Iraq Bets By Bomb Detector US Calls Useless.

Despite huge bombings rattling Iraq as US troops withdraw, the government's security forces rely on a sensor device to detect bombs and weapons which the US military and technical experts say is useless. Known as the ADE 651, this costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Iraq has bought more than 1,500 of them. The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of check-points. But The New York Times on Nov. 3 quoted retired US Air Force officer Lt-Col Hal Bidlack as saying the ADE 651 worked "on the same principle as an Ouija board" the power of suggestion. He described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.

Nearly every police and Army check-point has one of the devices, used in place of physical inspections of vehicles. Since late June, PM Maleki has taken down blast walls along dozens of streets, and he contends that Iraqis will safeguard the country as US troops leave. But the recent bombings of government buildings in Baghdad have under-scored how precarious Iraq remains, especially with the coming elections and the violence expected to accompany them. The suicide bombers who managed to get two tons of explosives into central Baghdad on Oct. 25, killing 155 people and destroying three ministries, had to pass at least one check-point where the ADE 651 is typically deployed.

The US military does not use these devices. The New York Times on Nov. 3 quoted Maj-Gen Richard J. Rowe Jr., who oversees Iraqi police training for the US military, as saying: "I don't believe there's a magic wand that can detect explosives. If there was, we would all be using it. I have no confidence that these work". But the Iraqis passionately believe in them. Maj-Gen Jihad al-Jabiri, head of the Shi'ite-controlled Interior Ministry's General Directorate for Combating Explosives, says: "Whether it's magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs".

Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Centre at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Pentagon, says the centre has "tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance". The US Justice Department has warned against buying a variety of devices made by firms claiming to detect explosives at a distance with a portable sensor. Normal remote explosives detection machinery, often used in airports, weighs tons and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ADE 651's clients are mostly in developing countries; no major country's military or police force is a customer.

Gen Jabiri says: "I don't care about Sandia or the [US] Department of Justice or any of them. I know more about this issue than the Americans do. In fact, I know more about bombs than anyone in the world". He credited the fall in Baghdad bombings since 2007 to the ADE 651s at check-points. US military officials give credit for the decrease in suicide bombings to the surge in American forces, as well as the awakening councils (ACs), the US-founded tribal units in which mainly Sunni insurgents turned against al-Qaeda.

Interior Ministry Inspector-General Aqeel al-Turaihi has says the ministry had bought 800 of the devices from a company called ATSC (UK) Ltd. for $32m in 2008, and an unspecified larger quantity for $53m. He says Iraq paid up to $60,000 apiece, when the wands could be purchased for as little as $18,500. He says he has begun an investigation into the no-bid contracts with ATSC. The Baghdad Operations Command on Nov. 3 announced that it had purchased an additional 100 devices, but Gen Rowe said five to eight bomb-sniffing dogs could be purchased for $60,000, with provable results. Checking cars with dogs, however, is a slow process, whereas the wands take only a few seconds per vehicle. Gen Jabiri says: "Can you imagine dogs at all 400 check-points in Baghdad? The city would be a zoo".

Speed is not the only issue. Col Bidlack added: "When they say they are selling you something that will save your son or daughter on a patrol, they've crossed an insupportable line into moral depravity". In 2008, the James Randi Educational Foundation, an organisation seeking to debunk claims of the paranormal, publicly offered ATSC $1m if it could pass a scientific test proving the device could detect explosives. Randi said no one from the company had taken up the offer. ATSC's promotional material claims its device can find guns, ammunition, drugs, truffles, human bodies and even contraband ivory at distances up to a km, underground, through walls, under-water or even from airplanes three miles high. ATSC says the device works on "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction". To detect materials, the operator puts an array of plastic-coated cardboard cards with bar codes into a holder connected to the wand by a cable. Col. Bidlack said: "It would be laughable, except someone down the street from you is counting on this to keep bombs off the streets".

Proponents of the wand argue that errors stem from the human operator, who they say must be rested, with a steady pulse and body temperature, before using the device. Then the operator must walk in place a few moments to "charge" the device, since it has no power source, and walk with the wand at right angles to the body. If there are bombs to the operator's left, the wand must swivel to the operator's left and point at them. If, as often happens, no bombs or arms are found, the police may blame a false positive on other things found in the car, like perfume, air fresheners or gold fillings in the driver's teeth. The New York Times said a guard and a driver for the paper, "both licensed to carry firearms, drove through nine police checkpointsusing the device. None of the checkpoint guards detected the two AK-47 rifles and ammunition inside the vehicle". Gen Jabiri challenged a NYT reporter to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons. "You need more training", the general said.