By RIYADH MOHAMMED and ROD NORDLAND, NYT
'The owner of a British company that supplies questionable bomb detectors to Iraq has been arrested for fraud, and the export of the devices has been banned, British government officials confirmed Saturday.
Iraqi officials reacted with fury to the news, noting a series of horrific bombings in the past six months despite the widespread use of the bomb detectors at hundreds of checkpoints in the capital.
“This company not only caused grave and massive losses of funds, but it has caused grave and massive losses of the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, by the hundreds and thousands, from attacks that we thought we were immune to because we have this device,” said Ammar Tuma, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee.
But the Ministry of the Interior has not withdrawn the device from duty, and police officers continue to use them.'
Thanks David All for posting about this good news.
PS: See this NYT article published in November. Thanks Maury for posting the link.
7 comments :
They're furious at who exactly? It's not like everyone with half a brain didn't tell them they were being swindled.
BAGHDAD — Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html
Exactly, Maury. Thanks for that link. I will add it to the post.
The Iraqis are already pissed off at their govt. This only adds to the discontent.
They need to vote the rascals out Mojo. The reason Iran has a sham democracy is because they disqualify anyone not in with the ruling clique. Now,Iraq wants to do the same.
Then,there's the fact that Parliament members are absent so often that nothing gets done. Some of them actually live outside of Iraq.
If it was obvious that those things didn't work then why did the policemen and the people there on the ground keep using them? Don't they care enough to manually search the cars vs relying on some broken toy?
"If it was obvious that those things didn't work then why did the policemen and the people there on the ground keep using them?"
If your boss tells you it works, and you know nothing about science, and using the gadget is part of your job - then you go on using it.
Even in Britain, you can find people who believe strongly in dowsing (and many other unlikely things).
You're welcome, Mojo.
The Iraqi govt needs to investigate the how and why the Ministry of the Interior bought and continued to use these fake bomb detection devices long after their ability was in serious question. I suspect that there is a good deal of corruption involved.
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