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The ADE 651 is a fake bomb detector produced by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

company Advanced Tactical Security & Communications Ltd (ATSC). Its manufacturer claimed it could detect bombs, guns, ammunition, and more from kilometers away. However, it was a scam, and the device was little more than a dowsing rod.

Deception and its discovery

ATSC claimed that the device could, from long range, effectively and accurately detect various types of explosives, drugs, ivory, and other substances. The device has been sold to 20 countries in the Middle East and Asia, including

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, for as much as

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

60,000 each. The Iraqi government is said to have spent GB£52 million on the devices. Investigations by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and other organisations found that the device is little more than a "glorified dowsing rod" with no detecting ability. In January 2010, export of the device was banned by the British government and the managing director of ATSC was arrested on suspicion of fraud; in June 2010, several other companies were raided by British police. ATSC was dissolved on 5 March 2013. On 23 April 2013, the founder of ATSC, James "Jim" McCormick, was convicted of three counts of fraud and subsequently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The use of the device by Iraqi and Pakistani security forces has become a major international controversy. The very similar

GT200 The GT200 is a fraudulent " remote substance detector" that was claimed by its manufacturer, UK-based Global Technical Ltd, to be able to detect, from a distance, various substances including explosives and drugs. The GT200 was sold to a number ...

and Alpha 6 devices, widely used in Thailand and Mexico, also came under scrutiny in the wake of the revelations about the ADE 651.

Device

US Navy 081016-N-1810F-303 Checkpoint in Abu T'Shir, Iraq

The ADE 651 consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via hinge to a plastic handgrip. It requires no battery or other power source; its manufacturer claimed that it is powered solely by the user's static electricity. To use the device, the operator must walk for a few moments to "charge" it before holding it at right angles to the body. After a substance-specific "programmed substance detection card" is inserted, the device is supposed to swivel in the user's hand to point its antenna in the direction of the target substance. The cards are claimed to be designed to "tune into" the "frequency" of a particular explosive or other substance named on the card. Husam Muhammad, an Iraqi police officer and user of the ADE 651, described the proper use of the device as more of an art than a science. "If we are tense, the device doesn't work correctly. I start slow, and relax my body, and I try to clear my mind." The cards were supposedly "programmed" or "activated" by being placed in a jar for a week along with a sample of the target substance to absorb the substance's "vapours". Initially, McCormick reportedly used his own blood to "program" the cards for detecting human tissue, but eventually gave up even the pretense of "programming" them when demand for the devices was at its peak. Promotional material issued by ATSC claimed that the ADE 651 could detect such item as

gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, p ...

s, ammunition, drugs,

truffle A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including '' Geopora'', '' Pe ...

s, human bodies, contraband ivory and

bank note A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s at distances of up to , underground, through walls, underwater or even from aircraft at an altitude of up to . In a promotional video, McCormick claimed that the device could detect

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

s from away. The ADE 651 was said to work on the principle of "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction". According to the promotional material, "by programming the detection cards to specifically target a particular substance, (through the proprietary process of electrostatic matching of the ionic charge and structure of the substance), the ADE651 could "by-pass" all known attempts to conceal the target substance. It has been claimed to penetrate lead, concrete, and other materials (including hiding in the body) used in attempts to block the attraction." Prosec, a Lebanese reseller of the ADE 651, claimed on its website that the device works on

nuclear quadrupole resonance Nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy or NQR is a chemical analysis technique related to nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR). Unlike NMR, NQR transitions of nuclei can be detected in the absence of a magnetic field, and for this reason NQR spectro ...

(NQR) or

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR). McCormick told the BBC in 2010 that "the theory behind

dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...

and the theory behind how we actually detect explosives is very similar".

