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ABOVE: The ADE-651
On Tuesday my colleague in our London Office, Anita Esslinger, forwarded to me a directive from British export authorities adding “electro-statically powered explosive detectors” to its list of export-controlled items, otherwise known as the 2008 Export Control Order. Anita wondered if the U.S. was planning on doing the same thing. I wrote back that I didn’t think it would need to since explosive detectors were already covered under ECCN 1A004.d.
In fact, I was wrong, because these “electro-statically powered” explosive detectors aren’t covered by ECCN 1A004.d, but not for the reason that you might imagine, but rather for what might be called a metaphysical reason. These detectors aren’t covered by the ECCN because they don’t work, and, thus, aren’t really bomb detectors. At this point, before you accuse of me having read too much Aristotle, hear the rest of the story.
The British order is directed at the ADE-651, a device marketed by a British company named ATSC, which is run by Jim McCormack from a former dairy farm in Somerset. The device, according to ATSC, can detect explosives from a distance of 1 kilometer. It can also, allegedly, detect other items such as elephants and dollar bills from the same distance, depending upon whether a card programmed to detect elephants or dollar bills is inserted into the device’s card reader. As a further miracle of modern technology, the device has no power supply but is powered by the static electricity generated by the user, hence, the reference to them as “electro-statically powered” in the amendment to the 2008 Export Control Order.
A BBC Newsnight investigative report (video embedded at the end of this post) examined the device and found that the inside of the device was empty (as in being filled with nothing but air . . . literally). The report also discovered that the cards “used” by the device were no more than RFID tags used to deter shoplifting and not specially programmed cards designed to whiff out the essence of elephant or anything else for that matter.
This would be humorous were it not for the fact that the use of these devices may have resulted in death and injury. A recent wave of successful car-bomb attacks in Baghdad has led even some Iraqis to question the efficacy of the device even though Iraq has bought $85 million dollars worth of the non-functional plastic shells at $40,000 to $60,000 per pop.
Jim McCormack has been arrested for fraud and is out on bail.
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