What Priceless Artifacts Were Looted?

FNC Special Report with Britt Hume | Greg Palkott

[Yankee]

According to a report by Greg Palkott at the museum in Baghdad, it is unclear how many priceless items were actually lost.

He said that the staff was trained to secure the entire collection in 24 hours.

A British team of curators which visited in the past, said that a great number of displayed items were "fakes" with the real artifacts safely secured.

Palkott asked a "spokesman" for the museum, how many priceless items were lost.

His answer was "some". Palkott pressed him, "not the 170,000 that we've been told about?" The spokesman said "We don't know".

[Yankee]

The media is being played on this, and trying to play us.

They had weeks to secure the place before we arrived in Baghdad.

I'm not buying this crap.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Now you've gone and taken away their plaything.

What about the children?

They'll have to whine about something else.

[Brett66]

I guess the media really cares about this? I could care less if we detonated a MOAB inside the building. Saddam's gone and that's all that matters.

[ladyjane]

Ah hah! Freepers called this one! (well at least most of us did anyway)

[Only1choice____Freedom]

>>"The media is being played on this..."

This is something new? They are a fiddle tuned and ready for playing.

[Argus]

Wouldn't be surprised if Saddam sold the best pieces long ago to private collector friends of the Chiracs, Schroeders and Chretiens of the world.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I heard they had a complete Pez Dispenser collection. The loss is tragic.

[BossLady]

There was a British antiquities chap on FNC last night saying that the museum pieces were all fake anyway. Saddam had replaced them with replicas years ago and took the real ones for himself.

[Steven W.]

Somebody please post a link to the 1996 NYT article reposted here again last night about how most artifacts were already being removed back then.

[Shermy]

Of course, the whole thing could have been an inside job by staff members. Then they lured in some looters for a cover story.

[ladyjane]

Somebody quick call Theresa and the physicist. They've been inconsolable over the museum 'looting'.

[Shermy]

He said that the staff was trained to secure the entire collection in 24 hours

"Staff" should be "persons of interest."

[MEG33]

For your interest in antiquities.

[Yankee]

I'll be very happy if the collection is safe and sound.

You'd sooner find me swilling beer at Yankee Stadium than at any museum in the world, however I'd rather not see historical items being wantonly destroyed.

This thing just stunk like lies from the get-go.

Sounded too much like an "insurance" fire to me.

[Sacajaweau]

The British Museum owns the many of Iraq's genuine antiquities. There is quite a bit of Older info on the web about repros and also the emptying of the Museum by Saddam before the Gulf War. Do a web search. It's worth it!!

[sinkspur]

Sounded too much like an "insurance" fire to me.

Over 4,000 items were looted from the same museum after Gulf War I, and not one American soldier set a boot in Baghdad in that war.

Most of the items were never recovered.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Could the looting have been a staged ploy to cover the looting of the real artifacts by Saddam and his cronies long before the war? It seems odd that a looter would bother to burn the museum's card catalog, but for someone concealing an inside job that would be natural.

[LS]

I agree. It is ludicrous to think that people walked out with statues weighing hundreds of pounds. Some old plates or vases, maybe. Big loss. This isn't like the burning of the library at Alexandria.

[Starstruck]

"Oh I'm sorry. CNN never questioned what we said. My English is not good. I did not mean priceless, I meant worthless."

[Use It Or Lose It]

And Saddam Bobble-head dolls