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When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked by Tim Russert on Meet the Press TV show Sunday, April 13 at 9 a.m. EDT (in approximately the following words): "Mr. Secretary, there has been a report that American soldiers allowed the looting of the (priceless) Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad to happen," Rumsfeld blew up and said, "We did not ALLOW it to happen --- it HAPPENED!, etc., etc." In other words, it was "just another wartime accident." This was an outright lie.

McGuire Gibson, (who I believe has a title something like) professor of archeology and antiquities at the University of Chicago, and who may be the leading American scholar on what were the contents of the Iraqi Museum, was interviewed on National Public Radio Weekend Edition at about 8:20 a.m. Sunday, April 13, before Russert's broadcast. (Check www.npr.org, click on "Transcripts" and type in "McGuire" as keyword.)

Gibson said he had TWICE contacted the Pentagon before the latest invasion of Iraq to tell them that the Iraqi National Museum, as a world treasure (thousands of artifacts, all indexed, some as old as 3,500 to 4,000 years, including Sumerian writing clay tablets, Ur of Chaldees, priceless gold statues or statuettes of historic kings, ancient carved jewelry with precious stones, the basis of all western civilization, not just "Arab countries") should be preserved at all costs, no matter what happened to other buildings. To the best of my knowledge, the museum was not bombed.

We do not know whom exactly in the Pentagon Gibson contacted or by what means, but hopefully Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., among others will find out.

Gibson said that U. S. soldiers stood by while looters went in and out of the museum carrying things and when asked about it, the soldiers said (presumably truthfully) that they had no orders to stop the looting. I do not think the soldiers should be blamed in any way, since they were just carrying out orders, as they had been carefully trained to do. Later inspection inside the museum showed not only almost all irreplaceable clay tablets smashed and obvious treasures carried off but even the indexing itself was largely destroyed amid the litter of jagged broken objects scattered across the floors.

The point is that persons in the Pentagon who were very well acquainted with all the specific military targets in Baghdad and who knew all about the museum as a non-military target important to the Iraqis and people all around the world, DELIBERATELY declined to pass along orders to soldiers on the ground to stop any destruction of this priceless treasure. These persons KNEW that after a U. S. military government was set up it would be important for a reasonably smooth transition to avoid NEEDLESS irritation of an already devastated Iraqi population and that the international reputation of the United States as a humanitarian nation was at stake in this matter. Therefore they had to know that destruction of this museum would SEVERELY DAMAGE the reputation of the U. S., but they DELIBERATELY IGNORED this situation anyway. I can only conclude that these persons in the Pentagon WANTED to help destroy the United States.

But it's not just a matter of our reputation as a country. The fact is that many Muslims of different nations will be happy to use this terrible event as a means of further stirring up hatred against the United States and terrorism against its individual citizens. So the PERSONAL SAFETY of Americas has been endangered and additional American lives may be lost in the future as a result. Iraqis are already blaming the Americans for this disaster (see attached AP story in the Billings Gazette), even though all the pillaging was done by Iraqis, and we can be confident that no American soldier stole anything at the museum.

Some apologists for the Pentagon are suggesting that Saddam Hussein may have stolen some of the most valuable treasures from his own museum. This however would have clearly been counter-productive, because all the educated persons in Baghdad knew what was in the museum and it was to Saddam's personal interest to be the ruler of the "most important country in the world," which in this particular respect Iraq undeniably WAS. People from all over the world came to see the museum.

Sean Hannity, a pro-administration liar, gave this spin Tuesday afternoon, April 15 in his syndicated radio broadcast (something like this): "Then there's this flap about the Iraqi museum, as if we could expect American soldiers to be excited about people carrying sofas outside the building". Hannity then quickly went on to other things. (Of course it was a lot more than sofas they were carrying.)

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April 13, 2003

Last modified April 13, 2003 - 4:11 am

Billings Gazette

Iraqis blame looting, lawlessness on U.S.

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - At first they cheered, smiled, offered hearty thumbs-ups to the U.S. soldiers newly in their midst. But across Iraq's lawless capital, that sentiment is evaporating as quickly as Saddam Hussein's government melted away.

Baghdad was bursting with anti-American feeling Saturday as residents saw their city being stripped by its own citizens while U.S. forces stood by, rarely intervening and in some cases even motioning treasure-laden men through checkpoints.

Some still agreed with the United States' assessment of itself as a liberator. In the middle-class Zayuna neighborhood, friendly people offered American Marines baths, bread and buoyant greetings - and asked for both autographs and help against looters.

But for other Iraqis, in dozens of interviews conducted across Baghdad, the assessment was drastically different: America as conqueror.

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"The coalition forces are responsible. Where is the law?" said Safa Hussein Qasim, 44, a jeweler. "This is the promise of the United States to Iraq? This is democracy in Baghdad?"

To walk the streets Saturday was to wade through a crazy-quilt blend of disarray and sadness, rage and jubilation and self-hatred. Though available booty was running low, looting continued apace, as did citizen resistance to it. One man carried a purloined tuba up the street. Baghdadis fretted and argued: What would become of their country?

"Saddam Hussein's greatest crime is that he brought the American Army to Iraq," said Gailan Ramiz, 62, helping a mob that was trying to tear down yet another Saddam statue at Shorji market, Baghdad's biggest.

It is stories like Hassan Shrawa's that are making them turn their backs on the uniformed Americans who swept in days ago.

Shrawa, 30, an engineer from Baghdad's Saddam City section, said he and his neighbors captured a Syrian mercenary and turned him over to U.S. troops Friday. As Shrawa tells it, the commander flatly refused to take custody of the man.

"What happens in the future?" Shrawa mused.

U.S. forces say they are doing the best they can under chaotic conditions - chaos, many Iraqis point out, that the United States itself created. Few praised Saddam. But at least, they said, he offered stability.

Baghdad lacks that right now. Water, electricity and gasoline are pipe dreams, and food is becoming almost as scarce.

On the streets of Zayuna, curious children milled around Saturday, trying out English phrases and asking for Marines' addresses. One presented Sgt. Paul Coughlin of Boston with a red flower that he nestled in his grenade pouch; another played marbles with medic Brent Cook, 23, of Houston.

Elsewhere, the Marines received less enthusiasm. In front of the Palestine Hotel, an area thick with U.S. Marines, several dozen Iraqis demanded a new government - now. "We want peace," they chanted in English as Marines looked on from fighting vehicles.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, at U.S. Central Command, says reports of looting in Iraq are overblown - that many parts of the country are peaceful, and lawlessness "is already tapering off significantly."

U.S. officials insist that the restoration of law and order will become a higher priority. The State Department said Friday it was sending 26 police and judicial officers to Iraq, the first component of a team that will eventually number about 1,200. And on Saturday, the U.S. military and the Iraqi police said they've agreed to joint patrols to restore order - "sooner rather than later," one Marine said.

For Iraqis on the ground, such promises mean little until they're delivered.

Residents, fearing looting would move on to private homes, set up neighborhood patrols to prevent it. One family put a girder across the street at the end of their block and stood by it with guns. They, too, denounced America.

"The United States breaks into the palaces and then threatens all the people who steal from them," said Efil Adnan, a 48-year-old oil engineer guarding the barricade with two of his sons and his brother. He held a pistol; the brother wielded a Kalashnikov.

"The United States is a liar," Adnan said. "They are not going to make anything better."