War Profiteering at it's Dumbest: Part II

Late last year, I shared a news story about Iraqi security forces actually purchasing and attempting to utilize $85,000,000 worth of British-made bomb-detecting magic wands... and I still wish I were making that $#!t up. Well, in recent weeks, it seems that James McCormick, the New Age war profiteer responsible for the 'ADE 561 Bomb Detection Device' was arrested for fraud and is now out on bail. To make the story even more interesting, in the video below, professional skeptic (and Charles Darwin look-alike) James Randi adds extra light to the story by talking about his own history with the ADE 561 dowsing wands.



For those who don't know, James Randi is the head of an organization known as the JREF and is probably best known for offering an as-of-yet unclaimed $1,000,000 prize open to anyone who can demonstrate dowsing, psychic phenomena or any other paranormal claim under proper scientific observing conditions.

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War Profiteering at it's Dumbest

As our troops withdraw from Iraq, some of the Iraqi security forces have begun relying on mystical, new age devices to detect bombs and weapons, even though US military and technical experts insist these devices are useless.

I first noticed this story on Derren Brown's blog a week and a half ago. Assuming it was just a few wacky security guys in an isolated incident, I only skimmed the story and thought, "oh that's an odd one," and then I wrote it off as a silly thing to be forgotten unless it comes up in the most random conversation down the road. However, over the past few days I keep seeing variations of the story come up again and again. You see, when I first saw this piece, the part I didn't read was (1) the "magic bomb detecting wands" cost several thousands of US dollars a piece and (2) the Iraqis bought something in the neighborhood of $85,000,000 worth of them from a British company called ATSC.

That's right... They spent about 85 million on magic wands. Let that soak in for a minute. :(

How can any sane person not just find this confusing? I don't understand why using any unproven "magic" bomb detecting device was ever even open to discussion in Iraq, let alone regarded as a potentially good idea. I don't care how scientifically illiterate or otherwise f@#ked up your culture is... If any device is not conclusively and observably proven as repeatedly reliable, you just don't spend tens of millions of dollars on it or make it part of any procedure to protect people's lives... End of freaking story!

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/14/bad-science-iraq-ben-goldacre

* http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/graeme_wood/2009/11/superstition_at_the_checkpoints.php

* http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html?_r=3

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