Human stupidity: the ADE 651 bomb detection device

This week I’d like to talk about the ADE 651 bomb detection device.

It is purely coincidental that tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of September 11th, an event that triggered two decades of violent changes that were all…without an exception…bad news for just about everyone.

But that being said…I’m not here to talk about politics, I’m here to talk about stupid people.

Last week, I skipped the Iconoclast (only my mother reminded me...I guess she finally subscribed to the newsletter).

My excuse is that we were quite busy — we had our Discosloth company retreat in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. I call it a “company retreat” because the entirety of Discosloth (plus spouses) were there, we talked about things like Google Ads in between snorkeling and camel riding, and honestly what’s better than a tax deductible week on the Red Sea?

Sharm el-Sheikh is on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

Security is tight there, as you’d expect from a place sandwiched in between Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. The authorities have even erected a border around the town — to prevent Bedouins from blowing things up.

As is common in most places other than the west, cars and shuttles go through security before being allowed onto hotel property. As we were heading back to the airport, I noticed that the guard was using an ADE 651 bomb detector.

I usually don’t know the names of bomb detection devices, but this one is unique.

You see, the ADE 651 is a metal rod attached to a plastic handgrip. No batteries, no electronics, nothing. Yet the manufacturer (Advanced Tactical Security & Communications Ltd) claims that it can detect explosives, bodies, drugs, currency, or animals…from distances up to 3 miles away.

The ADE 651 is nothing more than a dowsing rod…you know, the sticks that witches use for finding locations to drill wells for water.

These bomb detectors were created by a former British cop named James McCormick who sold these devices for as much as $60,000 each throughout the Middle East. The Iraqi government spent over $52,000,000 of your tax dollars on these devices (think about how many bags of rice that could have bought). The government of Jordan legally requires hotels to check cars with an ADE 651 before allowing parking in underground lots.

Anyone with half a brain can tell these things are a complete scam — right?

Before you think that only a bunch of rag-tag Middle Eastern governments were duped by the ADE 651, police departments in Belgium used it to detect drugs…the Hong Kong government uses them…and even the US Army was almost convinced, until they spent several million (of your tax dollars) running actual tests to prove its inefficiency.

(James McCormick has since been sentenced to ten years in prison for fraud, where he is currently languishing).

If you dig into the details of how ATSC Ltd says these things work, it continues to blow your mind with the pure stupidity of the thing. In order to ”program” the device to recognize other materials, do you know how you do it? You literally put samples of the material in a jar with a little sticker, shake it up, and let it sit for a few days…then stick the sticker on the device. I’m pretty sure a moderately intelligent toddler could see through this.

The interesting thing to me isn’t that someone scammed a bunch of governmental equipment purchasing departments. That seems pretty easy.

The interesting thing to me isn’t that governments were duped. That, also, seems pretty easy.

The interesting thing to me is that this security guard really believes that this thing works, and he is using this piece of plastic with a metal stick every single day of his life. Or does he know it’s just theater?

See, I have more confidence in a minimum-wage hotel security guard’s analytical skills than the entire Iraqi government. Yet this fellow, his manager, and the management of the hotel collectively decided they would rather arm their guard with an expensive dummy device than with something like…you know…a German Shepard?

So what's the moral to this story?

I'm not really sure...it's mostly just a bizarre tale.

But I think you can learn that...whenever you feel safe, protected, warm, and happy...you should know that smart people are protecting you.

Nothing is to be feared.

Just hush and move along.