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Bomb Detectors’ Cost James E SI May June 2010 pgs_SI MJ 2010 3/26/10 9:19 AM Page 5 N E W S A N D C O M M E N T Skep ti cal In quir er™ THE MAG A ZINE FOR SCI ENCE AND REA SON ED I TOR Pseudoscience and the Iraq War: Kend rick Fra zi er ED I TO RI AL BOARD Bogus ‘Bomb Detectors’ Cost James E. Al cock Thom as Cas ten Mar tin Gard ner Money and Lives Ray Hy man Paul Kurtz Joe Nick ell Am ar deo Sar ma Benjamin Wolozin CON SULT ING ED I TORS Sus an J. Black more Ken neth L. Fed er Barry Karr E. C. Krupp Scott O. Lil i en feld Da vid F. Marks Jay M. Pasachoff Eu ge nie Scott Rich ard Wis e man CON TRIB UT ING ED I TORS Austin Dacey D.J. Grothe Harriet Hall Kenneth W. Krause Chris Moon ey James E. Oberg Rob ert Sheaf fer Karen Stollznow Da vid E. Thom as MAN A GING ED I TOR Ben ja min Rad ford ART DI RECT OR Chri sto pher Fix looks like a radio antenna on a swivel, JAY M. PASACHOFF PRO DUC TION which swings to point toward the pres- Paul Loynes There are so many things to be upset ASSISTANT EDITORS ence of weapons or explosives.” It is a Julia Lavarnway about with the situation in Iraq, but current-day dowsing rod. Gingle C. Lee the pseudoscience in play is particularly CAR TOON IST Norland had already reported, in a Rob Pu dim pain ful. For a recent interview on pseu- November 3 New York Times article, that WEB DEVELOPER doscience, dealing with my selection as a C. Alan Zoppa this useless device was in use at “hun- fellow of the Committee for Skeptical dreds of checkpoints in Iraq” and that the PUB LISH ER’S REP RE SENT A TIVE Bar ry Karr Inquiry, I was asked for an example of a devices “are now normally used in place COR PO RATE COUN SEL downside of pseudoscience and, with the of physical inspections of vehicles.” Bren ton N. Ver Ploeg Iraq example below in mind, I said, “It That article reported that the James BUSI NESS MAN A GER Pa tri cia Beau champ costs lives.” It wastes money, too. Randi Educational Foundation had FIS CAL OF FI CER Here’s what I was referring to. offered a million dollars if the device Paul Pau lin The New York Times reported on could detect explosives but that the VICE PRESIDENT OF PLANNING AND DE VEL OP MENT January 23 that the director of a British offer hadn’t been taken up. Still, the Sherry Rook company that supplies bomb detectors head of the Iraqi Ministry of the DATA OF FI CER Jacalyn Mohr to Iraq was arrested on fraud charges. Interior’s General Directorate for Com - STAFF The British company TSC Ltd. sold at bating Explosives, Major General Jehad Pa tri cia Beau champ Cheryl Catania least eight hundred of these “bomb al-Jabiri, believes in it. Roe Giambrone Leah Gordon detectors” called ADE 651 to the Iraqi In one of the recent articles, a govern- Sandy Kujawa government and was paid at least $85 An tho ny San ta Lu cia ment official from the Iraqi Parlia ment’s John Sul li van million for them. Security and Defense Committee is quo - Vance Vi grass The Times’s article, by Riyadh Mo - ted as saying, “This company not only PUB LIC RE LA TIONS Nathan Bupp ham med from Baghdad and Rod Nor - caused grave and massive losses of funds, Henry Huber land from Kabul, said, “The ADE 651 is but it has caused grave and massive losses IN QUIRY ME DIA PRO DUC TIONS Thom as Flynn a hand-held wand with no batteries or of the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, by DI RECT OR OF LI BRAR IES internal electronic components, ostensi- the hundreds and thousands, from Tim o thy S. Binga bly powered by the static electricity of the attacks that we thought we were immune The SKEP TI CAL IN QUIR ER is the of fi cial jour nal of the Com mit tee for Skeptical Inquiry, user, who needs to walk in place to to because we have this device.” an in ter na tion al or gan i za tion. charge it. The only moving part is what These worthless devices were manu- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER May / June 2010 5 SI May June 2010 pgs_SI MJ 2010 3/26/10 9:19 AM Page 6 N E W S A N D C O M M E N T factured very cheaply and sold to the Iraqi Failed tests of predecessor devices go The published Sandia report noted government for $40,000 to $60,000 each. back at least fifteen years. In 1996 Date - that MOLE appeared “physically nearly One can only wish that the procurement line NBC, after consulting with Randi, identical” to the Quadro Tracker that officials there had scientific minds and aired an exposé of the so-called Quadro Sandia had evaluated