The UK government has banned the export of a UK-made "bomb detector" to Iraq. Why? Because it doesn't work:
The ADE-651 detector has never been shown to work in a scientific test.That's right - they're dowsing for explosives. It would be laughable if it wasn't so obscene. People are being arrested, possibly even tortured, based on the "evidence" from this device. And meanwhile, the bombs keep going off, the innocent keep dying, and the British quack who sold it to them is laughing all the way to the bank with 85 million pounds. It is simply murder by quackery.There are no batteries and it consists of a swivelling aerial mounted to a hinge on a hand-grip. Critics have likened it to a glorified dowsing rod.
Mr McCormick told the BBC in a previous interview that "the theory behind dowsing and the theory behind how we actually detect explosives is very similar".
He says that the key to it is the black box connected to the aerial into which you put "programmed substance detection cards", each "designed to tune into" the frequency of a particular explosive or other substance named on the card.
He claims that in ideal conditions you can detect explosives from a range of up to 1km.
The training manual for the device says it can even, with the right card, detect elephants, humans and 100 dollar bills.