Development and manufacture

The ADE 651 is a descendant of the Quadro Tracker Positive Molecular Locator produced in the 1990s by Wade Quattlebaum, an American car dealer, commercial diver and treasure hunter. The Quadro Tracker was promoted by Quattlebaum initially as a device to find lost

golf ball A golf ball is a special ball designed to be used in the game of golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than , has a diameter not less than , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like g ...

s, and later as a means of detecting marijuana,

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

, heroin,

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

, and dynamite using "carbo-crystalised" software cards. Like the ADE 651, it consisted of a hand unit on which a swinging antenna was mounted, linked to a box worn on the belt in which the cards were inserted to identify the "molecular frequency" of whatever the user wanted to detect. The cards were "programmed" by

photocopying A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...

a Polaroid photograph of the target, cutting up the resulting copy, and pasting the pieces between two squares of plastic. Quattlebaum sold the devices at prices of between $395 and $8,000 for a unit claimed to be capable of detecting humans, using a Polaroid photograph of the individual concerned for the "programming." A cheaper variant called the Golfinder or Gopher was available for $69. Although the Quadro Tracker was enjoined from being manufactured or sold in the United States after a 1996 federal court case, Quadro's four principal figures escaped criminal sanctions after a jury failed to convict them. The company's secretary, Malcolm Stig Roe, moved to the United Kingdom after jumping bail and set up two new companies to sell fake detection devices. Some of the distribution agents broke away and began producing their own copies of the Quadro Tracker, such as the Alpha 6, Mole Programmable Substance Detector, Sniffex and GT200. The huge increase in security spending that followed the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

in the United States opened up lucrative opportunities for sellers of security equipment. The ADE 651's inventor Jim McCormick, a former

Merseyside Police Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3,484 police of ...

officer, was previously a salesman specialising in communications equipment but had no scientific or technical background. He established a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United St ...

(registered company 03407495) on 23 July 1997 under the name "Broadcasting and Telecommunications Ltd" which he subsequently renamed "Advanced Tactical Security & Communications Ltd" (ATSC).Companies House records for registered companies 03407495 and 06797101. Retrieved 24 January 2010 The company was based in a former dairy in

Sparkford Sparkford is a village and civil parish in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Weston Bampfylde. It is situated near the junction of the A303 from London to Exeter and the A359 from Frome to Ye ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. After he came across the Mole in 2000, McCormick signed up as a distribution agent, paying the UK-based manufacturer £10,000 for a single unit. The device was withdrawn from sale only a year later after it was investigated by

Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...

on behalf of the US

National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) was originally created in 1994 as a program of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Office of Science and Technology. Resources The ''States, Major Cities and Counties ...

, and was found to be useless. McCormick responded to this setback by copying Quadro's Golfinder, sticking an ATSC label onto it, renaming it the ADE (Advanced Detection Equipment) 100, and marketing it as a bomb detector. Between 2005 and 2009 he produced and sold several iterations of the design. One of these, the ADE 101, was sold for up to $7,000 per unit. He also marketed a version called the ADE 650. The ADE 651 was a further development of the same design. According to an associate of ATSC, the devices were manufactured at a cost of £150 each by suppliers in Great Britain and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. The associate told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'': "Everyone at ATSC knew there was nothing inside the ADE 651." A

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

who worked to sell the device around the world with McCormick told the BBC that he once challenged McCormick over the device's effectiveness. McCormick was said to have answered that the device did "exactly what it's meant to ... it makes money." ATSC was the principal vendor of the ADE devices. Its accounts at

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are in ...

recorded a turnover of £1.78 million for the year to 31 July 2008, with a gross profit of £1.35 million. Its sole shareholder was its owner, McCormick. A sister company at the same location, ATSC Exports Ltd (registered company 06797101), was established on 21 January 2009, also as a private limited company. It had not filed any accounts as of January 2010. There were also several resellers of ATSC's fake bomb detectors, including Cumberland Industries UK, a company based in

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, and Prosec of

Baabda Baabda ( ar, بعبدا) is the capital city of Baabda District as well as the capital of Mount Lebanon Governorate, western Lebanon. Baabda was the capital city of the autonomous Ottoman Mount Lebanon. Baabda is known for the Ottoman Castle (t ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

Users

The ADE 651 was widely used by the

Iraqi Police Service The Iraqi Police (IP) is the uniformed Territorial police force, police force responsible for the Law enforcement agency, enforcement of civil law (legal system), civil law in Iraq. Its organisation, structure and recruitment were guided by the ...

and the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Interior Ministry bought 800 of the devices in 2008 for £20m and a further 700 in 2009 for £32m, in

no-bid contracts Multisourcing is the concept of working with multiple suppliers who are also competitors. Large-scale buyers, such as the U.S. federal government, may want to feel assured that there is more than one supplier for an item. It has been described as ...

with ATSC. The Iraqi government paid up to £37,000 for the devices despite the purchase price being put at around £11,500. The Iraqi Army's Baghdad Operations Command announced in November 2009 that it had purchased another hundred of the devices. McCormick of ATSC has said that the devices were sold for £5,000 each, with the balance of the cost going on training and middlemen. The training included instructions to Iraqi users to "shuffle their feet to generate static electricity to make the things work."

