A bit of background. A UK maker had made what was essentially a dowsing rod that was supposed to detect bombs. The device had a plastic handle and a slot for inputting a card that had a electronic "sample" of whatever explosives you were looking for.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8471187.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8476381.stm"Iraq has bought thousands of the detectors for a total of $85m (£52m).
(each device cost $40,000 each)
The device is sold by Jim McCormick, based at offices in rural Somerset, UK.
The ADE-651 is in use at most checkpoints in Baghdad
The ADE-651 detector has never been shown to work in a scientific test.
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"
Concern over the use of dowsing rods to detect bombs was first raised by American sceptic, James Randi.
Mr Randi has confirmed to the BBC that he is still offering Mr McCormick $1m if he can prove that the ADE-651 works.
In 1995, the Sandia national labs and the FBI raised the alarm over a dowsing rod device called the Quadro Tracker which they described as "a fraud" and the FBI warned: "All agencies should immediately cease using the device."
In 1999, the FBI put out another alert: "Warning. Do not use bogus explosives detection devices."
In 2002, a test by Sandia labs in the US found that a similar dowsing rod device, called the Mole detector, did not work and performed "no better than a random selection process".
They concluded that it did not work and that it looked "nearly identical" to the Quadro Tracker.
Last month, a senior Iraqi officer involved in bomb-prevention defended the ADE-651.
Major General Jehad al-Jabiri, who appeared at a press conference with Mr McCormick following the December explosions, said he did not "care about Sandia" and knew more about bombs than the Americans:
"Whether it's magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs," he said.
And policemen manning checkpoints in Baghdad have told the BBC that you need to be relaxed to use the ADE-651 and that it does not work properly if the user is stressed or has a high heart rate.
In other words, the message which has got through to the front lines is - if it does not work, blame the operator not the device.
Mr McCormick declined our request to interview him for this report, but late last year he told the BBC that he has been selling products like the ADE-651 for over a decade and that he has sold 6,000 of them to around 20 countries.
They are in use everywhere from Thailand to Pakistan and Lebanon.
"For a British company to be selling a piece of technology that is useless when it's meant to be saving lives is abhorrent," Lou McGrath, chief executive of the charity, Mines Advisory Group, told Newsnight.
See you can make money with Dowsing
