Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum
Reuters ^ | April 12, 2003 | Hassan Hafidh

Posted on 04/12/2003 7:05:07 AM PDT by kalt

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Looters have sacked Baghdad's antiquities museum, plundering treasures dating back thousands of years to the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia, museum staff said on Saturday.

They blamed U.S. troops for not protecting the treasures.

Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told Reuters: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars."

She blamed U.S. troops, who have controlled Baghdad since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein's rule on Wednesday, for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters who moved in to the building on Friday.

"The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."

The looters broke into rooms that were built like bank vaults with huge steel doors. The museum grounds were full of smashed doors, windows and littered with office paperwork and books.

"We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters.

"As soon as I saw the American troops near the museum, I asked them to protect it but the second day looters came and robbed or destroyed all the antiquities," he said.

ARMED GUARDS

Amin told four of the museum guards to carry guns and protect what remained.

Some of the museum's artifacts had been moved into storage to avoid a repeat of damage to other antiquities during the 1991 Gulf War.

It houses items from ancient Babylon and Nineveh, Sumerian statues, Assyrian reliefs and 5,000-year-old tablets bearing some of the earliest known writing. There are also gold and silver helmets and cups from the Ur cemetery.

The museum was only opened to the public six months ago after shutting down at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. It survived air strikes on Baghdad in 1991 and again was almost unscathed by attacks on the capital by U.S.-led forces.

Iraq, a cradle of civilization long before the empires of Egypt, Greece or Rome, was home to dynasties that created agriculture and writing and built the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon -- site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antiquities; fallofbaghdad; iraq; iraqifreedom; looters; looting; museum
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 421-431 next last
To: DensaMensa
No doubt that's true at the research level. For the rest of us, the most we will ever see is a photo and read an analysis. Almost makes you wonder if the bad guys didn't set up this huge (and irresponsible) loss just to blame us, doesn't it?

That's what I'm wondering. These are the same people who booby-trapped their oil wells. If you are right, perhaps it is all hidden in one place. I hope and pray it can be recovered.

Anyway, I still think we should have had secured the museum right away.

141 posted on 04/12/2003 12:32:49 PM PDT by Fifth Business
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 140 | View Replies]

To: Lauratealeaf
"Get over it. Museums have dead history in them. I am more concerned about the living troops still in firefights and still getting killed in Iraq. Iraq's future is much more important than its past."

You are setting up a false dichotomy. One can be concerned about both the future and the past equally and also be concerned about the troops AND the museum. It is NOT either or. That museum was a valuable asset to the people of Iraq and the people of the world, If it could have been preserved with our help we should have done it. It's not the end of the world but if we could have spared ourselves getting blamed for this we should have.

142 posted on 04/12/2003 12:41:53 PM PDT by Theresa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: Fifth Business
I'm going to opt for regime trickery until proven otherwise. Especially with the tearful woman whose employer was Saddam for 30 years. Old habits being hard to break and all. . .

No matter what, it still isn't our fault. It is Saddam's.

No matter where the stuff is, it is tragic.
143 posted on 04/12/2003 12:45:27 PM PDT by abner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 138 | View Replies]

To: Drango
"How many lives should be expended to save this valuable "stuff"? One Marine? A hundred Iraqis? Two hundred? Five Hundred? Is it more important to save the oil wells or is the "stuff" more important? Please advise."

It is important to save BOTH. It's not either we save the oil or we save the "stuff". We save both. We should have sent a half a dozen soldiers over there. They would not have been in any more danger than in battle. They would have been in less danger. So we screwed up.

144 posted on 04/12/2003 12:47:42 PM PDT by Theresa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Drango
When the Romans destroyed the library of Alexandria. The
secrets ,books,texts of past civilizations of the Greeks
, Egypt,Sumer,and yes writings of Atlantis. This was a great
lost to our ancient human history.
The Mayas library,books,texts,etc..was destroyed by the spanish. These Libraries of the past is important to help
learn from our past. Now the records,texts,etc...of Babylon
and beyond..GONE !
Protecting Human Histroy is important.
145 posted on 04/12/2003 12:50:06 PM PDT by Orlando
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Orlando
Get a grip dude...When the Nazis looted Europe, no one blamed the Allies for not protecting the treasures...Why are some people here jumping all over the Americans on this? Tragic yes. America's fault? NO! It was the IRAQIS who did the looting...

NO BLOOD FOR ARCHEOLOGY

146 posted on 04/12/2003 12:59:53 PM PDT by Drango (Two wrongs don't make a right...but three lefts do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: kalt
It disgusts me that Iraqis looted treasures of their heritage.

