40K USD for a plastic box

Shocking to see how a british company has not just exploited vulnerable iraqis by scamming them with their crap, but also arguably responsible for the loss of many lives both iraqi and british / friendly.

Lets hope that the Govt not just try and reimburse the iraqi govt financially (85M dollars) but more importantly set an example by putting this scum behind bars. Surely there must have been others involved in qualifying, ordering and distributing this item in its thousands.

BBC Newsnight

And if by magic

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8476381.stm

"It is understood Iraq paid about US$40,000 for each device. No Western government uses them."

I've been reading this and I'm glad the fricker has been banged up. HOWEVER. Who in their right mind spends 40 grand on something that "works off static electricity" and "detects explosives the same way dowsing works" etc etc?! What a crock! The people who assessed the product and signed off the PO for it need firing. They probably have ecotek valves and those power boost resistors on their cars and are currently in negotiations to claim their millions from a dead nigerian.

Lets hope they send HIM out there to detect bombs with nothing more than his own sense of smell.

See how he gets on with that.

Dont jail him, send him to the front line.

Lets hope they send HIM out there to detect bombs with nothing more than his own sense of smell.

 

See how he gets on with that.

 

Dont jail him, send him to the front line.

Good plan, although really he should be forced to use one of his own detectors See how confident he is then.

Good plan, although really he should be forced to use one of his own detectors See how confident he is then.

Haha, never thought of that!!

Shocking to see how a british company has not just exploited vulnerable iraqis by scamming them with their crap, but also arguably responsible for the loss of many lives both iraqi and british / friendly.

 

Lets hope that the Govt not just try and reimburse the iraqi govt financially (85M dollars) but more importantly set an example by putting this scum behind bars. Surely there must have been others involved in qualifying, ordering and distributing this item in its thousands.

 

BBC Newsnight

Good to see this guy's been arrested. Let's hope he gets banged up for life and all his assets stripped and given to the Iraqi Govt.

But I fail to see why on earth our Govt should reimburse the Iraqi Govt for their own gullibility. Who on earth pays that sort of money without making damn sure it works? I suspect that once the Iraqis complete their own investigation, one or two senior officials there will be arrested for taking backhanders.

Good to see this guy's been arrested. Let's hope he gets banged up for life and all his assets stripped and given to the Iraqi Govt.

 

But I fail to see why on earth our Govt should reimburse the Iraqi Govt for their own gullibility. Who on earth pays that sort of money without making damn sure it works? I suspect that once the Iraqis complete their own investigation, one or two senior officials there will be arrested for taking backhanders.

Depends on what and how it happened.

If the Iraqi govt contacted this dude themselves, did their own investigation / tests, etc then there is no reason why we should reimburse them at all as it has nothing to do with us, we were not involved.

On the other hand, if our military, etc were involved in putting the two parties in contact, assisting in the decision making process on the product and distribution / delivery, testing, etc - then our involvement will be questioned and hence liability.

Lets see how thins pans out.

I remember reading about this on badscience.net back in November and wondering how the hell they got away with it. Would've been funny had it not been so serious. It's excellent that it's finally been exposed for the scam that it is, but tragic that it's taken so long.

According to the news report I saw last night, there have been similar products (ie bomb detecting equipment based around dousing) around for 15+ years and they were constantly and frequently discredited by the military. Makes you wonder why this one was any different.

It's unfortunate that bombs went undetected when otherwise they might have been found, but to be honest, anyone who looked at that 'device' and then decided that it was worth spending $85million on it without testing it when its supposed to find bloody bombs, deserves everything they get.

I dont think its the British government that should be reimbursing iraq, more how iraq is going to explain to everyone else how they have been perfoming security operations/searches that are supposed to protect various buildings/people/military with a black box with a tv aerial poking out that they didn't even think to test to see if it worked.

It's unfortunate that bombs went undetected when otherwise they might have been found, but to be honest, anyone who looked at that 'device' and then decided that it was worth spending $85million on it without testing it when its supposed to find bloody bombs, deserves everything they get.

 

I dont think its the British government that should be reimbursing iraq, more how iraq is going to explain to everyone else how they have been perfoming security operations/searches that are supposed to protect various buildings/people/military with a black box with a tv aerial poking out that they didn't even think to test to see if it worked.

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showpost.php?p=2640607&postcount=8

 

Lets hope that the Govt not just try and reimburse the iraqi govt financially (85M dollars)

 

BBC Newsnight

So should we wait and see how it 'pans out' or should we listen to your first post above that says we should really be looking at paying reparations of some kind to the iraqi government.

Personally I wouldn't jump to conclusions, I cant see the British government(or any government) forcing the Iraqi's to piss $85million dollars away on toy bomb detectors.

...Surely there must have been others involved in qualifying, ordering and distributing this item in its thousands.

As I said:

...I suspect that once the Iraqis complete their own investigation, one or two senior officials there will be arrested for taking backhanders.

I fail to see why i should reimburse Iraq for their failure to test this device. Sod them.

I fail to see why i should reimburse Iraq for their failure to test this device. Sod them.

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showpost.php?p=2640780&postcount=13

- that will hopefully decide whether you can or cannot sod them

Seems the Iraqi Interior Ministry still has confidence in the 'bomb detectors'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8477601.stm

The Assistant Deputy Minister was quoted as saying "The reason the director of the company was arrested was not because the device doesn't work, but because he refused to divulge the secret of how it works to the British authorities, and the Americans before them,"

At least now they know where to look for the backhanders.

Maybe no-one involved in Iraq security wants to admit that the devices used for checking for explosives at most Baghdad checkpoints are totally and utterly useless - quite understandable I think. Better to keep up what little remains of the reputation of the devices for now until they can get proper equipment to the soldiers, and replace them due to 'budget constraints' or some such other excuse.

I'm thinking of manufacturing these, they stop all IED's from exploding if you have one in your posession - [Youtube]Z86V_ICUCD4[/Youtube]

They will work in conjunction with the above device and will cost £30k each

anyone who looked at that 'device' and then decided that it was worth spending $85million

Shocking

Its supposed to run on static electricity from the human body and uses different cards for different explosives, I am no expert but that shouts scam

I'm thinking of manufacturing these, they stop all IED's from exploding if you have one in your posession - [Youtube]Z86V_ICUCD4[/Youtube]

 

They will work in conjunction with the above device and will cost £30k each

I like that. I might build one just for the hell of it.