The discovery was made during construction of a bowling alley at Baghdad International Airport when excavations for the foundations broke into an underground bunker formerly used as a secret research facility.
The General said that while he had always regarded such devices as the stuff of science fiction, one should never underestimate the capability of foreign scientists, while there was always the outside chance of some hidden extra-terrestrial connection.
Such research, and even hints of an alien input, were found recently on page 98 of assorted intelligence reports recently purchased in the Baghdad bazaars by the CIA, which considered it had got a good deal as two Persian carpets and a vintage Hookah had been included in the deal.
The General considered that at least 90% of these reports were reject scripts prepared by bootleg science fiction writers during the recent Hollywood writer's strike.
The research was apparently being promoted under the former regime by Colonel Medic Hazchem, who had an honorary Ph.D in Electronic Chemistry from the University of Bürgerweldt and who is now rumoured to be in hiding somewhere in the northern hemisphere.
Tests will be carried out at the Las Vegas Polytechnic Institute under the direction of Professor Rube Goldberg, who said preliminary results suggested that the unfinished device had strange effects on roulette wheels and cappuccino bars and could therefore be a multi purpose machine.
Professor Goldberg has had long experience with strange devices, having formerly successfully converted two hundred surplus Florida voting machines into poker machines.