The entrepreneur in question, James McCormick, seems to have the moral sophistication of the average tapeworm. Like many of our finest greedy sociopaths, I'm surprised he wasn't knighted before they nabbed him, because he showed true business genius. He bought novelty golf ball detectors for a few quid a pop, jazzed them up slightly, and claimed they could detect explosives, drugs, guns, people. He sold each 'unit' for up to $40,000 to a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Iraq spent more than $40m (£26.2m) on 6,000 devices between 2008 and 2010.
Haneen Alwan needed 59 operations after she was injured in a bomb blast in January 2009. She was two months pregnant at the time and lost her child.
"When people passed through checkpoints using these devices, they thought they would be safe, but they are useless. The man who sold them has no conscience. He is morally bankrupt. How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?" she told a BBC Newsnight investigation into the case.Naive soul that I am, I was baffled as to how any government could buy worthless junk on such a scale - even the Iraqi government. Oh.
The investigation revealed that senior Iraqi officials knew the devices did not work and received bribes to ensure they were purchased.
General Jihad al-Jabiri, the head of the Baghdad bomb squad, is currently serving a jail term for corruption, along with two other Iraqi officials.
Not sure if this case represents a triumph for investigative journalism and the rule of law, or a rather harsh indictment of the kind of 'democracy' we put in place up Baghdad way.
'How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?'
Oh dear, you people have got so much to learn about Western civilization.
'How could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?'
Oh dear, you people have got so much to learn about Western civilization.
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