The Iraqi Army swears by an explosive detecting wand that US experts say is virtually useless:
The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” — the power of suggestion — said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.
Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.
I suppose the best thing you can say for the wands is that they may have some deterrent effect, while giving security forces the sense that they’re actually doing something useful.
Explosive sniffing dogs would be cheaper and vastly more effective, but Arabs have an aversion to dogs.
What a world.
Are you sure dogs would be cheaper? They take a long time to train and require a trained handler — you can’t just manufacture 1500 trained dog/handler pairs. Sounds like these gizmos can be manufactured quite quickly. In fact, I think I have most of one attached to my TV right now. Now, *effectiveness*? That’s a different story, isn’t it. I think we now know one way bombs are getting past the “checkpoints” and detonating next to government buildings.
Gotta love magic thinking. It seems to be endemic to humans.
Apparently numerous Moslems think that the Qu’ran says that dogs are impure. However, various scholars say that this is not true, and that in any case dogs are permitted to be kept for hunting, farming and other work – which this kind of thing would seem to be.
I can’t tell from the article whether the device is the one I know by a more familiar nickname. I am not unbiased, because I know the inventor of that device, and know he is a true friend of our military who wanted his science to save our guys’ lives.
Of that particular device, I will say only that (a) the detector compound can sense parts per quadrillion of a particularly common explosive; (b) only a dog’s nose is more sensitive, and as Jim H points out dogs can be nontrivial to maintain; (c) a squad leader of my acquaintance, on finding out the inventor was a friend of mine, told me, “Well, tell him SGT ___ says thanks. ‘Cause it works.”
I can, however, imagine attacks that this device, working entirely as advertised, would be unable to warn about in time.
Google is my friend, or would have been had I searched before posting. The device mentioned in the NYT is not at all the one I’m familiar with, and from a bit of reading it sounds questionable to say the least.
Inshallah
Well, P T Barnum said it best, except that in this case the cost is also lives.
We have a few Muslims who are clients in my business and we often take our two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels to the office with us. On more than one occasion, a Muslim person has asked that we keep the dogs away from them by putting them into a different room.
So, we do. Not that it makes that much difference to us. Or the dogs. They know we love them, just the same.
Wish I thought of that. Anyone interested in some bulletproof herbs?
Working dogs are allowable in Shari’a. According to various hadith, Mohammad was guarded in his cave once by dogs, and in another, Mohammad declaimed that angels will not enter a house with dogs (denying the house the blessings of angels). A mohammedan who touches a dog is required to ritually purify himself seven times. All in all, if your real goal is to actually find explosives, dogs are allowable, are better at it, and add a level of “unclean” fear factor to the potential splodeydope.
By implication, those waving wands aren’t really interested in actually finding explosives. The last thing those cops want to find at a checkpoint is an itchy-fingered splodydope wannabe on a virgin hunt. Better to act like you’re doing your job, and let someone else deal with it. It’s the Arab way.
And I know where you can get some white ghost shirts, slightly soiled.
Hey, can we ‘Mercuns bid on those fancy schmansy wands? I bet I could manufacture them for a mere $10,000 per unit. Yeah, that’s the ticket!