It dusgusts me further that they would blame US troops for not protecting that heritage. There are still firfights and attempted homocide bombings going on. The Marines can't be everywhere at once.

What happened to all that great rhetoric about how citizens of Iraq are IRAQIS before anything else?? If that crap were true, there would have been no need to protect the heritage of the Iraqi people.

The blame lies with the looters, not with the Marines, who are still sheeding blood to free the Iraqi people.

147 posted on 04/12/2003 1:00:51 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions= Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cake_crumb
Baghdad Antiquities Museum would of been the Number #1 tourist attraction . We must send in troops to that location
,and PROTECT what left.! Please...protect that site.
148 posted on 04/12/2003 1:07:24 PM PDT by Orlando
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies]

To: Drango
Why are some people here jumping all over the Americans on this?

Such a silly question! It's ALWAYS the Americans fault!

149 posted on 04/12/2003 1:08:15 PM PDT by abner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies]

To: Fifth Business
}Anyway, I still think we should have had secured the museum right away.

Since I have visited many of the great museums of the world (but not this one) I am certainly sympathetic to that feeling. OTOH, I am so grateful the undiscovered archeological finds have presumeably been left intact I can let it pass.

Our troops are not museum guards, hospital guards, school guards, business guards, traffic cops or infrastructure developers. I wish they could all come safely home ASAP while we are ahead. It's going to get nastier over there before it gets better IMHO.

150 posted on 04/12/2003 1:09:19 PM PDT by DensaMensa (He who controls the definitions controls History. He who controls History controls the future.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 141 | View Replies]

To: Theresa
"We should have planned to guard this museum. How many soldiers would it have taken? This makes us look sloppy and disorganized"

It's unfair to expect our soldiers to turn their backs on the guns and homocide bombers in front of them in order to go and protect artifacts that the much touted Iraqi pride should have made taboo.

"Come to think of it I am getting impatient for the US to get going on stopping the looting. It's starting to make us look bad that we are not doing anything."

It was one thing when Iraqis were looting the offices of their tortures of desk chairs and air conditioners and the homes of their torturers of gold dining room chairs as they did at Uday's house. It's quite another for them to destroy their own heritage.

I would like to know more about the 'looters', their motives and the artifacts themselves. Either way, our soldiers are having enough problems in Baghdad, without having to stop in the middle of multiple firefights to answer the UN call for them to be policemen as well.

That call from the UN, combined with continued fighting and attacks by Pali terrorists angry at their benefactor's political demise smells like a concious attempt to trap our forces in a 'quagmire.'

If our soldiers HAD turned aside from their goal in order to immediately try to restore order in the middle of a WAR ZONE, and some had been killed or injured as a result of protecting Iraq's heritage from the Iraqi people....would you still be angry that our forces didn't do 'enough' and 'look sloppy'?

151 posted on 04/12/2003 1:39:44 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions= Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: DensaMensa
There's a ton of this stuff in the Oriental Institute in Chicago...a lot easier to get to than Baghdad, plus you can catch a Cubs or White Sox game afterwards.

All the same, I hope there's a determined effort to retrieve as much of the looted material as possible and return it to the museum.

152 posted on 04/12/2003 1:41:04 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 140 | View Replies]

To: ladyjane
"Why is anyone listening to this woman, much less believing her? Any head of an important museum was undoubtedly a supporter of Saddam. She is probably covering for the real looters who emptied the place long ago. Probably covering for herself as well. She's as believeable as Baghdad Bob"

BUMP!!

153 posted on 04/12/2003 1:45:39 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions= Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 110 | View Replies]

To: Physicist; Theresa; Asher
I totally agree. Assuming the reports are correct, this is a colossal tragedy. As the looting has been underway for several days it seems like this could have been anticipated and prevented with a limited armed presence at the museum.

Perhaps something like this happened to the library at Alexandria.

154 posted on 04/12/2003 1:49:51 PM PDT by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Drango
Yeah - all the great discoveries of the past that could be uncovered by Saddam are now gone. What a shame. Who knows what good and wonderful things Saddam could have done with these ancient mysteries?!

On the other hand - if it was the locals that looted it, it is too bad. Hopefully the stuff will put some bread on the table when Martin Sheen and all the other lovers of culture and start their "vases for cash" turn in program.

Although I think it's bad that this history got looted, I think the Iraqi people will get over it. Some historian guy said on CNN: "People will remember this (the looting of the museum) long after we forget what the war was about".

CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE? (Sadly, I can......)



155 posted on 04/12/2003 1:54:41 PM PDT by geopyg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Theresa
The problem is about 5 times as many articles will be presented for sale as relics, as actually disappeared. With the loss of the chain of custody, telling the real thing from the fakes will not be a trivial matter.
156 posted on 04/12/2003 1:57:25 PM PDT by JasonC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: Drango
"Get a grip dude...When the Nazis looted Europe, no one blamed the Allies for not protecting the treasures...Why are some people here jumping all over the Americans on this?"

That is a darned good question. I've been studying what make our cultures tick for 30 years. Naturally, such study is useless without an avid interest in history, so as to learn about the older cultures which were in some cases subsumed by the newer ones (the culture of ancient Egypt, subsumed by Islamic culture 1,400 years ago for instance)

Because of this avid interest in ancient history, I'm appalled by the looting of ancient artifacts....but dammit, I'm a heckuva lot MORE appalled by the armchair generalship I see here on this thread!

You posters blaming OUR military first are really a sad example of troop support. I mean..what good does it do for adults to support our sons and daughters shedding their own blood to attain freedom for some population far away if we haven't got the least idea how our military goes about freeing people in the FIRST PLACE???

Somebody said "well, we've got troops guarding hospitals, so there's no reason we can't spare a few to go and guard a museum" that opened just before military action began - as if Saddam never expected military action to start!? CUT ME A BREAK!!

We have a finite number of troops on hostile territory with nasties just WAITING to ambush them the moment they let their guard down...AND THERE ARE ALLEGED 'PATRIOTS' HERE ON THIS THREAD WHINING THAT IF WE CAN GUARD HOSPITALS...IF WE CAN GUARD HOSPITALS....THEN WE OUGHT TO HAVE SPARED A DOZEN OR SO MEN TO DIE GUARDING A D@MNED MUSEUM!!! AS IF A MUSEUM IS AS IMPORTANT AS A HOSPITAL!

You posters insisting that our troops be placed into further life threatening situations in the midst of such bloody chaos in order to protect a museum sound like you thought it was a GREAT idea to send our special forces into Mogadishu to die as part of a 'humanitarian' mission, where they were lured into a trap.

As an historian, I HATE what happened to these antiquities. But have a hard time believeing there were as me=any treasures there as claimed in this article.

HOWEVER, I refuse to allow ANYONE to order our troops....my nephews and cousins among them, to die in order to defend a museum. Dying defending the wounded in a hospital is one thing, but if I EVER hear ANY of our troops lifes are wasted in such a BLOODY CLINTONIAN WAY....this rant will be extremely mild and cool headed by comparison to the action which I will take. </rant mode off>

157 posted on 04/12/2003 2:11:35 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions=Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies]

To: cake_crumb
I am very skeptical about this story. The claim is that the looters took 170,000 items from the museum. Assuming each looter took 10 items would mean that it would take 17000 looters in the museum. Just a little bit far fetched. I would like to know how many of these artifacts were actually in the museum prior to our occupation of Baghdad. I would be willing to bet most of these items were removed prior to the occupation and are presently sitting in the homes of Saddam supporters or in Syria.
158 posted on 04/12/2003 2:18:19 PM PDT by brydic1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 157 | View Replies]

To: Orlando
"Baghdad Antiquities Museum would of been the Number #1 tourist attraction ."

Then it was really stupid of the Iraqis to loot it then, wasn't it?

"We must send in troops to that location ,and PROTECT what left.! Please...protect that site"

If we may judge by this quiveringly hystrionic article, the museum is empty. I agree with another poster who suggested an amnesty program for those people who return the treasures. There's not much sense in guarding the barn after the horses have gone.

We'll protect it when we can. Our troops have more humanitarian concerns to deal with.

Here's an idea: HOW'S ABOUT IRAQIS START POLICING THEIR OWN AND STOP DESTROYING THEIR CITIES LIKE SPOILED CHILDREN RUNNING AMOK? AREN'T THERE ANY ADULTS IN IRAQ??

159 posted on 04/12/2003 2:20:11 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions=Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 148 | View Replies]

To: cake_crumb
When the World's great socialist power liberated Berlin in 1945, it was that the occuping army itself that looted the museums, but, of course, that was acceptable to the world's fellow travelers. I do not recall any army in history engaging in looting control and fire fighting while still engaged with the enemy. We have had several marines killed in action within the last two days.
160 posted on 04/12/2003 2:30:33 PM PDT by brydic1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 157 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 421-431 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson