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Local Explosive Detector

Illiterate or not, they will know very well these things do not work, and that makes it more die ops than psy ops.

There is simply no excuse for buying this rubbish. Either stupidity with the Khoji or corruption with the expensive versions (some sold e.g. ADE 651 in Iraq) for up to $60000 each. Yes! You read that right. $60000! For something that costs about nothing at all to make.

We have been told before that it acts as a deterrent. It may do for about 10 seconds!

If anyone knows anyone at a major University there, please ask them to get the Physics Department to make a public announcement against these things. If enough of you rebel, then the corrupt involved will be overwhelmed, as we achieved in Iraq with General al Jabiri. If they can do it, so can you guys!!!
 
IMHO Best equipment to detect explosives are trained dogs, trained specially for finding explosives. They are fool proof.

Yes. Way better, but we understand that some places in the Arab World, or on the Subcontinent are anti-dog, which is a shame. How about RATS!

Please see here:

Boston Globe November 23, 2008
Mankind's new best friend?
Trained giant rats sniff out land mines, tuberculosis
In Mozambique, special squads of raccoon-size rats are sniffing out lethal explosive devices buried across the countryside, remnants of the country's anticolonial and civil wars of the last century.
In neighboring Tanzania, teams of rats use their twitchy noses to detect TB bacteria in saliva samples from four clinics serving slum neighborhoods. So far this year, the 25 rats trained for the pilot medical project have identified 300 cases of early-stage TB - infections missed by lab technicians with their microscopes. If not for the rodents, many of these victims would have died and others would have spread the disease.
"It's fair, I think, to call these animals 'hero rats,' " said Bart Weetjens, the Belgian conceiver of both programs.
The rat squads, at first derided by some interna tional aid officials as ridiculous, have won support from the World Bank and praise from the UN and land mine eradication groups. Now there are plans to deploy the creatures to Angola, Congo, Zambia, and other land mine-infested lands.
The rats' "noses are far more sensitive than all current mechanical vapor detectors," Havard Bach, a mine-clearing specialist with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, wrote in a study.
Although rats make almost everyone's short list of horrors - associated with , disease, and destruction of food crops - they "are really nice creatures," according to Weetjens.
"They are organized, sensitive, sociable, and smart," said the former product engineer in a telephone interview from Antwerp, Belgium, home base for Apopo International, the nonprofit organization that trains and deploys the rats.
In the 1990s, he journeyed to Africa to study land mine clearance techniques. He put his engineer's mind to the expensive, clumsy, and often risky methods employed to detect the lethal contraptions of metal and explosive that detonate underfoot.
Land mines claim casualties for decades after the last shot is fired in a conflict; millions are strewn in former and present fighting zones across Africa, Asia, and Europe. The wickedly durable antipersonnel devices kill or maim thousands of people every year, mainly in the poorest of countries. Removal of the weapons is a priority of the United Nations and other groups.
"In Africa, it came to me: Rats can be part of this great effort," Weetjens recalled.
So he started training giant pouched rats - an African species known for its large size, sunny disposition, and ultra-keen nostrils - to detect the faintest whiff of TNT and other explosives. Because the rats are too light to trigger the explosive, they are not harmed in the exercise; they simply signal the location of the explosive to a handler, who has it defused and removed.
The rat land mine-clearing program in Mozambique, although still small in scale, has been operational for two years - with 34 trained rats deployed to the field, each overseen by a pair of armor-clad handlers. Another 250 mine-detecting rats are undergoing schooling at Tanzania's Sokoine University of Agriculture. It takes 8 to 10 months to fully train a rat, said Weetjens.
A single rat can inspect 1,000 square feet in about 30 minutes, according to Apopo; that's at least a full day's labor for a human working with an electronic detector at terrible risk.
Rat teams are credited with clearing 270 square miles of former farm and village land in southern Mozambique, allowing for the return of peasant families dislocated since the 1980s.
Dogs can perform the same task. But rats are less expensive to train ($3,000 to $5,000 per animal, compared with $40,000 for a canine), easier to house and transport, and far less susceptible to tropical disease. Also, dogs can trip land mines.
Also, rats don't form deep emotional attachments to a single handler. A rat will happily work with anyone who gives the right commands and provides the correct payoff - a few peanuts or a nice ripe banana for locating a land mine, said Andrew Sully, Mozambique program manager for Apopo.
The rodents are hitched to a light leash and scamper in tight grid patterns in suspected land mine sites. When they scent explosive, they signal with furious digging motions. They typically work from 5 to 9 a.m., quitting when the ferocious African sun gets too hot.
"People are so surprised to see this" project, said Alberto Jorge Chambe, a Mozambican rat handler for Apopo. "Rats are usually considered pests or enemies of humanity. But rats are helping my country escape the shadow of death."
Meanwhile, in a conceptual leap, Weetjens decided to turn the rats' sharp olfactory sense to disease detection, starting with tuberculosis. "The medical applications, I believe, will eventually prove even more important than the hunt for land mines," he predicted.
In the pilot project in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam and the nearby city of Morogoro, Apopo-trained rats evaluate saliva samples at a rate of 40 every 10 minutes; that's equal to what a skilled lab technician, using a microscope, can effectively complete in a day.
A TB rat signals with unmistakable paw motions when it detects sputum infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the infectious bug responsible for 1.7 million deaths and 9.2 million new TB cases each year, mainly in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization. Scientists at Germany's Max Planck Institute are now trying to determine whether the rats are detecting the scent of the actual TB bacteria or some metabolic reaction produced by the infection.
For both TB and land mines, the rats are trained to respond to the sound of a clicker; when the rat makes the scratching motion that means it has detected an explosive or the odor of disease, the handler or trainer responds by snapping the clicker, which means a nut or fruit is on the way.
So why don't the animals just scratch every few minutes to win a treat?
"That would be human behavior," said Weetjens. "Rats are more honest."
Colin Nickerson can be reached at nickerson.colin@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

