Page 39 - 201001 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2010

January 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 02/02/2010 8:33 AM Page 39 ‘Bomb Detecting’ Dowsing Rods 39 ‘Bomb Detecting’ Dowsing The only logical explanation is that (like Contacted by telephone, Mr. the bogus bomb detectors) the psychics can’t do McCormick refused to comment on the charges Rod Demonstrates Danger what they claim. If they could, they would be or the case against him, but he insisted that of Pseudoscience protecting our national security and helping ATSC would remain in business. “Our company is still fully operational,” he said. save innocent lives. Like all forms of bunkum by Benjamin Radford and pseudoscience, they completely fail when A statement issued by the British applied to important, life-or-death situations. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills The New York Times recently reported said it was banning export of the ADE 651 and on the arrest of Jim McCormick, head of a British Man Held for Fraud in Iraq similar devices to Iraq and Afghanistan. British company that supplied a device called Bomb Detectors “Tests have shown that the technology ADE 651s, which he claimed detects hidden The New York Times used in the ADE 651 and similar devices is not bombs. At least 800 of the detectors were By RIYADH MOHAMMED and ROD suitable for bomb detection,” the department purchased by the Iraqi government, for up to NORDLAND said. “We acted urgently to put in place export $60,000 each. restrictions which will come into force next The problem? They don’t work. The BAGHDAD — The director of a British week.” The statement said the department could device has only one moving part, an antenna- company that supplies bomb detectors to Iraq ban export to those countries because British like piece of metal that swivels freely, has been arrested on fraud charges, and the troops there could be put at risk by the device’s supposedly detecting explosive material. export of the devices has been banned, British use. ATSC claims to have sold the device to 20 Examinations have shown no technology inside government officials confirmed Saturday. Iraqi countries, all in the developing world. that could detect explosives. It’s a $60,000 officials reacted with fury to the news, noting a The Supreme Board of Audit in Iraq dowsing rod. series of horrific bombings in the past six announced it would investigate the procurement (Dowsing rods, for those who don’t months despite the widespread use of the bomb of the ADE 651, according to the board’s leader, know, have been used for centuries by people detectors at hundreds of checkpoints in the Abdul Basit Turki. The investigation will focus who think they can detect water, gold, oil, or capital. on officials who previously assured auditors the another substance. Unfortunately, dowsing has “This company not only caused grave device was technically sound, he said. Maj. been scientifically tested and always failed.) and massive losses of funds, but it has caused Gen. Jihad al-Jabiri, who is in charge of According to the Times, “Iraqi officials grave and massive losses of the lives of procuring the devices for the Ministry of reacted with fury to the news, noting a series of innocent Iraqi civilians, by the hundreds and Interior, could not be reached for comment. horrific bombings in the past six months despite thousands, from attacks that we thought we In Baghdad on Saturday, the devices the widespread use of the bomb detectors at were immune to because we have this device,” were still very much in use. “I didn’t believe in hundreds of checkpoints in the capital. ‘This said Ammar Tuma, a member of the Iraqi this device in the first place,” said a police company not only caused grave and massive Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee. officer at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, who losses of funds, but it has caused grave and But the Ministry of the Interior has not spoke on the condition of anonymity because he massive losses of the lives of innocent Iraqi withdrawn the device from duty, and police was not authorized to speak to the media. “I was civilians, by the hundreds and thousands, from officers continue to use them. forced to use it by my superiors and I am still attacks that we thought we were immune to Iraqi officials said they would begin an forced to do so.” because we have this device,’ said Ammar investigation into why their government paid at Another checkpoint officer said he Tuma, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s least $85 million to the British company, ATSC blamed corrupt officials for bringing the ADE Security and Defense Committee.” McCormick Ltd., for at least 800 of the bomb detectors, 651 in. “Our government is to be blamed for all only faces fraud charges, but perhaps negligent called ADE 651s. The British Embassy offered the thousands of innocent spirits who were lost homicide would be more appropriate. to cooperate with any Iraqi government since these devices have been used in Iraq,” he This tragic case also provides insight investigation. said. into why psychics are not used by the military. The New York Times first reported An associate of ATSC, who spoke on the There are thousands of people who claim to official doubts about the device in November, condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, have psychic powers. Some of them are on TV, citing American military officials and technical said the devices were manufactured at a cost of others in neighborhood storefront shops. Some experts who said the ADE 651 was useless, $250 each by suppliers in Britain and Romania. say they can read minds or auras; others say despite widespread reliance on it in Iraq. “Everyone at ATSC knew there was nothing they can predict future events. But all of them The ADE 651 is a hand-held wand with inside the ADE 651,” he said. The Iraqi claim to have useful, specific, accurate no batteries or internal electronic components, government, according to its auditors, paid information about things outside their ostensibly powered by the static electricity of $40,000 to $60,000 for each device, although it immediate knowledge. the user, who needs to walk in place to charge it. determined that ATSC was marketing the device If what they claim is true, this is exactly The only moving part is what looks like a radio for $16,000. The additional money was said to the sort of information that would save lives and antenna on a swivel, which swings to point have been for training, spare parts and help end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. toward the presence of weapons or explosives. commissions. Psychics should not only be able to find Osama “We are conducting a criminal The Times of London quoted Mr. bin Laden, but dozens of others, from hostages investigation and as part of that a 53-year-old McCormick in November as saying that the to al-Qaeda leaders to suicide bombers. man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud by device’s technology was similar to that of Psychics should have been able to misrepresentation,” a spokesman for the Avon dowsing or divining rods used to find water. prevent the December 30 suicide bombing that and Somerset Police in England said, without “We have been dealing with doubters for 10 killed eight CIA officers in Afghanistan. The giving the suspect’s name in line with police years,” he said. “One of the problems we have attack was carried out by an al-Qaeda double policy. The suspect was released on bail, the is that the machine does look primitive. We are agent who had been allowed onto the base. spokesman said. working on a new model that has flashing Surely a real psychic would have been able to “The force became aware of the lights.” predict the attack, or at least identify the man as existence of a piece of equipment around which Shortly after the arrest on Friday, the a threat. there has been many concerns and in the BBC reported that it had arranged a lab test of If psychics can do what they claim, why interests of public safety launched its the device and found that its bomb-detection aren't they helping locate terrorists or IEDs investigation,” the police spokesman said. component was an electronic merchandise tag (improvised explosive devices)? Why is the The suspect’s identity was widely of the sort used to prevent shoplifting. ATSC’s Pentagon spending billions of dollars on mine- reported in the British press as Jim McCormick, brochures claim the ADE 651 can detect minute detecting equipment and additional armor on managing director of ATSC Ltd., which traces of explosives, drugs or even human vehicles? Why are thousands of soldiers operates out of a converted dairy in rural remains at distances of up to 6 miles by air, or returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, maimed Somerset County, England. News reports three-fifths of a mile by land. Scientific trials of for life, by bombs that could be detects with described Mr. McCormick as a former British similar devices have shown that they are no psychic powers? police officer from Merseyside. more accurate than a coin toss. []