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Posted on 04/17/2003 10:45:31 AM PDT by A Vast RightWing Conspirator
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Martin Sullivan, the head of President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s cultural advisory committee, stepped down this week in protest over the United States failing to stop the looting of Baghdad's museum.
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In a letter to Bush dated Monday, Sullivan said he was resigning as chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, a position he had held since 1995.
"The reports in recent days about the looting of Iraq (news - web sites)'s National Museum of Antiquities and the destruction of countless artifacts that document the cradle of Western civilization have troubled me deeply, a feeling that is shared by many other Americans," he wrote.
Calling the looting a "tragedy," Sullivan said that it was not prevented "due to our nation's inaction.
The 11-member committee is made up of experts and professionals in the art world who are appointed to three-year terms.
Two are museum representatives, two are experts in archaeology and ethnology, three are specialists in worldwide art trade and four others are designated based on their areas of expertise.
A source close to the committee told AFP on condition of anonymity that another committee member, Gary Vikan, was also stepping down.
Sullivan serves as executive director of the Historic Saint Mary's City Commission, dedicated to one of the first British colonies, in the state of Maryland. Vikan is director of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Baghdad's museum, which housed one of the world's great collections of artifacts from early Mesopotamian civilizations, was ransacked by looters on Friday in the upheaval following US troops' entry into the city.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the United States was offering rewards for the return of items from the museum, or assistance in their recovery.
But critics have faulted US forces for failing to intervene in the extensive pillaging of the capital and other Iraqi cities after President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime collapsed.
Likening the looting to a post-football game riot, Rumsfeld said Tuesday: "No one likes it. No one allows it. It happens and it is unfortunate, and to the extent it can be stopped, it should be stopped."
"To the extent it happens in a war zone, it's difficult to stop," he added.
Reported today is that the Museum is across the street from the Republican Guard barracks, from which sniper fire and attacks were being launced. Were our troops supposed to take casualties to prevent the Iraqis from stealing from their own museum?
The valuable pieces have been moved to vaults several months ago, vaults that are well disguised and under lock and key.
Nevertheless, the "looters" found where the vaults were, and the "looters" happened to have the keys.
The only pieces left exposed to actual looting had little or no value, as well as empty cases.
Eventually, a whistle blower will lead the loot.
Hmmm... now I get it. I guess General Franks watched that PBS or NPR piece too and he decided that all Iraqi museums were already 100% empty and therefore they needed no more protection. He was therefore going to place the guards at the Oil Ministry.
Then the perpetrators (likely Baath party members and pro-Saddamites) will get their just punishment in due time.
Wrong!!!
On the other hand, Iraq's 'freedom' is NOT worth the lives of 100+ Americans, already dead for absolutely no good reason.
PARIS (AP) -- Some of the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities had keys to museum vaults and were able to take pieces from safes, experts said Thursday at an international meeting. ..........."It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes." ..............
"I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was," said Gibson. He added that if a good police team was put together, "I think it could be cracked in no time."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/895129/posts?
Mr. Sullivan was placed in that position during CLINTON's admin. He is NOT a true Bush advisor.
As to your assertions that protecting the Ministry of Oil and the fields themselves, as opposed to the museum, was a grave mistake, I take a deep exception.
Like it or not, the oil wealth of that country is what will give it the capacity for a rapid and sustained turnaround to a country of considerable wealth.
In addition, there are many conflicting reports regarding the looting:
1. The staff had plans to remove ALL antiquities of value within a 24 hour notice, which they definitely had.
2. There are many reports that the greatest of the artifacts were examined by experts long before the war, and their strong position was that the ones on display were fakes, quite possibly perpetrated by Saddam for his usage of the real items, whether for sale or his own possession is an unknown.
3. War is hell, things get broken, destroyed, looted, burned, etc. Face it and get over it.
4. There are factual reports that instead of broken glass and destroyed display cases (indicative of pure looting), the cases were professionally cut with glass cutters, which is indicative of a very sophisticated theft,
5. Given the plans to evacuate the finest of the antiquities in a 24 hour period, the lack of that happening and the professional nature of the theft, this situation looks a lot more like a planned theft by Iraqis of some high position and authority.
Can we protect everything in LA during a given riot...NO. Can we do the same in the middlle of a WAR in a city the size of Baghdad.......NO.
Faulting the troops or their commanders over this is a fools errand. Give it up.
You're just pissed we won this war, and you want to take it out on SOMETHING!
Face it. Franks made the proper choice. Read the link in the post above. All that was "looted" was furniture and office equipment. The "artifacts" were long gone before the coalition ever got to Baghdad.
Is this what counts? Don't you understand? These destroyed artifacts are lost for ever. The harm can not be undone. It doesn't matter if one million Baath members and Bill Clinton die of slow torture. It will not bring back what is now lost.
LOL!
Obviously, nobody noticed that he was still there.
Moron.
I just saw on the Fox news ticker that British Archaeologists that had seen the displays at the recently reopened Baghdad Museum say that many items appeared to be reproductions.
You really ARE pissed, aren't you?
And hysterical, to boot.
Of course this is not true. But, even if it was, did Franks know for a fact that NOTHING OF VALUE was in those museums. Of course he didn't.
ABCCNNNBCCBS footage of US troops machinegunning Iraqi civilians.
I wonder why General Franks didn't go with that plan?
No they're not. They're being fenced. They'll turn up in private collections or a Euro museum.
With the museum at last under the protection of American troops and tanks, Dr. George said today that part of the collection had been stored in vaults in the basement just before the war, though some of the heavier and more fragile items remained in the galleries. Some items were also taken elsewhere for storage.He said looters did manage to break into the basement, but said his team of experts had only begun assessing the extent of the damage. "We have to check all the boxes to see what is lost," he said, "and that will take time, a lot of time."
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