Iraqi government wastes $85 million on magic bomb detectors

**caffeine** · 10th December 2009 06:05 AM

This isn't breaking news, but I only just stumbled across it. Eager to find a way of dealing with the terrorist threat to the country's stability, the iraqi government is shelling out millions on bomb detectors for use at security checkpoints.

The device in question is the AED651. The manufacturer's website claims:

ADE651™ is the first remote portable substance detector to incorporate the long-range electrostatic attraction of highly charged ions for the effective identification of even the most difficult substances. The ADE651™ is able to detect programmed substances at long distances safely and without the need to have actual physical contact with the substance (No needs of calibration with a sample). It is extremely easy to aperate (sic!) and delivers fast detection of the programmed substances in a small lightweight package.

Thing is, this is a big, stinking pile of horseshit dressed up in sciencey-sounding words. The device does nothing at all - it's just a divining rod for the computer age. It has no power source at all. The NYT's informal method of testing it was to drive through 9 police checkpoints carrying guns and ammunition which, predictably, the expensive gadgets totally failed to detect.

I can only hope the people marketing it are deluded morons, because if not they're fraudsters intentionally putting people's lives at risk in order to steal taxpayer's money. Worryingly, the website reports that the devices are also being used by police and military in Lebanon, Thailand and China. It's enough to make you cry.

**caffeine** · 25th January 2010 12:21 PM

Anyone who was interested in this story may be pleased to know that the man behind it all has been arrested for fraud. Here's what he had to said about those who pointed out the bomb detectors don't do anything:

“We have been dealing with doubters for ten years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.”

Because it's the lack of lights that's a problem, rather than the lack of any mechanism by which it could work,

**Chief** · 25th January 2010 12:31 PM

I wonder how much we can sell those shoes with heels that light up when they hit the ground to Iraqis? I think that guy is making the right move by adding flashing lights to his bomb detector. I hope he uses blue lights. Red lights are so last year.

**Dr.Knuckles** · 1st February 2010 10:57 AM

I'm hearing now about shipping containers sent straight from US Fed Reserve to the Iraqi government with a neat hundred million in cash on each one. They of coruse arrive in a foreign port, get put on another ship, then another ship, then another ship, then another ship, and then land in a suitably dirty port (Russia, Columbia, Saudia Arabie, Turkey) the money is laundered and then returned on paper- minus operating costs and the cut for the launering - to the very same mid-level politicians that sent it in the first place.

Feel free to direct me to the conspiracy theory thread.. but you know.... smoke and fire....