I like the line "Rats are more honest." Well, it wouldn't take much to be more honest than our snivelling, swivelling aerial conmen.

Once again, sorry to real rats, but not a sniff of an apology to the fraudsters!
 
No need to apologise. Interesting. we hear the Khoji costs only 50 rupees? At least it is cheap! But still uselss!

Almost worse than the super expensive rubbish because the uy is pretending to be a humanist when he is just another conman or dowsing fool.

Ask everyone and anyone you can, where were these things properly tested. We know the answer of course!!

Anyone want to send us a Khoji, please feel free! We will get it tested if you are interested.

Anyone got any medai contacts? Get them working on thsi story. Especially the Horizon Group selling GT200

couldnt get more accurate!!
 
Russians have found the solution to bomb detection problem in particular & detection of hazardous compounds in general.

NATO news: NATO-Russia project for detecting ?dirty bombs? - 30 May 2007
APSTEC - Applied Physics Science and Technology Center

Yes indeed! There's good stuff out there. And people doing good work in the field.

Which makes it all the more pity that anyone wastes money and lives and limbs and property and material and opportunity cost, and families broken apart on SH!T!

Makes me double madder than hell!!
 
Devices that "sniff" for explosives are legitimate. Almost all military grade explosives are nitrated; loaded with nitro groups, NO3. These are constantly gassed off as the material naturally degrades or decays, and the sniffers look for nitrates in the air around the clothing of a person carrying a bomb.

I've heard a bit about these bogus dowsing-rod devices, and unless the device samples air and analyzes it, it is not going to find explosives. electromagnetic radiation alone (like a metal detector) cannot.

BUT... there may be something said for a device that LOOKS like it might be very effective. Bombers aren't brilliant people, and just having numerous devices that look like they might work, may help protect an area or deter a bomber. But such a device should cost a couple of $$, not hundreds. That would be a ripoff. And there still needs to be a core of ACTUAL detectors in place.
 
Most effective detterent at use these days by the local sec guys..
is a bent metal wire they use to pretend they are using the real deal..
its really funny..
First example seen at the very vunerable Jinnah park in Rawalpindi.
 