The ADE 651 has been used at hundreds of Iraqi police and Iraqi military checkpoints across the country, often replacing physical inspections of vehicles. Major-General Jihad al-Jabiri of the Interior Ministry's General Directorate for Combating Explosives has defended the device: "Whether it's magic or scientific, what I care about is detecting bombs. I don't care what they say. I know more about bombs than the Americans do. In fact, I know more about bombs than anyone in the world." He told a press conference that the ADE 651 has detected "hundreds of roadside bombs and car bombs" and any deficiencies were due to defective training in the device's use. The Iraqi Interior Minister,

Jawad al-Bulani Jawad al-Bulani ( ar, جواد البولاني) (also spelled Al-Bolani; born in 1960) served as the Interior Minister of Iraq within the Council of Ministers under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from 8 June 2006 to 21 December 2010. Bula ...

, also defended the device, telling

Al Iraqiya Al Iraqiya ( ar, العراقيّة, al-ʿIrāqiyyä) is a satellite and terrestrial public broadcaster and television network in Iraq that was set up after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It is an Arabic language network that serves upwards of 85% ...

television that the ADE 651 had "managed to prevent and detect more than 16,000 bombs that would be a threat to people's life and more than 733 car bombs were defused." He said: "Iraq is considered as a market area for many companies producing such devices ... and there are other rival companies trying to belittle the efficiency of these instruments the government is buying". In Mexico, the Government of

Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...

bought an ADE 651 for more than $60,000. Also, in the photography accompanying an article about the

published in newspaper La-Ch.com, a Mexican soldier can be seen using an ADE 651. It is possible that the

Secretariat of National Defense The Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA); es, Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional is the government department responsible for managing Mexico's Army and Air Forces. Its head is the Secretary of National Defense who, like the co-equa ...

(SEDENA) also bought some units. According to a promotional website for the ADE 651, the device was also used by the Lebanese Army, the Chinese Police, the

Royal Thai Police The Royal Thai Police (RTP) ( th, สำนักงานตำรวจแห่งชาติ; ) is the national police force of Thailand. The RTP employs between 210,700 and 230,000 officers, roughly 17 percent of all civil servants (excludi ...

and the Interior Ministry of the

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ( ku, حکوومەتی هەرێمی کوردستان, ''Hikûmetî Herêmî Kurdistan'') is the official executive body of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the m ...

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also inc ...

. The website claimed that the Jordanian government required hotels to employ ADE 651 devices to scan vehicles entering underground car parks. ATSC's McCormick says that 20 countries have acquired the device, with purchasers including "the Saudis, Indian police, a Belgian drug squad, a Hong Kong correctional facility and the Chittagong navy." The police in the Belgian municipal region of

Geel Geel () is a city located in the Belgian province of Antwerp, which acquired city status in the 1980s. It comprises Central-Geel which is constituted of 4 old parishes a/o towns: Sint-Amand, Sint-Dimpna, Holven and Elsum. Further on around the ce ...

Laakdal Laakdal () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With ...

Meerhout Meerhout () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Meerhout proper. In 2021, Meerhout had a total population of 10,279. The ...

used the device to detect drugs. Pakistan's Airport Security Force also uses the ADE 651 as a bomb detector at the

Jinnah International Airport Jinnah International Airport ( ur, جناح بین الاقوامی ہوائی اڈا) , formerly Drigh Road Airport or Karachi Civil Airport, is Pakistan's busiest international and domestic airport, and handled 7,267,582 passengers in 2017 ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

Effectiveness

The use of the ADE 651 prompted strong criticism, and eventually led to a ban on the device's export from the UK to Iraq and Afghanistan and a criminal investigation of its manufacturer. The Iraqi security forces' reliance on the device was highlighted by ''The New York Times'' investigation in November 2009, which reported that United States military and technical experts believed the device was useless.

