THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
The Independent (UK)
April 13, 2003

A Civilisation Torn to Pieces

by Robert Fisk

The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters.

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Daniel McGrory, "UN and Army at odds as troops encourage looting," Times, April 5, 2003

Ole Rothenborg , "U.S. Troops Encouraged Ransacking," Dagens Nyheter, April 11, 2003

Robert Fisk, "Americans defend two untouchable ministries from the hordes of looters," Independent, April 14, 2003

["The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters."--John Burns, "Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure," New York Times, April 13, 2003]

["And the Americans did nothing. . . . for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed? . . .

"For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan's grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. Why?"--Robert Fisk, "Books, Priceless Documents Burn In Sacking Of Baghdad," Independent, April 14, 2003]

["And like the Mongols, U.S. troops stood by while Iraqi mobs looted and destroyed artifacts at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. They also reportedly joined looters who pillaged other lucrative targets like office buildings, stores, and private homes. The Bush regime ignored calls from Koichiro Matsura, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), who appealed to the United States to provide protection for Iraqi museums. His calls, like those from the governments of Jordan, Russia, and Greece, went unheeded by Bush regime war officials.

"The looting and wanton destruction of the Baghdad museum not only deserves international condemnation but falls well within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court . . ."--Wayne Madsen, "Are Americans the New Mongols of the Mideast?," CounterPunch, April 14, 2003]

[". . .flames engulfed Baghdad's National Library yesterday, destroying manuscripts many centuries old, . . . It joins a list that already includes the capital's National Museum, one of the world's most important troves of artefacts from the ancient Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilisations."--Oliver Burkeman, " Ancient archive lost in Baghdad library blaze," Guardian, April 15, 2003]

["The sacking of Iraq's museums is like a 'lobotomy' of an entire culture, say art experts. And they warned the Pentagon repeatedly of this potential catastrophe months before the war."--Louise Witt, "The end of civilization," Salon, April 17, 2003]

Stephen Farrell, "Officials convinced museum was looted to order," Times (UK), April 26, 2003

Walter Sommerfeld, " Plundering the Museums of Baghdad: The Americans Said: 'Go In, Ali Baba! It's All Yours!'," Independent Media Centre (New Zealand), May 17, 2003

Edmund L. Andrews, "Iraqi Looters Tearing Up Archaeological Sites," New York Times, May 23, 2003

Robert Fisk, "Raiders of the lost Iraq: Under the noses of the Anglo-American occupying forces, the priceless heritage of ancient Sumeria is being pillaged to order for Western collectors," Independent, June 3, 2003

Robert Fisk, "The Truth The Victors Refuse To See," Independent, June 3, 2003

Ben Russell, "Tablets that may reveal El Nino secrets are feared lost in Iraq," Independent, June 9, 2003

David Aaronovitch, "Lost from the Baghdad museum: truth and consequences," Guardian, June 10, 2003

Rory McCarthy, "Staff revolt at Baghdad museum," Guardian, June 17, 2003

[It later transpired that only a few dozen of the museum's prize antiquities had actually gone missing, along with thousands of lesser items from storage vaults like beads, amulets and pottery pieces.

But that is still a significant loss and an American-led investigation is now under way into what happened.--Caroline Hawley, " Iraq museum to unveil treasures," BBC, July 3, 2003]

Daniel Estulin, "Destroying History in Iraq," CounterPunch, January 10, 2004

Keith Watenpaugh, "Al-Hatra: Important Ancient/Early Islamic site near Mosul at risk from US Army demolition program," History News Network, August 27, 2004

Rory McCarthy and Maev Kennedy, "Babylon wrecked by war: US-led forces leave a trail of destruction and contamination in architectural site of world importance," Guardian, January 15, 2005

Omar Karmi, "Saddam Hussein's archives 'spirited away' by the US military and never returned," thenational.ae, April 9, 2013

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