Iraq Prime Minister Orders Police Forces To Stop Using Useless Bomb Detectors

A device used by Iraqi forces to detect bombs and other weapons at checkpoints has been called useless by the American military. Credit Johan Spanner for The New York Times

Reuters: Iraq PM Abadi orders police to stop using fake bomb detectors

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services on Sunday to stop using fake bomb detectors at checkpoints after a bombing killed at least 120 people in Baghdad in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Reacting after the deadliest attack so far this year, Abadi also ordered a new investigation at the interior ministry into "corrupt deals" to buy ADE 651 devices developed as lost golf balls finders and sold to Iraq and other nations as hand-held bomb detectors.

A police officer earlier confirmed to Reuters that these devices, commonly known as the "magic wand", were still in use five years after the scandal about the sale to Iraq broke out.

The British businessman who sold the detectors to Iraq and other countries, James McCormick, was sentenced in 2013 in Britain to 10 years in jail for endangering lives for profit.

Read more ....

Update #1: Abadi orders security to stop using ‘magic wands’ to detect explosives (RUDAW)
Update #2: A corrupt deal for security wands left Iraq vulnerable to Baghdad bomb blast (Mustafa Salim and Loveday Morris, Washington Post)

WNU Editor: I have been posting stories for years on how useless these bomb detectors are .... and I thought they were banned years ago. Apparently not. And who is to blame .... sadly .... the Iraqis themselves .... Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless (New York Times).

Bomb Sniffing Elephants?

National Geographic: Can Elephants' Amazing Sense of Smell Help Sniff Out Bombs?

The U.S. military’s push for better bomb detectors involves taking cues from elephants’ ability to locate TNT.

BELA BELA, South Africa—Chishuru, a large African elephant bull with a talent for sniffing out TNT, stood in front of a line of seven white buckets.

Inside one of the buckets on a recent morning was a slight trace of TNT on a piece of paper stapled to the bottom. Chishuru's job was to find out exactly which bucket it was—using his nimble trunk to guide the way.

The elephant ambled between the buckets, snaking his long trunk into each one—there were different, harmless scent traces in each bucket—and taking a big sniff before moving on to the next. At the fifth bucket he paused and raised his right leg, indicating to a research team that this was the one with a trace of TNT inside. Bingo.

WNU Editor: I understand that they are trying to understand the science that is involved in detecting certain smells .... but there is one U.S. politician who is not impressed .... McCain: Pentagon wasting money studying 'bomb-sniffing elephants' (The Hill).

More News On Elephants And Their Uncanny Ability To Detect Explosives

Bomb-sniffing ELEPHANTS could save lives: Animals can identify explosives using their incredible sense of smell -- Daily Mail
Elephants trained by US Army to sniff out bombs -- The Week
Elephants trained to sniff out trouble -- Washington Post
Elephants Trained To Sniff Out Bombs, Bio Weapons In South Africa -- Inquisitr
Bomb-sniffing elephants could help military ID explosives -- New York Post/AP

Seller Of Fake Bomb Detectors Jailed In Britain For 10 Years

Maker Of Fake Bomb Detector Gets 10 Years In Prison -- CNN

London (CNN) -- The maker of a fake bomb detector that investigators say put lives at risk was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison by a London court.

James McCormick, 57, marketed his ADE 651 units to government agencies and private companies around the world, including in Iraq, with sales exceeding $50 million by his own admission.

However, independent tests showed the device has no better than a random chance of finding a golf ball, much less a bomb.

British police say the device -- the ADE standing for "Advanced Detection Equipment" -- is really a novelty golf-ball finder with the label removed.

Read more ....

More News On Maker Of Fake Bomb Detector Getting 10 Years In Prison

'Shameless' British fraudster jailed for selling fake bomb detectors -- Reuters
Fake bomb detector conman jailed for 10 years -- The Guardian
Briton jailed for 10 years over fake bomb detectors -- AFP
Iraq: Seller Of Fake Bomb Detectors Jailed In Britain -- Radio Free Europe
U.K. man jailed for selling fake bomb detectors -- CBS/AP
UK Businessman Jailed For Selling Armies 'Golf Ball Finders' As Bomb Detectors -- Business Insider
Bomb detector conman James McCormick has shown 'no shame, no remorse' -- The Telegraph

My Comment: Only 10 years!?!?!?! He got off light.

Selling Bogus Bomb Detectors Is Big Business

Businessman Made £50million Selling Fake Bomb Detectors Based On Novelty Golf Ball Machine Claiming They Could Find Drugs And Explosives Underwater And Through Walls -- Daily Mail

* James McCormick, 57, sold 'ineffectual' devices for up to £27,000 each
* Majority were sold to Iraq, where they are still in use today
* Gadgets are essentially hand-held aerials fixed to plastic hinges

A conman made £50million and put thousands of lives at risk by selling fake bomb detectors to security forces based on £13 novelty ‘golf ball finders’.

James McCormick, 57, sold the ‘completely ineffectual’ devices for up to £27,000 each to police forces and armies around the world.

The majority of his fake detectors were sold to Iraq where they were used at virtually every checkpoint in Baghdad and Basra from 2006 – and are still in use today.

Read more ....

More News On British Businessman James McCormick Being Found Guilty Of Selling Fake Bomb Detectors

UK businessman found guilty of selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq -- The Guardian
James McCormick guilty of selling fake bomb detectors -- BBC
UK "conman" convicted of selling fake bomb detectors -- Reuters
Businessman found guilty of selling fake bomb detectors to governments -- The Telegraph
Fake bomb detectors were being used in Iraq as recently as last month -- The Guardian
Brit Convicted of Selling Fake Bomb Detectors, Iraq Still Using Them -- ABC News
Millionaire guilty of selling fake bomb detectors -- AFP
U.K. businessman James McCormick convicted of selling golf ball finders as bomb detectors to Iraq -- CBS/AP
Lives at risk around the world from novelty golf toys sold as 'bomb detectors' -- Sydney Morning Herald
Mystery surrounds how James McCormick managed to build thriving business selling fake bomb detectors -- The Independent
Fake bomb detectors 'destroyed lives' -- Caroline Hawley & Meirion Jones, BBC Newsnight
James McCormick's fake bomb detectors and the attack I witnessed in Baghdad -- David Blair, The Telegraph

Can Mice Detect Weapons, Explosives And Drugs?

Agent Squeak! Russian Military Could Recruit Mice To Detect Weapons, Explosives And Drugs -- Daily Mail

* Sources in Moscow say mice have been used already by the Israeli military
* It is believed they could even seek out human hostages

Russian military intelligence is testing out a new spy recruit - Agent Squeak.

Not as glamorous as flame-haired foreign intelligence agent Anna Chapman, mice are nevertheless seen as fast and versatile in underground operations, say experts.

They are potentially superior to dogs in detecting explosives and ammunition as well as seeking out human hostages, it is claimed.

Read more ....

My Comment: Training mice ... hmmmm .... no.

Why Did DARPA Buy This Bomb Tech?

Dugan at TED

Investigation: Despite Repeated Failures, DARPA Bought Director's Family's Lousy Bomb Tech -- Popular Science

Generally when PopSci writes about DARPA we do so with enthusiasm, as the Pentagon’s far-out research arm tends to prod at the edges of what seems possible, even when it fails spectacularly. But when it fails institutionally, we have to acknowledge that even the storied Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is at a fundamental level a bureaucracy prone to the same problems and inefficiencies as any other bureaucracy. With that, point you toward a piece by the crew over at Danger Room, who today tell the tale of a seemingly huge DARPA fail.

Read more ....

My Comment: Favoritism at play here?

