Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'

Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'

news.bbc.co.uk

The UK government has announced a ban on the export to Iraq and Afghanistan of some so-called "bomb detectors".

It follows an investigation by the BBC's Newsnight programme which found that one type of "detector" made by a British company cannot work.

The Iraqi government has spent $85m on the ADE-651 and there are concerns that they have failed to stop bomb attacks that have killed hundreds of people.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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The article states that Sidney Alford, a leading explosives expert has called the sale of the device as "absolutely immoral". He has also stated that he'd be willing to bet that lives have already been lost as a consequence of this device.

As will be revealed tonight in Britain on the Newsnight programme on BBC 2 at 10.30 pm many of these these devices have been sold to Iraq at between $35,000 and $40,000 each.

Apparently this device an ADE-651 has been on sale for a decade and that 6,000 have been sold. It makes me wonder how and why this product has been allowed to be sold for so long and why the ban on it's sale is not immediate but begins next week.

I can think of some reasons why TPTB would like this product to be sold to Iraq and Afghanistan and they are the only reasons I can see for it taking a decade for questions to be asked about whether this product works. They have little credit card like cards 'programmed' to search for the desired substance from 'explosives to elephants' as a BBC West reporter commented today.
Loads of blogs are running with this story but I'm not going to point you to there. CNET also mentioned it last year herenews.cnet.com...

This is my first thread so apologies if I've made mistakes. A search for this story has come up empty.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)