BBC News - Newsnight - Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'

089443e26d19_AM.jpg.jpg

yes ^^ this is the one .. i remember the image as read on bbc about this product ,its actually a fake developed by some british guy who was questioned. He did managed to sell a lot of them to iraqi sec forces. terrorist using 2 cars can easily penetrate security!
 
Most effective detterent at use these days by the local sec guys..
is a bent metal wire they use to pretend they are using the real deal..
its really funny..
First example seen at the very vunerable Jinnah park in Rawalpindi.
This literature was some what relevant to my Final year engineering Project. It entails all the recent updates & mechanisms in the the explosive detection realm..Graphs are really important!!
DefenceDog: Recent Advances in Trace Explosives Detection
 
So, are they referring to the controversial ADE 651 as Khojee to ward off media criticism?

ADE 651 is referred to on most forums as the magic wand detector and McCormik is highly controversial to say the least.

The MoD is suggesting that ASF developed Khojee ingeniously. I'm going to take a skeptical approach to whether they are referring to ADE 651 as Khojee now.

They are indigenously made, we had plenty of them at the front. They aren't ineffective rather they are over effective. Incidents of it flagging people smuggling or just carrying "Ittar" are very common place........
 
So many years later the scam continues. When will the people making money off this be tried in court?

http://www.dawn.com/news/1276185/pakistans-bogus-bomb-detectors-in-business-despite-global-scandal

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  • Pakistan's bogus bomb-detectors in business despite global scandal[/paste:font]
    AFP — UPDATED ABOUT 12 HOURS AGO
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    More than 15,000 units of the detectors have been sold in Pakistan. —AP/File


    ISLAMABAD: With radio-like antennae meant to swivel and point at vehicles carrying bombs, "magic wand" explosive detectors proliferated throughout conflict zones in the 2000s until they were exposed as a global scam.

    But in an astonishing security threat, more than 15,000 of a new variant of the handheld device have been made in Pakistan to guard high-value facilities such as airports and government installations, despite officials conceding they are effectively useless.

    Many creators of the original devices are serving long prison sentences for fraud, including British businessman James McCormick. His ADE-651 became a mainstay of security forces in Iraq, where $85 million was spent on them, before they were officially banned last month.

    "It serves a deterrence value only — it's good for police and security personnel to have something in their hands," said a senior interior ministry official, who asked to remain anonymous.

    Pressed on whether Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents — who have been waging an insurgency that has that claimed more than 60,000 lives in Pakistan since 2004 — may by now be wise to the deception, he conceded: "Yes, they are savvy and they probably are aware by now."

    His comments were backed by two more senior members of government, though neither was prepared to go formally on the record.

    Official silence over the matter may be linked to the enormous sums of money involved in the business, observers say, while many bureaucrats fear for their jobs if they speak out.

    "Powerful people make money through these scams and you cannot offend powerful people, even if it means endangering lives," said one former official at the interior ministry.

    Public security threat
    Pakistan initially imported foreign detector devices such as the ADE-651 and the German made Sniffex, according to a government source, but in 2009 Pakistan's Airport Security Force (ASF) took over making and selling the wands.

    More than 15,000 units have been sold within the country at a cost of 70,000 rupees ($700), according to an official, amounting to a total revenue of more than $10 million.

    The ASF — which declined multiple requests for comment — is technically a civilian institution but is staffed by many serving senior officers deputed from the powerful military, which wields considerable influence over the country’s defence and foreign policy.

    The wands, named "Khoji" (finder), are used by security personnel to protect airports and government installations, and have also been widely sold to the private sector and deployed at malls, hotels and fast-food chains.

    J Chacko, a London-based security analyst, said they were endangering lives.

    "A false sense of complacency based on devices that do not work does represent a public security threat," he said.

    'Snake oil'
    The device claims an accuracy level of 90 per cent, according to a copy of its user manual obtained by AFP, but uses the principles of radiesthesia, or dowsing, which experts consider junk science.

    “Khoji is the first device of its kind that can detect explosives from distances of up to 100 metres (330 feet), even when the explosive is hidden behind walls or metal barriers such as buildings or vehicles,” the manual boasts.

    "It detects the interference by between the magnetic field of the earth, the explosive, the device itself and the human body, which allows the device to penetrate and locate even small amounts of explosive through concrete, soil, and metal barriers."

