After years of equipping important security checkpoints throughout Iraq with nonfunctioning bomb detectors, the Iraqi government has finally banned their use. According to an ABC News story (http://tinyurl.com/js5zyyb):
For nearly a decade, anyone driving through one of Baghdad’s many checkpoints was subjected to a search by a soldier pointing a security wand at their vehicle and watching the device intently to see if its antenna moved. If it pointed at the car, it had supposedly detected a possible bomb. The wands were completely bogus. It had been proven years ago, even before 2013 when two British men were convicted in separate trials on fraud charges for selling the detectors.
(See “British Businessman Sentenced in Bogus ‘Bomb Detector’ Scam,” SI July/August 2013.)
The wand devices, marketed under various names, including ADE651 and GT200, were not faulty or defective; they were completely useless. They had no working electronics in them that could detect bombs or anything else. The device has only one moving part, an antenna-like piece of metal that freely swivels, supposedly detecting explosive and other materials. The devices, which have been compared to dowsing rods, were sold for up to $40,000 each in lucrative government contracts eventually totaling $60 million.
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