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Major-General Richard Rowe told the newspaper that "there's omagic wand that can detect explosives. If there was, we would all be using it. I have no confidence that these work".

had carried out testing of several similar devices but found that "none have ever performed better than random chance". Retired

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

Colonel

Hal Bidlack Harold Wilford Bidlack (born 1958) is a retired United States Air Force officer and national security aide. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in Colorado's 5th congressional district as the Democratic nominee ...

, a former national security aide in the Clinton and Bush administrations, condemned the device as "laughable, except someone down the street from you is counting on this to keep bombs off the streets". An Iraqi guard and driver for ''The New York Times'', both of whom were licensed to carry firearms, were able to drive two

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...

rifles and ammunition through nine police checkpoints that were using the device without any of them detecting the weapons. Iraqi civilians complained that the device seems to have "an unerring attraction to shampoo and soapsuds". According to Iraqi police officer Jasim Hussein, "The vast majority of the people we stop, it's because of their perfume". A fellow officer, Hasan Ouda, commented that "Most people now understand it's what gets them searched, so they don't use as much." McCormick of ATSC falsely claimed that the apparent responsiveness of the ADE 651 was due to fragrances containing traces of the explosive substance

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a ...

. The veteran Canadian-American magician and

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the ...

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific cla ...

publicly offered one million dollars to anyone who can prove the device's effectiveness as far back as October 2008. Randi issued a statement calling the ADE 651 "a useless quack device which cannot perform any other function than separating naive persons from their money. It's a fake, a scam, a swindle, and a blatant fraud. Prove me wrong and take the million dollars." According to Randi, nobody from ATSC ever responded. The German news magazine '' Der Spiegel'' reported that the ADE 651 had been tested around 2008 in Israel but was "kicked out of the country". An Israeli explosives expert told the magazine: "The thing has absolutely nothing to do with the detection of explosives". When it was displayed at an arms and security fair in Beirut in April 2009, a visiting explosives expert described it as "one big fraud". Gadi Aviran, the head of the Israeli security firm Terrorgence, said: "If someone comes to an expert, claiming that he had developed a device that can detect the smell of explosives from several meters away, the expert must know that this is physically not possible." The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

has repeatedly issued alerts about dowsing rod devices being used as explosive detectors. It described one such device, the

Quadro Tracker The Quadro Tracker, also known as the Positive Molecular Locator, was a fake "detection device" sold by Quadro Corp. of Harleyville, South Carolina between 1993 and 1996. Around 1,000 were sold to police departments and school districts around the ...

, as "a fraud" and told all agencies to immediately cease using it. Another alert issued in 1999 told agencies: "Warning. Do not use bogus explosives detection devices." A US Army test of a similar device found that it was unable to detect a truck carrying a tonne of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

when it drove up behind the operator. In June 2009, the US Army carried out a laboratory test including X-ray analysis on the ADE 651 that found it to be ineffective. According to Major Joe Scrocca, "The examination resulted in a determination that there was no possible means by which the ADE 651 could detect explosives and therefore was determined to be totally ineffective and fraudulent. As a result of that study, the US military notified all military and civilian personnel in Iraq that the bomb detection device is ineffective and should not be relied upon as a means of ensuring the safety of any personnel."

Caroline Hawley Caroline Hawley (born 1967 in Nigeria) is a British journalist who has been a special correspondent for the BBC News channel since 2007.

and

Meirion Jones Meirion Jones is a Welsh journalist. He worked for the BBC until 2015. He is now the Editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman described Jones as "a dogged journalist with that obsessional, sligh ...

from the BBC's ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' programme investigated the ADE 651 in a report broadcast in January 2010, asking the

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...

to assess one of the "programmed substance detection cards" used in the device to detect TNT. The laboratory found that the card contained only a standard radio frequency ID tag of the type used in stores to prevent shoplifting. According to the laboratory's Dr. Markus Kuhn, it was "impossible" for the card to detect anything and it had "absolutely nothing to do with the detection of TNT". The card could not be programmed, had no memory, no microprocessor and no form of information could be stored on it. Despite the high cost of the devices, the cards were worth only about two to three pence (3–5¢) each. Kuhn commented: "These are the cheapest bit of electronics that you can get that look vaguely electronic and are sufficiently flat to fit inside a card." The "card reader" was found to be an empty plastic box. Psychology professor Bruce Hood has noted that the swinging of the antenna is merely due to its loose assembly and unconscious wrist movements by the user (

ideomotor phenomenon The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...

