Via BBC News:

The BBC has conducted an investigation which demonstrated that Iraq purchased bomb detection devices in which the component purported to detect trace amounts of TNT was, in fact, “nothing but the type of anti-theft tag used to prevent stealing in high street stores.” Iraqi Interior ministry still backing ‘bomb detector’

According to the BBC,

Some Iraqi officials are insisting that a controversial bomb detection device works, despite a BBC inquiry in which experts said the item was useless.

Britain has banned exports of the ADE-651 and the director of the company selling them was arrested and bailed.(emphasis supplied)

But the device is still being used at checkpoints all over Baghdad.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, whose department bought $85m of the devices, said the ADE-651 had detected 16,000 bombs, including 700 car bombs.

“The thing is, the instrument is being operated by a user,” he said. “Not all those who use the instrument are fully trained, the user needs to be alert and adept at using it.”

There are allegations that failure of the ADE-651 may have been a factor allowing suicide truck bombs to pass through checkpoints on three occasions last year, leading to hundreds of deaths.

United States Military Reported Device Ineffective in June 2009

Sidney Alford, a leading explosives expert who advises all branches of the military, told the BBC programme the sale of the ADE-651 was “absolutely immoral”.

“It could result in people being killed in the dozens, if not hundreds,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press news agency reported that in June 2009, the US military distributed a study using laboratory testing and X-ray analysis that found the ADE-651 ineffective.

“The examination resulted in a determination that there was no possible means by which the ADE-651 could detect explosives and therefore was determined to be totally ineffective and fraudulent,” Major Joe Scrocca, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, told AP in an e-mail.

Iraqi Interior ministry still backing ‘bomb detector’ (BBC)

Let’s state the obvious:

1. The United States provided the Iraqis with very timely intelligence (June 2009) that these devices were useless – and that therefore reliance on them was dangerous.
2. The British seller would seem, in a time of war, knowingly selling defective defensive gear to coalition forces, to have not only committed fraud -but also perhaps treason and sabotage.
3. The Iraqi government was warned 19 months ago – but continues to use them. The best that can be hoped for is that this was the result of a corrupt conspiracy. If, in fact, it’s a reflection of the competence of Iraqi government officials – a government for which the United States is, to a large extent, morally responsible – by what right do we withdraw, leaving the Iraqi people in the hands of a government incapable of using critical, clear intelligence not overnight – but in over a year? If corruption is the cause, at least there’s some possibility it’s one group of people, rather than the whole lot.

Not much to hope for.