    But Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at the University College London, dismissed the claims as "laughable".

    "There is no physical basis for the operation of those devices," he told AFP. "It's pure snake oil, sold to desperate people who use them because something, even if useless, is better than nothing."

    "There is no 'magnetic' signal that you might be able to pick up. The idea that you could do so through metal, especially steel in a car, is laughable."

    His comments were backed by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a leading Pakistani physicist who trained at the US's MIT.

    "It's a fraud. There's no way that explosives can be detected by electromagnetic means," he said.

    Leading scientists are currently developing legitimate explosives-detectors based on sensors that "sniff" out explosive compounds such as triacetone triperoxide, but the work remains in its infancy.

    A Western security consultant in Afghanistan told AFP: "The only device that can currently detect such explosives is a dog."

 
Still nobody cares
http://www.dawn.com/news/1299188/fake-bomb-detectors-yes-pakistan-is-still-using-them
Fake bomb detectors? Yes, Pakistan is still using them
FARAZ TALAT — PUBLISHED about 11 hours ago
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How much longer must we keep pretending that a toy with an antenna is actually detecting bombs? How can we take solace in the illusion of security it offers?

We have all seen this device and its equally fraudulent variants. And we have all wondered, at one point or another, how this supposed marvel of security technology is meant to protect us.

ADE-651 is an instrument that’s been used by security personnel at the entrances of high-value facilities in various countries.

The guard marches by the car with the device in hand, its swivelling antenna jutting out at a right angle to his body.

The makers of this contraption claim that the antenna turns in the direction of a substance that it is programmed to detect.

The device was produced by ATSC in the United Kingdom. After exhaustive investigation by the BBC, amongst other organisations, its export was banned in 2010 by the British government.

About three years later, ATSC was dissolved while its founder – Jim McCormick – was convicted for fraud and imprisoned.

Countries that had been duped into using this instrument began to taper down and ban its use.

The instrument cost the Iraqi security forces $85 million and was widely used in that country until earlier this year.

Since 2007, a vast number of vehicles armed with explosives have driven past these devices undetected, killing and injuring thousands.

It was only after the horrific Karrada bombings in July 2016 that the Iraqi Prime Minister demanded the withdrawal of these fake bomb detector wands from security checkposts.

In Pakistan, however, we are slow to learn lessons concerning national security despite many scientists and senators alike questioning the continued use of khoji (the local variant of ADE-651).

High-value civilian facilities across Pakistan, from airports to upscale shopping malls, are still being guarded by personnel equipped with these fake bomb detectors.

It is far too late for this to be signed off as mere oversight, including how there has not been a statement about our awe-invoking apathy towards loss of civilian life.

The average Pakistani citizen’s rising impatience with security as time-consuming pageantry rather than a practical service has been observable over the last few years.

Metal detectors beep continuously as throngs of disgruntled shoppers and bankers pass straight through them with security officers rarely batting an eye.

Whatever weapon one could potentially wield is masked by the welter of metallic objects carried or worn by the person.

Who dares to ask a cinemagoer to remove his belt and shoes as he hurries through to catch his movie? What purpose does a metal detector serve when you have no intention to pay heed to its alarm?

It fulfills precisely the same function as a fake bomb-detector wand: an illusion of security.

Security apparatus in the absence of an effective system and a workable protocol is like a scarecrow in a corn-field; we just hope the crows don’t call our bluff.

Sentencing McCormick, Judge Richard Hone noted that the man selling the fake bomb detectors not only committed fraud, but likely caused death and injury to countless innocents by bestowing a false sense of security.

The same “false sense of security” in Pakistan appears to be accepted as official policy.

If the public were to realise that the barbed-wire fence separating them from the terrorist is nothing more than a mirage, panic may ensue. The terrorist, in all likelihood, already knows it.

The solution thus far hasn’t been to replace the mirage with something real; but to try and act more convincingly.

Bogus bomb detectors, even as placebo, have outlived their usefulness to the public.

If real security cannot be asked for, we can at least hope that the authorities have another trick lined up for us.
 

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