Single Iraqi Checkpoint Seeks Bomb for Not Exploding and Maybe More

The ADE-651 is a hand held device that looks a bit like a paint sprayer with the nozzle replaced with the chrome stub of a car antenna. Like most everything in life, the ADE-651 absolutely cannot detect an unexploded bomb.

Unfortunately, that's the one thing the ADE-651 is supposed to do.

Bombs are very easy to detect as they are exploding and after they have exploded. This phase in the bomb life cycle is not a helpful time to spot the bomb unless you are part of a bomb-watching group. Police and militaries expend a great deal of effort to find bombs before they reach this stage. They also spend a great deal of money.

The government of Iraq spent 85 million dollars worth of money on the ADE-651 ($8,000 per unit) in a no-bid contract to its manufacturer, UK firm ATSC. The company belongs to Jim McCormick, the man who developed the ADE-651 by, presumably, jamming the chrome stub of a car antenna into a paint sprayer. Friday, January 22nd, McCormick was arrested for failure to sell a device that detects bombs before they explode, a charge known in the complex British legal system as "fraud."

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