The Bomb-Sniffing Gadget That’s (Definitely Not) Saving Iraq
The promise of the ADE 651 is seductive: a handheld detector which susses out bombs, guns, drugs and human bodies from up to a kilometre away. And the Iraqi military swears by it! One problem: It doesn’t seem to work.
To be able to instantly detect contraband like this would be a game-changer in Iraq, where the (effectively) free transit of roadside bombs and IEDs is a constant threat, so the Iraqi government is willing to pay a premium for devices that promise as much — they’ve already bought 1500 of the detectors at a price of $US16,500 to $US60,000 each. Despite the steep price and fierce user loyalty though, US government officials say the devices don’t work at all:
Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security centre at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of defence, said the centre had “tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance.”
Capital “S” Sceptical organisations like the James Randi Educational Foundation have joined the cause too, flagging the ADE 651’s manufacturer’s claims that the device works with spooky-sounding “electrostatic magnetic ion attraction” and offering a (rhetorical) bounty to anyone who can prove they actually work.
ATSC, the company that manufactures the device out of the UK, wouldn’t even talk to the New York Times, cementing an already obvious conclusion: This is a case of a bogus company taking advantage of credulous, vulnerable consumers by selling a device that seems like it works by virtue of being many users’ only means of bomb detection, meaning that they never notice when it doesn’t work — it’s just another car passing through a checkpoint; who knows if the bombing later that afternoon had anything to do with it!— and always notice when it does, even if by pure chance.
You may have failed miserably at designing a universal contraband detector, ATSC, but hey, at least your scam was well engineered. [NYT]
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This article will aim to provide a satisfied customer’s point of view on ATSC’s ADE651, and also gives the other side to the argument from the current one sided blogs and disussion forums on the internet. Many people will ask why i bothered myself to write such an article? Being head of security for a large organisation in Jordan and after these so called anti skeptic websites were brought to my attention by a colleague and after reading quite a few articles, i noticed that these people were making quite childish and unfounded accusations about the product and its manufacturer without ever having used the product. This article aims to set the record straight from a customers point of view, who is neutral, but found that all current websites on the subject of the ADE 651 to be biased, one sided and frankly quite aggressive.
Before even buying an ADE651 unit you are provided with a full demonstration under which you would set the conditions for the test.
Certain people however, seem to believe that governments and large organizations such as the one I work for would actually go ahead and purchase such a piece of equipment without strenuously testing and re-testing the unit under their terms and conditions. This of course does not happen. If an end user such as myself would not be happy with the results why would people go ahead and purchase it.
I do not claim to know the scientific reasoning behind the product and as the end user I frankly don’t care. All that matters to me is that the product actually works and that me and my team are currently using the ADE651 and every time we have demonstrated or tested the products it has worked. I have a staff of about 40 security officers working for me and every month or so I do so called spot checks and when used properly the device has never failed me. This is why I really am finding it difficult to understand why people who have never used the device will be so against it. I am one of many customers, of whom most I have spoken to who have been amazed and astounded at the accuracy and effectiveness of the ADE651 when its being used by well trained staff.