The ADE 651 is a lump of plastic with a wobbly telescopic antenna attached. It is claimed by its manufacturers to be able to detect many things and substances at long ranges.
The US Government says that during tests on a similar device it failed to detect a truck carrying a tonne of TNT when it drove up behind the operator.Source: TimesOnLine
The American magician James Randi has condemned the device as a “blatant fraud” and offered $1 million if the manufacturer, ATSC, can prove that it works. ATSC has declined. Now, it may be that since ATSC made $80 million from the Iraqis they just don't need James Randi's measly million. Most likely, the devices are a fraud and a scam, as reported here by Barry Leiba back in November 2009.
Scientificblogging readers - and every sane bomb disposal operative in the world - will no
doubt be pleased to learn that the UK government has banned the export of these devices. I say 'devices' very loosely, they seem to be 'devised' only to separate naive folks from the spendable stuff.
The managing director of ATSC, Jim McCormick, has no technical or scientific background. A former police officer, McCormick has been arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The company's main website is "under repair" - maybe all of those electromagnetic ion devices created an electromagnetic pulse that took down their server.
http://www.atscltd.com
The company's alternate site is very amateurish: not what one would expect from a world-class exporter of explosive substance detectors.
http://atscllc.en.ecplaza.net/
Further reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/22/bomb-detectors-iraq-arrest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651
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I'm off now to patent my BS detector, the bovexTM. It works by comparing authorship of publications against a list of the world's confidence tricksters, politicians, judges, lawyers and lobbyists. A match with any one of the names causes a red LED to flash and a beeper to beep most annoyingly. It can't fail to sell.
Note: bovex = BOVine EXcrement.
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