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[The Bomb-Sniffing Gadget That's (Definitely Not) Saving Iraq (2009/11/03) on Gizmodo]
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The promise of the ADE 651 is seductive: a handheld detector, which susses out bombs, guns, drugs, and human bodies from up to a kilometer away. And the Iraqi military swears by it! One problem: It doesn't seem to work.

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To be able to instantly detect contraband like this would be a gamechanger 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 1,500 of the detectors, which are almost definitely just electric whisks with antennae, at a price of $16,500 to $60,000 each. Despite the steep price and fierce user loyalty, though, US government officials say the devices don't work at all:

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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."

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The device as even earned its own rhetorical "show us" bounty from the Capital "S" Skeptical James Randi Educational Foundation, which flags the ADE 651's manufacturer's claims that the device works with spooky-sounding "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction." This is by far the highest honor in pseudoscience.

[ROD NORDLAND: "Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless" (2009/11/03) on NY Times]


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

...

gI donft care about Sandia or the Department of Justice or any of them,h General Jabiri said. gI know more about this issue than the Americans do. In fact, I know more about bombs than anyone in the world.h

ƒCƒ‰ƒNl‚½‚¿‚́A‚µ‚©‚µA”M‹ï¿½ï¿½“I‚ɂ�}‚Ì‹@Ší‚ðM—Š‚µ‚��‚éBu–‚–@‚¾‚낤‚ª‰ÈŠw‚¾‚낤A–â‘è‚Í”š’e‚ðŒŸ’m‚Å‚«‚é‚©‚Ç‚¤‚©‚¾Bv‚Æ“à–�}È‚Ì"General Directorate for Combating Explosives"‚Ì’·‚Å‚ ‚éJehad al-Jabiri­«‚ÍŒ¾‚¤B

..

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