ADE-651 – the Rip-Off Bomb Detector

The issue surrounding a bomb detector is slowly developing into a military equivalent of a hurricane in the United Kingdom. ADE-651, the bomb detector marketed in more than 20 countries that include Iraq, Pakistan and Thailand by a company by the name ATSC, based in Somerset United Kingdom, has turned out to be a very expensive gadget that is good at nothing apart from its manufactured aura for deception.

Caroline Hawley, the world affairs correspondent of the BBC has every right to expose the company which sold this product to Iraq while claiming its ability to detect bomb. She used to be the correspondent of the BBC in Iraq during its most turbulent period since the overthrow of Sadaam Hussain: she risk her life while reporting to the world what went on in Iraq during that time; she saw the carnage caused by bombs with her own eyes, before we saw the edited versions; she may not have believed that a British company exploited the grim situation to make huge profits at the expense of their own soldiers and helpless Iraqi civilians – and selling fake equipment.

Jim McCormick, the owner of the company is in hiding at the moment, after being arrested by the police for possible fraud. The newsnight programme of the BBC which exposed the scam did reveal startling facts with regard to the product.

ADE-651 is sold for $40,000 and the Iraqi government alone has spent around $80million on it. Its questionable ability to detect bombs had been in the public domain for some time, at least among military experts. The suspicion has peaked after its inability to detect bombs before multiple explosions.

Jim McCormick had defended the product in a similar interview, a few months back saying that it works on the same principle of water dowsing – an old method to detect underground water using a folded metal rod. ADE-651 does not have a part to generate power – by a battery, solar power or mains.

Mr McCormick says it is powered by the static electricity of the man who holds it. However, he forgot to instruct his clients not to wear hand gloves to interrupt that feeble process; many Iraqi soldiers have been photographed with the device while wearing gloves.

The ‘antenna’ of the device, a folded metal rod is said to be in a plastic holder that swivels in the direction of explosive devices – miles away. However, expert now say it just responds to the reflex actions of the person who holds it. An Iraqi soldier who is vulnerable on many fronts is not short of those actions – and to make the ‘antenna’ dance to the whims of the manufacturer.

The most outrageous part of the device was its catalogue of ‘smart cards’ – a credit card type rectangular plastic cards which were said to have been programmed with information about explosives. When Caroline took it to the Cambridge Computer laboratory for elaborate analysis, they turned out to be anti-theft electronic devices costing as little as 2 to 3 pence with no mechanism for programming or memory.

All in all, ade-651 has been a comical bomb detector, good enough to fool insecure people by creating a false security sense. ATSC is already in trouble: the British government has imposed an export ban on the product; the owner has been arrested for possible fraud; Iraqi government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the fiasco.

The events once again expose the dangers of pursuing high tech solutions to the threats posed by terrorists. There are jackals which are as bad as the fanatics in robes who are hell bent on tormenting our daily lives, to cash in on every fragile front. Mr Jim McCormack has a lot of explaining to do if he doesn’t want to be in that vile league. The military officers who had been taken for a bumpy ride by Mr McCormack, will have to perform something much more serious than scratching the back of their heads to save their skins.

- Asian Tribune -