in 1995. The only hadn’t fallen for this pseudoscience. Tracker, also known as the Positive Mo - visible physical differences appeared to be Said one article: “The BBC reported lecular Locator. The company that made the product labels and the handle-pro- that it had arranged a lab test of the it claimed it could find drugs, weapons, gramming chip—interchangeable on the device and found that its bomb-detec- explosives, currency, drug users, and miss- Quadro Tracker, permanently fixed on tion component was an electronic mer- ing people from hundreds of miles away. the MOLE. chandise tag of the sort used to prevent It consisted of a retractable por table radio The latest reports from Iraq show that shoplifting.” The company’s claim that antenna moun ted on a handle and was such pseudoscientific, costly, and danger- the ADE 651 “can detect minute traces essentially a dowsing rod, sensitive to the ous deceptions have continued. of explosives, drugs, or even human re - subconscious hand move ments of the In a related story, an article by Marc mains at distances of up to 6 miles by air, operator. The Quadro Tracker was sold Lacey in the March 16, 2010, New York or three-fifths of a mile by land” is so widely to police de partments and school Times reports that the police and the mil- clearly bogus to anybody with a scientific systems for $400 to $8,000. itary in Mexico use similar “magic wands” mind that the loss of perhaps thousands Researchers at Sandia National Lab ora - for drug detection. of lives through its use is outrageous. tories in Albuquerque, New Mex ico, had The article reports that the British gov- The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER asked James examined that device in 1995 at the ernment has notified the Mexican govern- Randi, who provided advice about test- request of the National Institute of Justice ment that the device “may be ineffective.” (NIJ). “There are no electronics, motors, ing such devices in the mid-1990s, for Still, the GT200 manufactured by the or any other electrical devices inside the his perspective about the latest develop- British firm Global Technical Ltd. is widely handle,” according to the Sandia report ments. Here’s what Randi said: used at checkpoints in Mexico. “As of April released by the NIJ (see SI, Jan - 20, 2009, the army had purchased 521 of The original price paid for the uary/February 1997, pp. 20–21). Several the GT 200 detectors for just over $20,000 device was a few thousand dollars, months after the NBC report, a U.S. dis- apiece, for a total cost of more than $10 still a ridiculously high amount; trict judge granted a permanent injunc- million.” The product is reported to be the multiple Iraqi hands that it tion against the company saying it similar to the ADE 651 manufactured by a passed through elevated that price “engaged in a scheme to defraud” because many times over. And, this expo- “the defendants knew that there was no different British company. sure still leaves a few dozen other reasonable basis” for the company’s claims. The article says that the British gov- identical scam “sticks” out there, In 2002 Sandia was asked by the ernment is considering legislation to stop all making millions, and none of National Law Enforcement and Correc - exports of the device. them working. The James Randi tions Technology Center, funded by the The main good news in the article is Educational Foundation directly NIJ, to test a similar device, the MOLE that “the Drug Enforcement Admin - offered the responsible Iraqi offi- programmable detection system, then istration in Washington said it did not cials—including Major General marketed by a company in Kent, United use the handheld detectors.” Jehad al-Jabiri—our million-dol- Kingdom. It also had a radio-type Still, the article reports that govern- lar prize, and not one responded. antenna, and the company claimed it ment in Thailand uses them, arresting They didn’t need the money, for could detect a variety of substances, in - people based on what the detectors indi- obvious reasons. The U.S. govern- cluding explosives. A positive indication cate. Human Rights Watch has protested. ment, the Homeland Security a - was said to occur when the antenna piv- So the problem with these modern- gency, also invested our tax money oted across the operator’s body and day divining rods is worldwide and in these farcical tricks, and no pointed toward the target material.
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