Posted on 04/18/2003 8:16:09 AM PDT by Incorrigible
Friday, April 18, 2003
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Three members of the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee have resigned to protest U.S. military unresponsiveness as Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities was looted, even though reports suggest the thefts may have been carried out by professional thieves.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, meanwhile, said his agency was in on the hunt for looted Iraqi treasures.
Martin E. Sullivan, Richard S. Lanier and Gary Vikan, each appointed by former President Clinton, said they were disappointed by the military's failure to protect Iraq's historical artifacts.
"The tragedy was not prevented, due to our nation's inaction," Sullivan, the committee's chairman, wrote in his letter of resignation.
Noting that American scholars had told the State Department about the location of Iraqi museums and historic sites in Iraq, he said the president "is burdened by a compelling moral obligation to plan for and try to prevent indiscriminate looting and destruction."
But art experts and historians suggested yesterday that thieves, likely organized outside Iraq, pillaged the nation's priceless ancient history collections by using the cover of widespread looting -- and vault keys.
The bandits were so efficient at emptying Iraqi libraries and museums that reports have already surfaced of artifacts appearing on the black market, some experts said. Certain thieves apparently knew exactly what they wanted from the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections, and exactly where to find them.
"It looks as if part of the theft was a very, very deliberate, planned action," said McGuire Gibson, president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "It really looks like a very professional job."
Gibson was among 30 art experts and cultural historians assembled by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris to assess the damage to Iraq's heritage in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion.
But it remained unclear exactly what was gone and what survived the looting and thievery. With many museum records now in ashes and access to Iraq still cut off, it could take weeks or months to answer those questions.
Establishing a database was a key to finding out what had survived, and tracking down what was stolen, the experts said.
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said some of the greatest treasures -- including gold jewelry of the Assyrian queens -- were placed in the vaults of the national bank after the 1991 Gulf War. There was no information on whether those items remained inside.
The pillaging has ravaged the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia -- the home of modern-day Iraq. Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of it was highly organized.
"They were able to obtain keys from somewhere for the vaults and were able to take out the very important, the very best material," Gibson said. "I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was."
Many at a UNESCO meeting feared the stolen artifacts have been absorbed into highly organized trafficking rings that ferry the goods through a series of middlemen to collectors in Europe, the United States and Japan.
The FBI was cooperating with the international law enforcement organization Interpol in issuing alerts to all member nations to try to track any sales of the artifacts "on both the open and black markets," Muller said.
Ahead of the war, Iraq's antiquities' authorities gathered artifacts from around the country and moved them to Baghdad's National Museum, assuming the museum would not be bombed, Gibson said.
"They did not count on the museum being looted," he said.
Much anger has been directed at U.S. troops, who stood by and watched as Iraq's treasures were carted off.
Koichiro Matsuura, director- general of Paris-based UNESCO, called yesterday for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities. Such a resolution would also call for the return of such items to Iraq, he said.
"To preserve the Iraqi cultural heritage is, in a word, to enable Iraq to successfully make its transition to a new, free and prosperous society," the UNESCO chief said.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the United States "in liberating Iraq worked very hard to protect infrastructure in Iraq and to preserve the valued resources of Iraq for the people of Iraq."
"It is unfortunate that there was looting and damage done," she said.
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
As history will prove, my vote for George Bush will be a part of the greatest period in this country's history. Your lack of that vote will go down as laughable as your hysterics over a bogus looting article you whined and pissed and moaned over.
So a few more Clinton appointees are gone. What is the down side?
Lew Rockwell? Oh please.
Yep. The story began to unravel yesterday. The museum director admitted the most valuable pieces had been moved out of the museum before the fighting reached Baghdad, something the New York Times' sources either didn't know or didn't bother to disclose. The commander on the scene said there was a trench on the museum grounds and Iraqis were sniping from the building as well some barracks across the street. The most startling revelation is that this was an inside heist, planned by some pros, and not random "looting." UNESCO's committee reported calls were made to European dealers almost immediately after the heist offering pieces.
And the relaxation of exports was an Iraqi idea, not American. This museum was closed from 1991 to 2000, during which time markets have been awash in Iraqi antiquities, indicating some high officials have been profiting.
Interesting, isn't it, that the same people from right and left who opposed the war have pushed this non-story to the top, over the increasingly horrific details of Saddam's regime???
And, of course, while we're there, we could take care of some other business too.
Do you really think I am a "Bush basher"????
Where in any post (EVER ON FR) have I even come close to that?
If you do a search on me you will see that I did not lay blame anywhere. I was just sorry to see those artifacts gone; NO MATTER WHO TOOK THEM.
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.