). Explosives expert Sidney Alford described the device as "immoral", telling ''Newsnight'' that "it could result in people being killed in the dozens, if not hundreds". ''Newsnight'' noted that thousands of people had indeed been killed and injured in devastating car bomb attacks in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

such as the

25 October Events Pre-1600 * 285 (or 286) – Execution of Saints Crispin and Crispinian during the reign of Diocletian, now the patron saints of leather workers, curriers, and shoemakers. * 473 – Emperor Leo I acclaims his grandson Leo II ...

and 8 December 2009 Baghdad bombings, without the bombers being detected by the ADE 651 devices. McCormick refused to be interviewed for the ''Newsnight'' investigation, but told ''The New York Times'' that ATSC would remain in business: "Our company is still fully operational." He told ''The Times'' that ATSC had been dealing with doubters for ten years and that the device was merely being criticised because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights".

Investigations and export ban

United Kingdom

British and American military officers in Iraq brought the ADE 651's ineffectiveness to the attention of British police liaison officers in the country. The matter subsequently came to the notice of Colin Port, the Chief Constable of the

Avon and Somerset Constabulary Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the county of Somerset and in four districts that used to be in the defunct county of Avon: Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and ...

and Chair of the International Police Assistance Board, who personally ordered an investigation into McCormick and ATSC. In January 2010, ATSC's McCormick was arrested on suspicion of fraud. On 12 July 2012, McCormick was charged on three counts that between 15 January 2007, and 12 July 2012, he had in his possession or control an article for use in the course of or in connection with fraud contrary to Section 6 of the

Fraud Act 2006 The Fraud Act 2006 (c 35) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which affects England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was given royal assent on 8 November 2006, and came into effect on 15 January 2007. Purpose The Act gives a sta ...

; and three further charges that between the same dates he made or adapted, supplied or offered to supply an article knowing it was designed or adapted for use in the course of or in connection with, or intending it to be used to commit, or to assist in a fraud, contrary to Section 7 of the Fraud Act 2006. Following the 2010 BBC ''Newsnight'' exposé of the device, the UK Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced that the BBC tests had shown that "the technology used in the ADE 651 and similar devices is not suitable for bomb detection" and they "could cause harm to UK and other friendly forces in Iraq and Afghanistan". It had therefore decided to ban the export of the ADE 651 and similar devices to those two countries under the Export Control Act 2002, with effect from 27 January 2010. The device had not previously been subject to export restrictions as it was non-military equipment. The department offered "cooperation with any investigation he Iraqi authoritiesmay wish to make into how the device came to be bought for their military as bomb detection equipment." The banning order prohibited the export to Iraq and Afghanistan of "'electro-statically powered' equipment for detecting 'explosives'". McCormick was tried in March–April 2013 at the Central Criminal Court in London. The court was told that "the devices did not work and he knew they did not work. He had them manufactured so that they could be sold – and despite the fact they did not work, people bought them for a handsome but unwarranted profit." McCormick had falsely represented himself as a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, using the organisation's logo without permission. McCormick said that he had sold the ADE 651 and similar devices to security forces internationally but none had complained about them. On 23 April 2013, McCormick was convicted on three counts of fraud. The chief investigating officer in the case, Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock, said: It was disclosed that McCormick had made millions of pounds from sales of the ADE 651, with which he had bought a farmhouse in Somerset,

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gui ...

's former £3.5 million house in Bath with its own basement swimming pool, holiday homes in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, a £600,000 luxury yacht, and three horses for one of his daughters. The police declared that they would seek to "pursue his wealth" using the

Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (c.29) (POCA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides for the confiscation or civil recovery of the proceeds from crime and contains the principal money laundering legislation in the UK ...

