Iraqis Say Museum Looting Wasn't as Bad as Feared

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Thursday, April 17, 2003 | YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

[TroutStalker]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Last week's looting of the Iraq National Museum, which saw numerous items disappear from a vast collection spanning eight millennia of Mesopotamian history, has provoked world-wide outcry -- and criticism of the U.S. military for its failure to protect Iraq's priceless cultural heritage.

[scooby321]

Gezz these people planned on re selling the stuff to the US

[Retrofire]

"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."

Interesting that the freaking guy in charge never thought the museum would be looted, but damn if the world can't point the finger at the U.S. military for not thinking of it.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this fair balanced look at the so called looting of the Baghdad museum.

[Night Hides Not]

I wonder how many items have shown up on E-Bay?

[js1138]

So the NYTimes lied again. Obviously, some people with inside connections (keys) walked off with some pieces that could easily be liquidated, and did some damage to make it look like random looting.

The next question is, if the museum directors were prepared for bombing, how much of the really valuable stuff was accessible to looters?

[Howlin]

Bump bump bump!

[Grampa Dave]

You might want to book mark this great article posted by Troutstalker.

This is rebuttal to the professional hate President Bushers who claim to be so conservative on Free Republic.

[Argus]

Paging Robert Fisk. Your crying towel is dry now and ready for re-use.

[Billthedrill]

They'd have had to use a semi to move the Assyrian bulls anyhow - those were the statues on either side of a three-storey gate at Nineveh.

[Grampa Dave]

Please take a minute to read this great WSJ article posted by Trout Stalker which shows that the claim that we allowed the museum to be plundered is a Lack of Gravitas Rerun.

[Howlin]

FYI.

[aristeides]

Iraq shields ancient treasures from high-tech war.

[Howlin]

I'm here!

[ladyjane]

Don't let Theresa or the physicist hear about this!

[aristeides]

Experts: Looters Had Keys to Iraqi Vaults .

[Reeses]

The looters overlooked the little bottles:

[jriemer]

As fast as this story is rewinding, in a few days it may be said that the musuem looting never occured, move along...

[Grampa Dave]

Of course another reality is that the regime and family of Soddomite have been looting these treasures since DS1.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894176/posts

This link shows that this reality has gone on since at least 1996. When this article was published.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894176/posts

[PhiKapMom]

This is rebuttal to the professional hate President Bushers who claim to be so conservative on Free Republic.

Ran into one of those this morning when I was detailing what was said on Brit's program about the "professional" looters of the Museum. It was blame the military under President Bush time -- why couldn't they protect the museum like they had nothing better to do!