Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless

[mkrnhr]

_http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html?_r=1

I don't know if it could fit in the "axis of evil" or the "don't panic" section :/

abstract :

BAGHDAD — Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless.

And then it goes :

The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” — the power of suggestion — said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.

Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.

And later

The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,” said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Explosives.

Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of Defense, said the center had “tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance.”

Everything : wishfull thinking, deception...

 

[Laura]

Well, Ark was paid a lot of money and spent several years working on just such a device for DOD sub-contractor in Florida. As far as I understand it, the thing works and works well which means that all the other nonsensical "security measures" that have been taken are pretty much just to intimidate people and violate their privacy and impose fascist constraints. I'll ask him to have a look.

 

[ark]

Well, Ark was paid a lot of money and spent several years working on just such a device for DOD sub-contractor in Florida.

In fact I was working on detecting radioactive devices. Detecting ordinary bombs is something altogether different.