. McCormick was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on 2 May 2013. In passing sentence, Mr. Richard Hone said: "Your fraudulent conduct in selling so many useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent individuals." The judge noted that McCormick had not expressed any remorse or recognition of wrongdoing and said that his "culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category." Brigadier Simon Marriner told the court that the ADE 651 was clearly implicated in failing to prevent bomb attacks: "The inescapable conclusion is that devices have been detonated after passing through checkpoints. Iraqi civilians have died as a result." McCormick's application for an appeal against his sentence was rejected by the Court of Appeal, with Judge Elgan Edwards stating: "The circumstances were quite appalling. The applicant knew precisely what he was doing. He did it for enormous profit and that conduct simply cannot and will not be tolerated." The judge commented that "if this case does not merit the maximum possible sentence, I don't know what does." McCormick was subsequently ordered to forfeit £7,944,834 under a proceeds of crime order to recompense the organisations defrauded by him, including £2.3 million to repay Iraq. His prison sentence was extended in 2018 by a further 2 years after he refused to meet a £1.8m shortfall in these repayments. He was released in 2019.

Iraq

Nouri al-Maliki with Bush, June 2006, cropped

The failure of the ADE 651 to prevent a series of bombings in Baghdad and the circumstances of its procurement raised concerns in Iraq even before it became the subject of media exposés. ''The New York Times'' reported in November 2009 that Aqeel al-Turaihi, the Iraqi Interior Ministry's inspector-general, had begun an investigation into the contracts that the ministry had signed with ATSC. The Prime Minister of Iraq,

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...

, also ordered an investigation into the effectiveness of the devices following several bomb attacks. The Iraqi parliament did not order an official investigation but Iraqi MP Nadeem al-Jabiri said: "the security and defence committee in the parliament, headed by Hadi al-Amiri, is following up this matter as part of the parliament's duty as a monitoring entity." The Interior Ministry's report noted that "many lives have been lost due to the wands' utter ineffectiveness". The report and investigation were later suppressed, and it has been alleged that corruption was the reason, as 75% of the value of the contract "went to

kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickbac ...

received by raqiofficials". The BBC's revelations in January 2010 caused outrage in Iraq. A police officer told ''The New York Times'': "Our government is to be blamed for all the thousands of innocent spirits who were lost since these devices have been used in Iraq." MP Ammar Tuma of the Iraqi Parliament's Security and Defense Committee said: "This company not only caused grave and massive losses of funds, but it has caused grave and massive losses of the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, by the hundreds and thousands, from attacks that we thought we were immune to because we have this device." He told the ''

Asharq Al-Awsat ''Asharq Al-Awsat'' ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, Aš-Šarq al-ʾAwsaṭ, meaning "The Middle East") is an Arabic international newspaper headquartered in London. A pioneer of the "off-shore" model in the Arabic press, the paper is often noted ...

'' newspaper: "The tasks of the committee are limited to two tracks, nd that isreaching the truth over what happened with regards to the signing of the contracts for these bomb detection devices; firstly by following up on the details of the contract and looking at the background of this, as well as the possibility of collusion by those who signed this contract, or whether this neffectivenessis the result of technical weaknesses in these devices. Either of these ptionsdeserves accountability." He said that Defence Minister Abd al-Qadr Muhammed Jassim al-Obaidi had informed the Iraqi Parliament during emergency parliamentary hearings in 2009 that "the detection of car bombs and explosive material using these devices is very limited, and this increases the likelihood that these devices have low efficiency." Another MP, Hussain al-Falluji, demanded that Iraqi security forces immediately cease using the ADE 651. His proposal to establish an investigative committee and seek to recover the money spent on the devices was supported by other parliamentarians. Hadi Al-Ameri, the head of the Parliament's Security and Defense Committee, said that he would push for an official investigation to "find out how this piece of equipment was sold to Iraq." If it was determined that ATSC was responsible he planned to "seek compensation via the ministry of foreign affairs." MP Haneen Kado said: "If we rely on these devices there is no point in having checkpoints. It makes the whole of Baghdad open to terrorist attacks. We are in a dangerous situation and there could be new bombings at any time. We must investigate exactly who bought and sold these detectors and see that they answer in court." The Supreme Board of Audit in Iraq announced an investigation into the procurement of the ADE 651, focusing on the officials who had previously given assurances of the device's technical soundness. The Iraqi Army's Baghdad Operations Command, which had previously procured 100 of the devices, distanced itself from their use. Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said: "The devices have helped us in parts of our work but in some aspects they are not useful. Their performance does not match our aspirations. There is some percent of error in their performance and these devices must be updated." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was reported to have ordered a new investigation of how the devices had been procured, looking into whether there was any corruption involved. According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry's inspector-general Aqil al-Turehi, he had investigated the device in 2008 but found it "inoperative" and costly and recommended that Iraq should not buy it. He told Reuters: "There was corruption associated with this contract and we referred to this and submitted our report to the Minister of the Interior. We said that the company which you made a contract with is not well-regarded internationally in the field of explosives detectors, and the price is very high and not commensurate with the abilities of this device." Al-Turehi said that the buying process had been "marred by suspicions over the equipment and the efficiency and value of the contracts. There were senior officials involved in these transactions." The initial investigation found that it could detect some bombs and the ministry went ahead with the contract despite al-Turehi's concerns. An unnamed Iraqi officer told the Agence France-Presse that "We know it doesn't work and that it has been banned

