[aristeides]

"Instability is a green light for anyone interested in antiquities," says Donny George, an urbane Assyrian Christian who runs the research department at Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad.

http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2001/msg00691.html.

Later on in that link:

Archaeology is held in high esteem in Iraq. Saddam Hussein sends Donny George his reports back with careful notes in the margin. Iraq's president has rebuilt Babylon, to the fury of Unesco and other international cultural organisations, and has had his name inscribed on a plaque next to Nebuchadnezzar's.

[Howlin]

to the fury of Unesco and other international cultural organisations,

Why is that?

[PoisedWoman]

Thanks for fascinating link in your #35.

Last year, 10 wealthy businessmen from Mosul - who chopped an Assyrian bull's head in pieces and took it to Jordan - were executed on TV. It's draconian, but necessary, says George.

Wow! So where were the guards at the Baghdad museum? When I toured Turkey 9 years ago, every single one of their marvelous sites -- Ephesus, Aphrodisias, etc--had Turkish soldiers in tanks stationed around them glaring at tourists.