Free Republic

<p>Baghdad -- More evidence has surfaced that the looting of the National Museum was carried out in part by professional art thieves who used chaos as cover to make off with artifacts sought by private collectors, museum officials said.</p> <p>The officials said financiers from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Jordan have been paying people since the end of the 1991 Gulf War to smuggle specific items from the sites of archaeological digs around the country.</p>

From whiskey to religion, Iraqis tasted freedoms denied for years Saturday in a slow climb back to a normalcy an entire generation never knew. Completing their own journey to freedom, seven U.S. captives from the war flew to a Texas homecoming. In a widening sweep of officials from Saddam Hussein's toppled government, authorities arrested his former finance minister, hoping he can lead them to the former dictatorship's hidden wealth. They also took custody of the suspected mastermind of Iraq's nerve agent program, who gave up.Postwar recovery advanced in scattered steps.Thousands of Shiite pilgrims renewed a tradition banned for decades as...