A bomb-detector long exposed as useless continues to be used by the Iraqi army and police at hundreds of checkpoints in Baghdad as their chief method of finding out if vehicles contain explosives and weapons.The continuing reliance of the Iraqi security forces on the instrument may explain how al-Qa'ida has succeeded in sending vehicles packed with explosives undetected into Baghdad, where they have killed and wounded several thousand people over the last year.
The bomb-detectors, known as "sonars" to Iraqis, are hand-held devices with a "wand" that is supposed to twitch if there are explosives or weapons present. It is meant to work on the same principle as water-divining rods and has no power source, relying instead on the static electricity generated by the movement of the person holding it.
The British and American governments, numerous independent experts and repeated tests have shown that the ADE-651, manufactured by the ATSC company in the UK, does not work. Jim McCormick, the managing director of ATSC, was arrested on suspicion of fraud in January, and the British Government banned the export of the ADE-651.
At the same time the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, ordered an investigation into how the bomb-detectors had been purchased at a cost of $85m (£58m) by the Iraqi security forces in 2008 and 2009. Yesterday, ATSC was not answering the phone number given on its website.
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