n Britain N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

but we are continuing to use it. It is bullshit. But still we are lying about it." Despite the controversy, the device continued to be used at checkpoints across Iraq. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has defended the continued use of the ADE 651. In 2010, the then-head of the ministry's counter-explosives unit, General Jihad al-Jabiri, told the BBC that his organisation had "conducted several tests on them, and found them successful. In addition, we have a series of achievements officially documented by the Baghdad operations centre, from all the provinces, which establish that these devices detected thousands of bombs, booby-trapped houses and car bombs, and we've noticed a reduction of bombing activities to less than 10 per cent of what it was." A senior ministry official, Assistant Deputy Minister General Tareq al-Asl, told ''Asharq Al-Awsat'': "The reason the director of the company was arrested was not because the device doesn't work, but because he refused to divulge the secret of how it works to the British authorities, and the Americans before them. I have tested it in practice and it works effectively and 100% reliably." In February 2011, General al-Jabiri was arrested on corruption charges, centering on the ADE 651 device purchase. He was subsequently convicted of taking millions of dollars of bribes from McCormick and was imprisoned along with two other Iraqi officials. Up to 15 Iraqis are said to have been on McCormick's payroll, receiving money through a bank in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Aqil al-Turehi said that he "feel furious when I think that this gang of Jim McCormick and the Iraqis working with him killed my people by creating false security and selling such a useless device". In one incident, a vehicle carrying rockets and missiles travelled undetected through 23 Baghdad checkpoints equipped with the ADE 651. The false sense of security provided by the device had catastrophic effects for many Iraqi people, hundreds of whom were killed in bombings that the ADE 651 failed to prevent. The victim of one such bombing, 21-year-old Haneen Alwan, told the BBC that her life had been destroyed after she was caught in a bomb attack which caused injuries that killed her unborn child and prompted her husband to divorce her because of her extensive burns, which have so far required her to undergo 59 operations. She said: "When people passed through checkpoints using these devices, they thought they would be safe. But they are useless. The man who sold them has no conscience. He is morally bankrupt. How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?" Fake bomb detectors such as the ADE 651 were still in use in Iraq as late as July 2016, and may have contributed to the

July 2016 Baghdad bombings On 3 July 2016, ISIL militants carried out coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed 340 civilians and injured hundreds more. A few minutes after midnight local time (2 July, 21:00 UTC), a suicide truck-bomb targeted the mainly Shia distric ...

. This led to Iraq's Prime Minister,

Haider al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication fro ...

, to order police to stop using the detectors.

Pakistan

Pakistan purchased ADE 651s for use by the

Airports Security Force The Airports Security Force (ASF) ( ur, ) is a federal agency under the administrative control of the Secretary to the Government of Pakistan for Aviation which is responsible for protecting the airports, facilities and the planes (on-ground ...

(ASF). After the ADE 651 became the focus of controversy for its role in Iraq, concerns were raised in Pakistan about its employment as a bomb detector by the ASF. A senior official at

denied that the ADE 651 was being used, claiming that the ASF had designed the device in use there, but other ASF officials acknowledged that their device "operated on the same principle as ADE-651." Pakistani scientists rejected the scientific basis on which the device was claimed to work: Professor Shahid Zaidi of

Karachi University The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh ...

told the Pakistani newspaper ''

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...

