JABIRI - THE WORLD'S GREATEST EXPERT ON BOMB DETECTION

Those of you that have followed the sagas of the fake explosives detectors will recall our old friend, Major General Jabiri. The pivotal figure in the Iraqi purchases of that renowned explosives detector, the ADE651. 

Well, some time back he was convicted on charges of corruption, and it seems it has taken until now for his conviction to be confirmed. Of course we still wonder what has happened to all those others who shared in the kickbacks that Jim McCormick paid out. What about the Interior Minister at the time who would undoubtedly have been looked after? What about al Malaki, the Prime Minister at the time? Does anyone seriously think that the Interior Minister didn't have to pay upwards?

Ah well. Thanks to Joel Wing at Musings on Iraq blog we have some details on the news on Jabiri. You can find his blog here:

http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/iraq-general-gets-4-yrs-in-prison-for.html?m=1

I hope he will be o.k. with me reproducing his post here. If not let me know and I'll just leave the link.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Iraq General Gets 4 Yrs In Prison For Buying Fake Bomb Detectors

Iraq’s purchase of several thousand fake bomb detectors has been an infamous case of
corruption within the country. The ADE 651 devices were used despite objections from 
the United States and British, and when they were proven to not work, and the manufacturer 
was imprisoned for selling the bogus detectors the Iraqi government still refused to admit 
that it was wrong. The Interior Ministry general who bought the ADEs and got a hefty sum 
in kickbacks in the process was finally convicted and his sentence recently approved.

On January 19, 2016 Iraq’s main anti-corruption agency the Integrity Commission ratified
the imprisonment of the general responsible for purchasing the ADE 651s. In June 2012, 
General Jihad al-Jabiri the former head of the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Explosives Department 
was sentenced on misdemeanor corruption charges. In January the Integrity Commission 
okayed his four years imprisonment. The Ministry’s inspector general discovered that up to 
75% of the money spent on purchasing the detectors actually went to kickbacks to 15 Iraqi officials. 
That was supported in the trial of the devices’ manufacturer Jim McCormick in England in 2013 
where he revealed that he paid  millions in bribes to Iraqis to finish the deal. Jabiri was arrested 
in February 2011 for buying the ADEs. That was after years of the Interior Ministry denying any 
wrong doing and protecting the general from investigations.

The ADEs were controversial from the day Iraq bought them. McCormick sold 7,000 of them
to the Interior Ministry in 2007 for $2,500-30,000 each even though they only took $50 to build. 
The devices had no working parts in them and no power source. Users were told to walk in circles 
to generate static electricity that would power them. In November 2008 a British official warned 
that the devices did not work. In 2009 the British and American forces in Iraq investigated the 651s 
and both reported that they did not operate. The next year England banned the exportation of the 
detectors. Despite all this the Iraqi government said there was no wrongdoing in their purchase and 
insisted that they were good for anti-bomb duties. That happened even after Jabiri was arrested and 
McCormick was convicted. Former Minister Nouri al-Maliki for example, said that most of the 651s 
were effective right after McCormick was found guilty. The next Premier Haidar Abadi then ordered
all of the devices removed from service, but some were still seen being used in the streets of Baghdad.

The approval of General Jabiri’s sentence might be the last note heard from Iraq on the ADE 651s.
Despite taking millions in bribes not to mention costing the lives of hundreds of people who were
killed by bombs not discovered by the detectors he only got a misdemeanor charge. This was yet 
another example of how the Iraqi government is not serious about fighting corruption. High officials 
are routinely let go for stealing and graft. Those that are found guilty are usually out of the country or
given slaps on the wrists like Jabiri. Corruption is too important to the ruling parties who use it to
maintain power via their patronage networks. That’s the reason why it continues to fester within the
country.

SOURCES

Sotaliraq, “Integrity Commission approves the imprisonment of the anti-explosives director for four
years,” 1/19/16

QUESTIONABLE MIRA TELECOM?????????

While we wait, and hope, to see if the trial of James McCormick will finally conclude this week, we are also waiting for more information on the case of Elodia Ghinescu in Romania. You may remember reading two of my recent posts on this case, where the ADE651 was used (and of course failed) to try to locate her body.

In the press coverage from Romania, the case has raised important questions as to who there was responsible for purchases of the ADE651. At least three Romanian Government Ministries are implicated, and there are calls for an urgent investigation.

As part of that investigation we think the Romanian authorities should have some interesting questions for Stelian Ilie at Mira Telecom.

After we conducted a campaign by email to inform business partners of Mira Telecom about their involvement with McCormick and the ADE651, Stelian Ilie wrote an open letter claiming that Mira Telecom had terminated their relationship with McCormick in March 2010. This was most interesting because up to the point when he released that letter, he had been vigorously defending that relationship and the ADE651, both directly and indirectly (including various Romanians, who we believe were employees of Mira, adopting pseudonyms, and posting comments supportive of the ADE651 on Youtube and elsewhere).

Now, bringing all this into context of the trial of McCormick, and the Elodia Ghinescu case, two big questions for Mira Telecom:

1. If Mira Telecom terminated their relationship with McCormick in 2010, how and why did they provide a witness for the defence at the trial of McCormick?

This witness (who appeared via video link from Romania) claimed that the ADE651 worked well, but had to be warned by the Judge for being coached by someone off camera as to what to say.

2. If Mira Telecom terminated their relationship with McCormick in 2010, why was the ADE651 still being used as late as 2012 in the search for the body of Elodia Ghinescu?

You can see a copy of the letter that Stelian Ilie of Mira published in February 2011, where he claimed that Mira stopped working with McCormick in 2010, at the blog of Techowiz
HERE . (We know that part of the reason why Stelian Ilie wrote this letter was that at least one company in the U.K. stopped dealing with Mira Telecom as a result of our email campaign. Please note his threat of legal action against us for 'calumny', which strangely never materialised! Well Stelian, here is some more calumny for you!)


During the trial of McCormick, invoices were produced that showed that Mira Telecom were one of at least four different companies that were invoiced for ADE651 units which were subsequently shipped to Iraq. It has long been questioned why McCormick did not sell direct to the Iraqis, and whether there were any irregularities in those deals i.e. were Iraqi officials bribed to buy the ADE651? We understand there are ongoing investigations into those purchases in Iraq, and have previously reported that we have heard Major General al Jabiri (who signed off on the largest orders) is serving a prison sentence for irregularities in the purchase procedures).

We believe that at least some of the money McComick made from sales of the ADE651 to Iraq may still be in Romania. As we have previously reported, records in Romania show that at one time McCormick bought shares in Mira Telecom, and was a Director of one of the Mira companies.

We hope to bring you much more interesting news on investigations in Romania. Meanwhile, we would like to say "HELL - O to Stelian."

P.S. At the trial of McCormick it emerged that the Romanian authorities used the ADE651 in advance of a visit to Romania by President Bush. Perhaps they didn't like him very much.