Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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

Posted on 04/17/2003 12:01:36 PM PDT by TroutStalker

Edited on 04/22/2004 11:48:43 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

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.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; insidejob; iraqifreedom; keys; looting; museums; order; trafficking; vault
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last
To: aristeides
to the fury of Unesco and other international cultural organisations,

Why is that?

41 posted on 04/17/2003 12:26:33 PM PDT by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
They probably disapproved of the restoration plans.
42 posted on 04/17/2003 12:27:59 PM PDT by aristeides
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
Robert Fisk, call your office! Jeez, the hapless Fisk was wrong before the war (the Iraqi people didn't want to be liberated), during the war (Vietnam-style quagmire just five days into the campaign), and now after the war. Someone please tell me why he has ANY semblance of credibility left.
43 posted on 04/17/2003 12:28:28 PM PDT by kevao
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: aristeides
Well, I have seen the insides of some of his palaces, so I could probably agree with them. :-)
44 posted on 04/17/2003 12:28:53 PM PDT by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: PhilDragoo
This is incredible, Lt. Col. Schwartz, whose functions also include feeding the lions in the abandoned Baghdad Zoo next door, said he couldn't move into the museum compound and protect it from looters last week because his soldiers were taking fire from the building -- and were determined not to respond. There is an Iraqi army trench in the museum's front lawn, and Lt. Col. Schwartz said his troops found many Iraqi army uniforms inside. "If there is any dirty trick in the book," he said, "they sure used it."
45 posted on 04/17/2003 12:29:30 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Being a Monthly Donor to Free Republic is the Right Thing to do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: PoisedWoman
Donny George is hardly an Iraqi name. Where did they get him?

Wasn't he a New Kid on the Block?

Maybe his real name is Iraqi, but he picked up this pseudonym like Baghdad Bob did.
46 posted on 04/17/2003 12:36:39 PM PDT by Rastus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: rageaholic
>> "If Hussein's palaces weren't so tacky, I'd presume he and his family looted the museums"

Oh good, the Elvis on velvet is still there then.
47 posted on 04/17/2003 12:39:21 PM PDT by sd-joe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
Oh, it's too bad that Clintonite resigned from the administration today citing how heartbroken he is about the looting of the museum as his reason. :-P
48 posted on 04/17/2003 12:45:01 PM PDT by alnick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
Hmmm. You reckon we'll see any of this info in the Old Grey Lady and the Washington ComPost? Maybe CNN will feature the story, whadda ya think? I, for one, won't be holding MY breath waiting for it.
49 posted on 04/17/2003 12:46:02 PM PDT by SuziQ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Grampa Dave
Ditto your thoughts. Interesting that the naysayers are using a Tailwind-type trumped-up story to crowd out the awful stories of the mass graves, childrens' prisons, torture chambers and the like.
50 posted on 04/17/2003 12:47:23 PM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
But I thought the US really messed-up, why can't a liberal ever win??
51 posted on 04/17/2003 12:48:53 PM PDT by Porterville (Screw the grammar, full posting ahead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
Let's see - "We never thought it could be looted". That is why they had security guards, and supposedly scholars abroad had asked for US protection? Or has that bit of the story now gone away? Because, after all, if they knew it was going to be looted unless protected, they should have taken steps to protect things themselves before the old order broke down. But they didn't. Therefore, they can't have asked for US protection?

"secrecy long enveloped the museum -- where part of the collection had been siphoned off by Saddam Hussein's family and sold abroad". Oh, so Saddam looted the place already. And needs a pretext for items gone missing. Preferably one to blame on somebody else. Suddenly the Baathists have rather a lot to gain from a visible sacking, instead of being high minded guardians of the country's heritage.

"prompted a wave of anti-American anger. A belief often voiced in the streets of Baghdad holds that U.S. soldiers themselves stole the most-precious objects" Notice the passive voice? Nothing said about *who* is voicing such a belief. Perhaps, just perhaps, Baathists? Looking to blame anything on Americans? To excuse and cover their own thefts?

"Among the antiquities unaccounted for so far, Mr. George said, are the sacral vase of Warqa, from Sumerian times, and the bronze statue of Basitqi, from the Accadian civilization." 170,000 priceless items and records just became 2 objets d'art. In another report, I heard of a third. This was supposed to be the loss of the Alexandrian library all over again. Instead, one vase and one statue? Others to be filled in later.

"he couldn't move into the museum compound and protect it from looters last week because his soldiers were taking fire from the building". Oh. Just a little oversight there. A detail. So Iraqi *soldiers*, not museum workers, were last in the building? Armed? Shooting at our guys? *Then* it was looted? By Peter Pan no doubt. Certainly not by the armed Baathist hooligans trying to draw US fire on the place, deliberately to create a propagandistic atrocity.

They tried to goad us into blowing it up. We didn't play. They looted it themselves. Then blame it on us. If that won't stick, they blame us for not protecting it. While they were inside it, armed, doing the opposite of protecting it themselves.

This whole alleged incident now stinks to high heaven...

52 posted on 04/17/2003 12:50:11 PM PDT by JasonC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Theresa
bump for truth
53 posted on 04/17/2003 12:52:51 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: colorado tanker
I think that you are really on to something with your reply here:

Ditto your thoughts. Interesting that the naysayers are using a Tailwind-type trumped-up story to crowd out the awful stories of the mass graves, childrens' prisons, torture chambers and the like.

54 posted on 04/17/2003 12:56:22 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Being a Monthly Donor to Free Republic is the Right Thing to do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: aristeides
"Warqa vase" does turn up at a couple of sites.

Apparently usually spelled "Warka". Lots of hits.

55 posted on 04/17/2003 12:58:04 PM PDT by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Hanging Chad
Thanks much! Very, very happy to hear it!
56 posted on 04/17/2003 1:00:37 PM PDT by Fifth Business
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: All
Does anybody know ,if this site is NOW secured ?, if not?
It should be!!
57 posted on 04/17/2003 1:06:51 PM PDT by Orlando
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: TroutStalker
It is most likely that it wasn't just your run of the mill street looter who took the most valuable objects but theives who planned the looting weeks in advance. Not to mention that Saddam and his cronies stole anything they could sell to the French.
58 posted on 04/17/2003 1:08:28 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fifth Business; All
This is a similar story from today's NY Times, posted here earlier today.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894863/posts
59 posted on 04/17/2003 1:08:58 PM PDT by Fifth Business
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants
I knew this story smelled from the very beginning. Plus, even if the ancient art and artifacts were really looted that day, they weren't worth the life of one american soldier. Nobody got to see those treasures anyway unless you were Saddam's good buddy.
60 posted on 04/17/2003 1:22:06 PM PDT by tell me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson