What Could be Detected with Bogus Bomb Detectors?

What Could be Detected with Bogus Bomb Detectors?

Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Soldiers hold random security checks during a security checkpoint mission in Abu T'Shir, Iraq, Oct. 16, 2008. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Todd Frantom/Released)

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Pakistan continues to use bogus bomb detectors ADE-651 to guard its vital facilities such as airports and government installations despite being officially banned last month.

According to DefenseWorld, more than 15,000 of a new variant of the absolutely useless handheld devices were purchased by Pakistan.

With radio-like antennae meant to swivel and point at vehicles carrying bombs, “magic wand” explosive detectors proliferated throughout conflict zones in the 2000s until they were exposed as a global scam. Many creators of the original devices are serving long prison sentences for fraud.

“It serves a deterrence value only” said a senior interior ministry official. Pressed on whether Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents may by now be wise to the deception, he conceded: “Yes, they are savvy and they probably are aware by now.”

Official silence over the matter may be linked to the enormous sums of money involved in the business, observers say.

Pakistan initially imported foreign detector devices such as the ADE-651 and the German made Sniffex, according to a government source, but in 2009 Pakistan’s Airport Security Force (ASF) took over making and selling the wands.

More than 15,000 units have been sold within the country at a total revenue of more than $10 million.

The wands are used by security personnel and have also been widely sold to the private sector and deployed at malls, hotels and fast-food chains.

Leading scientists are currently developing legitimate explosives-detectors based on sensors that “sniff” out explosive compounds such as triacetone triperoxide, but the work remains in its infancy.