'' that "there has to be an electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field for a device to work in such a manner. Furthermore static fields don’t move around the way it is being claimed by some. Also don’t forget that there are so many radio waves of different frequencies all around us. I just don’t see how this device would work." ''Dawn'' challenged the ASF to test the device to confirm its effectiveness but the ASF refused, insisting that the device works.

Belgium

The Belgian police bought an ADE 651 in 2008 for £12,800 to detect drugs, as a supposedly cheaper alternative to a dog. According to Superintendent Theiry Meunier, it was soon apparent that it was ineffective: "We had no results from it. We tried to use the device for detecting drugs in cars for several months. We also provided the detector to detectives seeking to detect drugs. The results again were negative."

Lebanon

The Lebanese Army bought ADE 651s. In addition, the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

(UNIFIL) bought five ADE 651s at a cost of £46,000 to detect explosives in vehicles. ATSC offered the UN a further 80 of the devices, but declined to provide evidence that the ADE 651 could do what was claimed and suggested that the UN should carry out its own tests. UNIFIL did so over the course of two days but found that the device was "not fit for purpose".

Other countries

The ADE 651 was also sold to customers in Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Iran, Kenya, Niger, Qatar, Romania, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. The Mövenpick Hotel in Bahrain bought one to detect car bombs but, according to the hotel's head of security, who gave evidence to the Old Bailey trial, it could not even detect a firework: "It wasn’t working. It wasn’t working at all". The Mövenpick hotel ceased using the device following the intervention of the Bahrain Ministry of Interior in mid 2010 at the beginning of an enquiry in co-operation with UK Police which continued until the trial of McCormick in April 2013.

Similar devices

The

, also known as the Positive Molecular Locator, was a similar device sold by Quadro Corp. of Harleyville, South Carolina between 1993 and 1996. An apparent recycling of the Quadro Tracker turned up as the DKLabs Lifeguard, which had a similar appearance and made ambitious claims about being able to locate survivors missing under rubble or hiding in shipping containers. It has been proven to be useless in tests by Sandia National Labs. Another "remote substance detector" device, the Global Technical

, has come under scrutiny in Thailand in the wake of the controversy over the ADE 651. The ''Bangkok Post'' reports that the GT200 is virtually identical to the ADE 651 and has been described by critics as a "divining rod" which uses "controller cards", like the ADE 651, to find explosives. The ''Post'' attributes the death of several Royal Thai Police officers to its repeated failures to detect explosives. Several other similar

long range locator A long-range locator is a class of fraudulent devices purported to be a type of metal detector, supposedly able to detect a variety of substances, including gold, drugs and explosives; most are said to operate on a principle of resonance with the ...

devices are being marketed in various countries, including the HEDD1 (formerly known as

Sniffex Sniffex and Sniffex Plus are fake explosive detection systems produced by Homeland Safety International, debunked as ineffective. Also availablhere Performance An article in ''The Dallas Morning News'' in April 2007 explained that Sniffex is a ...

Plus), marketed by Unival in Germany; Alpha 6, marketed by ComsTrac in the UK; PSD-22; and H3Tec. In 2014, the Egyptian military presented

C-FAST C-FAST was a device purported to be able to detect infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) from a distance, using electromagnetic radiation emanating from the virus' genome. At a press conference in February 2014, Egyptian generals presented th ...

, a purported long-range detector of hepatitis C infection; its design was very similar to that of ADE 651. In 2020, the

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

(IRGC) unveiled

Mostaan 110 Mostaan 110 or Musta'an 110 ( fa, مستعان ۱۱۰) is an Iranian counterfeit device designed by the Basij militia. The device was unveiled in April 2020 by the Commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who claimed it was capabl ...

, an experimental medical device developed by the Basij militia. The IRGC claimed that the device was capable of detecting

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

using electromagnetic radiation emitted from the device's antenna. These claims were met with widespread criticism from Iranian and international experts alike, with many commentators noting the device's strong resemblance to the ADE 651.