Under
President Saddam Hussein, the ministry performed a wide range of functions, including keeping Iraq free of Hussein's enemies and others deemed "undesirable." In June 2004, the CPA transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government. Under the new Prime Minister,
Ayad Allawi, the CPA appointed a new interior minister,
Falah al-Naqib. After the poor performance of the police in battles against
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, Al-Naqib sought to provide the MOI with effective Iraqi constabulary forces. Al-Naqib created “commando units” of former soldiers from elite units such as Saddam's
Republican Guard. These units, commanded by al-Naqib's uncle, Adnan Thabit, a former army general, were personally loyal to the minister. The commandos were trained initially without U.S. involvement. They were under MOI control, and were outside the scope of the U.S.
Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT) assistance program. The U.S. military provided arms and logistical support to these units, who proved to be effective under Minister al-Naqib's stewardship in fighting alongside U.S. forces against
Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. The existence of the unit was officially announced in September 2004 and numbered about 5,000 officers. Its principal U.S. adviser (Counselor) was Colonel
James Steele, who also commanded the U.S. Military Advisory Group in
El Salvador from 1984 through 1986. The Special Police Commando Division, Public Order Division, and Mechanized Police Brigade were merged in 2006 to form the National Police. The National Police has since expanded and been renamed the Federal Police. On April 1, 2009, the Ministry of Interior was awarded the annual "
Pigasus Award" by
James Randi "For the funding organization that wasted the most money on pseudo-science... Iraq's Interior Ministry had, by the end of 2009, spent US$85,000,000 on a
dowsing rod called the
ADE 651. (Each individual unit cost up to $60,000.) Despite an international uproar and continual car bomb detonations in Iraq, they were still being used, and the Ministry was still defending its decision to buy them [in 2009]. A
New York Times report from October 2009 asserted "pervasive" corruption within the Ministry. In 2010, the British businessman who exported the device was arrested by the British police for fraud. In February 2011, General al-Jabiri was arrested on corruption charges, centering on the ADE 651 device purchase. He was subsequently convicted of taking millions of dollars of bribes from McCormick and was imprisoned along with two other Iraqi officials. Up to 15 Iraqis are said to have been on McCormick's payroll, receiving money through a bank in
Beirut. In 2014, the ADE 651 was still in use at Iraqi checkpoints, with a senior police officer defending their use, saying: "Don't listen to what people say about them or what reports media have on them. We would know best because we are the ones that are using them." Investigations by the BBC, U.S.
Naval EOD Technology Division and other organizations have reported that these and similar devices are fraudulent and little more than "glorified
dowsing rods" with no ability to perform claimed functions. In July 2016, Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi issued an executive order banning the use of the device, and in 2020, the Iraqi
Commission of Integrity announced that an individual responsible for equipping the Ministry of Interior with the ADE 651 was sentenced to 7 years in prison for his involvement in the corruption scandal. ==Organization==