Bush panelists resign over looting

The resignation letter of panel chairman Martin Sullivan noted that while U.S. military “displayed extraordinary precision and restraint in deploying arms — and apparently in securing the Oil Ministry and oil fields — they have been nothing short of impotent in failing to attend to the protection of [Iraq’s] cultural heritage,” The Post reported.

Iraq Museum looting called a planned theft: Mob got office furniture; artifacts stolen by knowledgeable thieves
BY MATTHEW SCHOFIELD and NANCY A. YOUSSEF
Knight Ridder News Service

American soldiers on guard duty here said that while the damage in the museum areas seemed bad, the appearance was deceiving.

"It looked pretty bad inside, much worse than it was," said 2nd Lt. Erik Balascik, 23, of Allentown, Pa. "The administration building, the library, they are a mess. In the museum, there is broken glass and papers on the floor, but a lot of the collection was pulled before the war. And not as much is missing as first thought."

In fact, in the main collection, it now appears that few items are missing, and very little seems to have been the victim of mob violence.

...

The military perspective is that it did all it could to protect the museum at the time. During the looting, "the fighting was still going on. The Republican Guard headquarters are across the street, and they were far from secure," Army Maj. Michael Donovan said. "Frankly, we were here to protect people and property, but in the early days we had to choose, and we chose people."

So this was not a tragedy comprable to Alexandira Library? Go figure.

I'm have a lot of trouble getting excited over the Koran's. It's sad, but at least it isn't the really old stuff. I can see why the curators didn't say anything about what they did manage to save until now, they wanted to make sure the looting was over. I was half expecting this.

I hope this does prove to be a job by knowledgeable thieves. If it is then the artifacts are safe, and are typically either sold to private collectors who will look after them or ransomed. The key here is that they will not be destroyed. We need to take the long view here.

Phil;

I hope this does prove to be a job by knowledgeable thieves. If it is then the artifacts are safe, and are typically either sold to private collectors who will look after them or ransomed. The key here is that they will not be destroyed.

Experts: Looters Had Keys to Iraqi Vaults

PARIS - Some of the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities appeared highly organized and even had keys to museum vaults and were able to take pieces from safes, experts said Thursday at an international meeting.

One expert said he suspected the looting was organized outside the country.

The U.N. cultural agency gathered some 30 art experts and cultural historians in Paris on Thursday to assess the damage to Iraqi museums and libraries looted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion.

Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of the thieves clearly knew what they were looking for and where to find it, suggesting they were prepared professionals.

"It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes."

"I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was," Gibson said. He added that if a good police team was put together, "I think it could be cracked in no time."

Goddammit, the antis were finally getting some traction with their tale of American perfidy leading to the irreplaceable loss of blah blah, and here you have to go crapping all over it with your grubby facts.

I am glad to hear that at least some of the museum staff were competent and honest and took reasonable steps to protect the collections.

Get this straight, not LOOTING, but a professional HEIST. Apparently, THEY watch american movies, but the press never has. Maybe someday the press will realize that others besides themselves are capable of thinking in more than two dimensions. Until then, the press will remain the first and primary cog in all cover-ups, plots and conspiracies. They are so damned easy to trick. If it makes America look bad, it is the de facto truth, no need for the real story.

This was theft, not destruction. I'd bet most of that stuff is in basements and closets right now, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder. (Why bother stealing something from a museum only to destroy it?) So, seems to me a program should be initiated to buy the stuff back.

And the usual suspects are still crying and wailing over the 170,000 priceless antiquities looted. Salon claims it's "the end of civilisation".

Do the left EVER stop to check out the basics of a story before they screech "Disaster! Devastation! Calamity!" ?

Jason;

Salon claims it's "the end of civilisation".

Oh and they have more :

The end of civilization

"What if someone stole the Constitution and the Liberty Bell

And they had another item i think on their blog. Sadly, Salon has become even more extreme, and they are no longer fun. Not to mention you have to pay or put up with an annoying ad just to read a story. Talk about information wants to be free!

The loss to Islamic cultural heritage is a particular blow considering virtually nothing positive has been added to it for about five or six centuries.

(Sarcastic and a bit mean-spirited, but true. )

So the question becomes, how many kids would you be willing to sacrifice to the childrens prisons, how many women to the rape rooms, how many to the torture cells, how many unmarked graves would you be willing to tolerate to keep sacrosanct the Liberty Bell or the Constitution? Personally I wouldnt trade a single life for an inanimate object, no matter its history. But there seem to be those that are arguing differently.

What I find astonishing is that we (the Coalition) are held to account and yet it was the Iraqis themselves who did/are doing the looting and outright trashing of buildings -- and, if we hadn't let 30 years of terror bleed out in looting, there would be hell to pay at a later date.

As the museum director said, "Most of the things were removed. We knew a war was coming, so it was our duty to protect everything." [emphasis added]

An invading force must discourage looting by its personnel, and if practical should avoid historically significant sites - but that's about it. Once established as occupiers rather than invaders, enforcement of law on inhabitants becomes a consideration, but not before - and except for the banks, a lot of the looting occured before the major fighting ended.

===========
Two points about Baghdad looting:
1. the vaults were unlocked, not broken open.
2. the museum (and some hospital) looting happemed before we even crossed the bridges.

*LOOTING*
He does not come right out and say it, but reporter's story points out that yes, hospital and museum looting preceded coalition arrival. Also gives lie to Fisk about no response to news of hospital looting - as soon as reported, four Humvees dispatched. - "I went back to the Palestine and explained the situation at the Al Wiya to the Marine commander in charge, Lieutenant Colonel McCoy, a big strapping man who listened carefully. I told him that there was a British citizen there, a man who had been wounded when the American tank fired on the hotel. He and a junior officer pulled out a military map of Baghdad and I tried to show them where they should go. It seemed difficult to explain, so Sabah and I and a Frenchman working for Première Urgence, an organization that supplies emergency aid to hospitals, led a convoy of four or five Humvees to the hospital."
*AND* Slightly older report by same guy, before airport taken

ALSO, as to our being able to "put a single Humvee" at all of these places -
*NYTimes - Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure*
"As reporters returned from the national museum to their hotels beside the Tigris tonight, marines guarding the hotels were caught in a heavy firefight with Iraqis across the river, and the neighborhoods erupted with tank and heavy machine-gun fire. Western television cameramen who went onto the embankment beside the Palestine Hotel to film the battle were pulled from danger by helmeted marines who dragged them down behind concrete parapets and waved to reporters on the hotel's upper balconies to get down."

?? Does that sound like putting a single vehicle on an unlit open area would be a good idea??

BTW, the real "Good news for civilization" is that we got rid of another despotic bastard. Some more left to go ...