Looting was work of organised traffickers: UNESCO experts

Agence France-Presse (AFP) ^ | 4-17-03 | Huge Schofield

[Let's Roll]

"This site should of been protected on day #1.

Why? Do you have some emotional attachment to replicas?"

The perfect cover for items that were looted by Saddam & Co. years ago. A British curator who visited the museum recently, 1-2 years ago, said there were many fakes on display. But so much the better if you can blame the Americans for not preventing the "recent looting".

[TomB]

The perfect cover for items that were looted by Saddam & Co. years ago. A British curator who visited the museum recently, 1-2 years ago, said there were many fakes on display. But so much the better if you can blame the Americans for not preventing the "recent looting".

Exactly. And it wasn't just Saddam and his cronies. It is becoming apparent that the staff of the museum was probably padding their own bank accounts over the years by selectively selling off items and replacing them with replicas. The fact that the written records and even computer hard drives were destroyed by the "looters" bears that out.

[arasina]

This site should of been protected on day #1.

I heard on FNC that the museum keepers supposedly had a 48-hour emergency evacuation plan wherein they would remove the antiquities to a safe location. They should have put that plan in action in the weeks before the troops got to Baghdad. (During the sandstorm would've been optimum.) Methinks the curators may have themselves been involved in orchestrated "looting." I hope items are found eventually (and some will be) and the new "owners" are charged with theft.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Better to have 25 million people remain enslaved under the tyrant's boot than to lose some historical artifacts? This is left-wing grasping for negatives in an laughable attempt to cloud an overwhelming victory against tyranny. I'd say releasing tortured prisoners might be a slightly higher priority. How would any of these idiots like it if they were tortured prisoners treated as a lower priority than an artifact?

We bombed the hell out of Germany to end the Nazi regime and destroyed historical items and buildings. Did anyone choose preservation of artifacts as being more important than getting rid of the Third Reich?

[exit82]

I agree with you--this smacks of an inside job, and any real treasures should have been safely stored knowing that war was coming to Baghdad.

[PhilDragoo]

Iraqis Say Museum Looting Wasn't as Bad as Feared
The Wall Street Journal | Thursday, April 17, 2003 | YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

But, thanks to Iraqi preparations before the war, it seems the worst has been avoided. Donny George, the director-general of restoration at the Iraqi Antiquities Department, Wednesday said his staff had preserved the museum's most important treasures, including the kings' graves of Ur and the Assyrian bulls. These objects were hidden in vaults that haven't been violated by looters.

"Most of the things were removed. We knew a war was coming, so it was our duty to protect everything," Mr. George said. "We thought there would be some sort of bombing at the museum. We never thought it could be looted."

The Wall Street Journal article concludes with the paragraph containing the U.S. colonel's account that his force was taking fire from the museum and thus could not protect it from looters. It is quite ignored by the NYT and the alphabetnetwork that U.S. forces did not return fire on the museum although they would have been within their international rights to have done so.

The Leftist propaganda eunuchs are not interested in the truth, but only in their continuing caterwauling that thanks to the cowboy who would be president the sky is falling in irreplaceable chunks.

O the humanity.

[PhilDragoo]

Above is a French article indicting the French:

Eye-witnesses have described some of the looters as being directed by well-dressed men who knew what they wanted to take. Gibson said these organisers had keys to the vaults where they believed the most valued items were kept.

~~~

Three days after the looting in Baghdad, there were reports that art dealers in Paris and other European cities had already been contacted with offers of stolen items, Gibson said.

[Grampa Dave]

What if Soddomite and his thugs had pre arranged deals with the French Fencers of historical treasures. That if it looked like their regime would fall, the cherry picked items would be stolen by friends of both.

Then the treasures were sent to France, bought and the proceeds went to numbered accounts for the Soddomite thugs?

[algol]

That was a joke, Grampa.

[Let's Roll]

I thought I'd heard that even the records had been destroyed or taken. No way that casual looters of opportunity would have done that and been able to open the vaults without inside help etc. There may be a few lucky break recoveries but other than that ...

And I'm certainly tired of hearing how it's our fault.

[hotpotato]

Kudos to WSJ and Fox for the balanced report.

O'Reilly has been all over the military for not doing their duty and protecting the museum. He claims it was "apathy."

[hotpotato]

How many American lives should have been sacrificed (or risked) to meet your simple-minded admonition?

I would certainly say no more than the number of Iraqi-lives that the Iraqis were willing to sacrifice. Seems there were none. I think we will be learning a lot more about this as the days go by. The story was changing after the FBI announced it will investigate. Seems it wasn't quite as bad as they (museum folks) thought.

[Grampa Dave]

I knew that it was a joke (I hoped so). I could just see all of the Peta freaks freeking out if we used lions to clear out the museum grounds. However it might have been a good deal.

[Grampa Dave]

O' Reilly needs to bitch slapped re some of his comments about our military. His military experience was probably that of being a cub scout in NYC.

[mewzilla]

You know what's funny (as in strange, not ha ha)is that one of the guys whose resignation from some culture org was trumpeted all over yesterday, Sullivan?, used to work for or with UNESCO. Gee, wouldn't you think that Sullivan would have been pretty clued into what his former colleagues are thinking?

And while we're on the subject, and since Sullivan was such a big proponent of repatriation, shouldn't any Iraqi artifacts that have sold or given out over the past thirty years be returned to Iraq? They weren't loaned, sold, or given away with the approval of the Iraqi people.

[mewzilla]

Re: O'Reilly. Bill obviously couldn't be bothered to catch Hume's report on the subject done a couple of hours earlier. Bill, you really should pay more attention to what your colleagues are reporting.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks!

It is obvious that Clymer Sullivan is just another left wing lunatic time bomb left over from the Clintoons.

They are scheduled to go off whenever GW does something that is good.

I was not aware of his connection to UNESCO. As you know it takes the UN and UNESCO to pillage a country and every village.

[mewzilla]

And think about this...Do you really think any of those guys who reigned didn't already have some place to go? Maybe another museum? If so, I'd really like to see Sullivan explain his views on repatriation if that museum has acquired anything from Iraq over the last thirty years.

[Grampa Dave]

I would like to see you interview him on Fox TV.

[mewzilla]

LOL! Maybe they'll make my day and make me an offer! :)