Looking For Underground Bombs

A Man, a Robot, and a Mission Courtesy G4

The Navy's Gremlin Uses Sonic Waves to Find Underground Bombs -- Popular Science

The tools for safely disposing of explosive threats like improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have come a long way over the last decade, but one rule of explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) holds fast regardless of how much technology you throw at it: you can’t terminate a threat if you don’t know where it is. To that end, the Office of Naval Research is hoping to field a new sensor package that can see bombs buried under the ground or otherwise obscured from view by blasting them with sound waves and seeing what kinds of vibrations come back.

Read more ....

My Comment: What a change from using the old fashion metal detector.

Bomb Sniffing Dogs In The Russian Military (Video)

My Comment: There is a saying in the Russian military .... better the other guy gets it than you .... that has been making the rounds for years. After watching this Russian military bomb sniffing video, they should now say .... better the dog gets it than you.

Butterflies Being Used As Bomb/Chemical/Disease Detectors

The Blue Morpho Butterfly Zirland via wikimedia

DARPA And GE Look To Butterfly Wings for Better Chemical Sensors -- Popular Science

Researchers at GE Global Research are working with DARPA funding to tap butterfly tech to make a new breed of sensors that could detect everything from explosives, to chemical attacks, to disease biomarkers on a person's breath.

The research team discovered a few years ago that the scales on Morphos butterfly wings have extremely fine-tuned sensing abilities that can pick molecules out of the atmospheric noise. Nano-level structures underneath the colorful scales on the butterflies' wings react to different vapors, changing the spectral reflectivity of the wings depending on what they are exposed to.

Read more ....

My Comment: What will they think of next?

Quartz Rods Could Provide Instant Bomb Detector

Destroyed by a TATP bomb (Image: Dylan Martinez/PA archive/PA)

From New Scientist:

A CHEAP artificial nose promises to make it much easier to detect the explosive triacetone triperoxide. The device could be installed in the doorways of buses, trains and airports to sound an alarm if someone carrying TATP crosses the threshold.

Attention started to focus on TATP following its use in the 7 July 2005 bus and tube bombings in London, and the attacks on trains the previous year in Madrid, Spain. The explosive can be made using easily obtainable domestic chemicals and has explosive power similar to TNT.

Read more ....

My Comment: Passive security is always the best .... becoming active only when a threat is perceived/detected.

UK Halts 'Bomb Detector' Exports

British Firms Banned From Exporting Faulty Bomb Detectors To Iraq And Afghanistan -- The Telegraph

British companies have been banned from exporting defective bomb detectors to Iraq and Afghanistan over fears they have failed to prevent hundreds of deaths.

The Iraqi government is understood to have spent £53 million buying thousands of ADE-651 bomb detectors for use at its 400 checkpoints, but tests have since revealed that they do not work.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, banned the export of the devices to the two war-torn countries yesterday on the basis that they could cause harm to British or friendly forces.

Read more ....

More News On This "Bomb Detector" Fraud

British Man Held for Fraud in Iraq Bomb Detectors -- New York Times
Briton accused of selling fake bomb detectors -- CNN
Tests reveal 'bomb detector' cannot work -- BBC
UK halts export of bomb detection device to Iraq, Afghanistan after it's called ineffective -- Canadian Press
Iraq MPs demand bomb detector be axed after UK ban -- Reuters
Businessman arrested for fraud over bomb detectors -- AFP
'Bomb detectors' banned after Times exposé -- Times Online

Sniffing Out The Terrorists In Airports Or In The Battlefield

New Technology Said To Sniff Out Terrorists -- Eurasia News

A new intelligent system has been developed to help identify terrorists carrying explosives. Sensitive electronic noses capture the smell of the explosives - the system processes the acquired data, correlates it with individuals’ movements and ultimately tracks down the suspects.

According to the creators of the new system, a not-so futuristic scenario could involve literally hundreds of people hurrying through a long airport corridor between Terminals A and B while electronic "sniffers" seek out terrorits.

In such a scenario, the new technology could identify terrorists, who've hidden themselves in the crowd.

Read more ....

My Comment: This type of technology has been around for a long time .... but there were always limits. I guess those limits are now being solved.