UK ban export of bomb detectors used in the south

ADE-651

It follows an investigation by the BBC's Newsnight programme which found that one type of "detector" made by a British company cannot work.

The Iraqi government has spent US$85m on the ADE-651 which is virtually identical to the GT200 bomb-detector used in the deep south provinces.

The ban on the ADE-651 and other similar devices starts next week.

There is nothing to program in these cards. There is no memory. There is no microcontroller. There is no way any form of information can be stored

Sidney Alford, a leading explosives expert who advises all branches of the military, told Newsnight the sale of the ADE-651 was "absolutely immoral".

"It could result in people being killed in the dozens, if not hundreds," he said.

Questions were raised over the ADE-651, following three recent co-ordinated waves of bombings in Baghdad.

Thirty-nine-year-old Aqeel Yousif Yaqoub was caught in a bomb at Iraq's Justice Ministry last October.

The blast left him with injuries to his face and limbs, and damaged his take-away falafel store.

"If they were effective," he asked, "how did the suicide car bomb reach this area?"

And an attack in December killed over 120 people, prompting Iraqis to ask how the bombs could have got through the city's security.

Attention is increasingly focusing on the ADE-651, the hand-held detector now used at most checkpoints in Baghdad.

Iraq has bought thousands of the detectors for a total of US$85m. The device is sold by Jim McCormick, based at offices in rural Somerset, UK.

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.