[knuthom]

And in October the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that Saddam had started moving--to a remote town in northwestern Iraq--several truckloads of "gold bars and artworks from museums in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul."

This is interesting in light of reports yesterday that some of the 55 most wanted may have gone to northwest Iraq.

[ex-Texan]

My first thought was that Saddam was looting Iraq's museums. Very very first thought.

The American media should hang their collective heads in shame. Better yet, they should be lined up and shot. Starting with every vapor-brained idiot at CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS. They are all a bunch of @%$#%%!

Starting with Dan Blather ... he would be first on the list if I had a vote.

[ricpic]

You want to feast on the cultural treasures of Babylon? Go to The Metropolitan Museum or The Art Institute Of Chicago or The British Museum or The Louvre and you'll be stuffed up the wazoo with 'em!
All this crying is transparently obvious crocodile tears from the usual hate America crowd. Gauranteed they wouldn't know a Babylonion cultural artifact from an Assyrian or even an Egyptian if you stuck it up THEIR wazoo. And I'd like to!!

[Servant of the Nine]

This is interesting in light of reports yesterday that some of the 55 most wanted may have gone to northwest Iraq.

Yes, the Syrian Border.

It is shameful what the media has done with this, especially after the article in Archaeology Magazine was already in print about the Museum staff assuring the world that they had the treasures safeguarded in case of war.

If there is any fault, it is that of the staff for engaging in typical middle eastern bragodocio instead of admitting their inadequacies.

So9

[MizSterious]

I wish someone would send this article, and the one it mentioned, to Bill O'Reilly. Last night he was very critical of the troops on this issue.

[ckilmer]

umour and Fact at Baghdad Museum
Free Britannia journal ^ | April 18, 2003) | Anat Tcherikover
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/895943/posts

Posted on 04/18/2003 11:46 AM PDT by quidnunc


Media outlets worldwide lament the fate of Iraq's National Museum at Baghdad, said to have been looted on 12 April. All refer to the important archaeological treasures, now nowhere to be seen, and quote museum officials on the horrors of the marauding mob. The Americans are generally blamed for failing to protect the museum. A petition in this matter, organized by Cambridge and Oxford scholars, has already gone to UNESCO (14 April).


Only a few reporters have detected some strange flaws in this story. In the Daily Telegraph (14 April), David Blair observes that the heavy steel doors of the vaults, about one foot thick, show no sign of having been forced open. He also reminds his readers that "Saddam's regime is thought to have removed some artefacts from the museum before the onset of the war". Similarly in the New York Times (12 April), John Burns notes that it remains unclear whether some of the museum's treasures "had been locked away for safekeeping elsewhere before the looting, or seized for private display in one of Mr. Hussein's myriad palaces."


A cursory check of older reports on the Baghdad Museum, published long before the war, in fact upholds these suspicions and more beside. An article by Alistair Lyon, published in www.museum-security.org on 2 December 1998, describes the state of the museum at that time: "Dusty showcases that once glowed with treasures from ancient Mesopotamian cultures now lie empty in the locked rooms of the Iraqi Museum. The Iraqi authorities removed the finest jewellery, statues, pottery and other prized artefacts and stored them in secret caches during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Even I don't know where they are, said Donny Youkhanna, assistant director of the museum'. Significantly, Mr. Youkhanna is described in more recent sources as Iraq's chief archaeologist, director general of Iraq’s Antiquities Research Department. If he did not know where the items were in 1998, who did?


On 11 May 2000, CNN's correspondent Jane Arraf reported on the reopening of Baghdad Museum on the occasion of Saddam's birthday. This is how the article concludes: "The museum had been infested with termites, and years of storage have damaged the artwork. … Some of the more spectacular pieces, treasures from the royal tombs in Ur and recent excavations from Nimrod, won't be on exhibit until summer." Ms Arraf was no doubt quoting the Iraqi authorities on the intention to exhibit these treasures, indirectly informing us that they were nowhere to be seen at the time.


With this information at hand, it is instructive to examine the precise sources on the supposedly total looting of 12 April 2003. Both the Telegraph and the New York Times articles say that the story came from a museum official, who may or may not be telling all. There is no corroboration from any other direct witness. It is equally instructive to examine the bulk of photographs taken in the museum between 12 April and 15 April. All show disarrayed storage spaces, which easily fit with CNN's description of the desolation incurred by May 2000. One photograph, reproduced here, shows empty glass showcases. The caption given to this photo by Agence France Presse claims "empty shelves after a mob of looters ransacked and looted Iraq's largest archeological museum in Baghdad". However, this cannot be true because the glass of the showcases is intact. Clearly, these showcases were emptied in an orderly fashion without being broken, which fits best the evidence of 1998, given above.


Surely, the misfortunes of the Baghdad museum are a matter for concern, but likewise the misfortunes of the press on this issue during the chaotic days of 12-15 April 2003.


Sources:


1. Alistair Lyon's article of 1998: http://www.museum-security.org/reports/07798.html#11


2. Sources mentioning Mr. Youkhanna's poistion as chief archaeologist: http://www.cairotimes.com/content/archiv06/iraq.html http://www.geocities.com/iraqinfo/index.html?page=/iraqinfo/sum/articles/graves.html


3. CNN's article of 2000: http://www.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/arts/05/11/iraq.museum/


4. Photographs of Baghdad museum 12-15 April 2003: http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?adv=1&p=baghdad+museum&ei=UTF-8&c=news_photos&o=a&s=&n=20&2=3&3=


5. Academic petition to UNESCO, 14 April 2003, http://users.ox.ac.uk/~wolf0126/petition.html and its background website: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~wolf0126/index.html


6. NYT article of 12 April 2003: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/12/international/worldspecial/12CND-BAGH.html


7. Telegraph article of 14 April 2003: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F04%2F14%2Fwmus14.xml

[swheats]

"Saddam and his family are basically cultural vandals. When he left Kuwait he trashed the place. So it makes sense that when he leaves Iraq he took the most valuable items."

This reminds me of another family who left with great historical treasures, and trashed a certain White House.

[liberalnot]

any professional with common sense would have put the valuables in safe keeping at the first hint of war.

the american media is rife with articles blaming america for the loss.

[GeorgiaYankee]

Has anyone compiled a comprehensive list of all the places the US military has been accused of not protecting from looting?

Here's mine:

Museums, libraries, businesses, the Health Ministry, everybody's houses.

How about the landfills, and the sewage plants?

Complaint to US: You must bring Iraq under control, but you must not take control of Iraq!!