Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — A British supplier of detectors of improvised explosive
devices to Iraq has been sentenced to 10 years.

A British court determined that the supplier, James McCormick sold more
than $50 million worth of fake bomb detectors to the Iraq Interior Ministry
amid an Al Qaida bombing campaign from 2007 through 2010.

The court said anti-IED devices, called Advanced Selection Equipment, were based on golf
ball finders produced in the United States.

“I am wholly satisfied that your fraudulent conduct in selling so many
useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of
security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and
injury to innocent individuals,” Judge Richard Hone said on May 2.

Prosecutors said the 57-year-old McCormick made more than $75 million in sales of the fake device to foreign clients, including Egypt. The United
Nations was also said to have purchased the devices for its peacekeeping
force in Lebanon.

“I never had any negative results from customers,” McCormick said.

For nearly two years, the Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted that the
devices were effective in stopping bombings throughout Baghdad. At one point, nearly every major army checkpoint around the Iraqi capital was equipped with the
wand-like device, designed to display an orange light when an explosive was detected.

  Advanced Selection Equipment, Brit who sold golf ball finders as bomb detectors to Iraq, Iraq Interior Ministry, James McCormick, Judge Richard Hone, sentenced to 10 years