs and the ministry went ahead with the contract despite al-Turaihi's concerns.
Despite the controversy, the device is still being used at checkpoints across Iraq. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has defended the continued use of the ADE-651. The head of the ministry's counter-explosives unit, General Jihad al-Jabiri, told the BBC that his organisation had "conducted several tests on them, and found them successful. In addition, we have a series of achievements officially documented by the Baghdad operations centre, from all the provinces, which establish that these devices detected thousands of bombs, booby-trapped houses and car bombs, and we've noticed a reduction of bombing activities to less than 10 per cent of what it was." A senior ministry official, Assistant Deputy Minister General Tareq al-Asl, toldAsharq Al-Awsat: "The reason the director of the company was arrested was not because the device doesn't work, but because he refused to divulge the secret of how it works to the British authorities, and the Americans before them. I have tested it in practice and it works effectively and 100% reliably."
and in Pakistan...
After the ADE 651 became the focus of controversy for its role in Iraq, concerns were raised in Pakistan about its employment as a bomb detector by the Pakistani security forces. A senior official at Jinnah International Airport denied that it was using the ADE 651, claiming that the Airport Security Force had designed the device in use there, but other ASF officials acknowledged that their device "operated on the same principle as ADE-651." Pakistani scientists rejected the scientific basis on which the device was claimed to work; Professor Shahid Zaidi of Karachi University told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that "there has to be an electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field for a device to work in such a manner. Furthermore static fields don’t move around the way it is being claimed by some. Also don’t forget that there are so many radio waves of different frequencies all around us. I just don’t see how this device would work." Dawn challenged the ASF to test the device to confirm its effectiveness but the ASF refused, insisting that the device works.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651)
So, our airports are being protected with a "magic wand" that doesn't really work? Nice.
Here's an idea (admittedly, not my own): Let's get this McCormick guy to walk through a mine field, using the magic wand to detect mines.
