Could U.S. Have Prevented Iraqi Looting?
April 17 -- In Baghdad today U.S. Marines took charge of what was left of a looted bank, hauling bags of cash away for safekeeping. Elsewhere in Baghdad, it's too late.
Hospitals have been ransacked, irreplaceable antiquities have been stolen or destroyed and valuable intelligence documents have been trashed. Angered that the U.S. military didn't work to prevent the looting of Baghdad's national Museum of Antiquities, three members of the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee have quit in protest.
"The tragedy was not prevented, due to our nation's inaction," said Martin E. Sullivan, one of the advisers. He said that American scholars had given the State Department information on the location of Iraqi museums and historic sites, and the president has a "compelling moral obligation to plan for and try to prevent indiscriminate looting and destruction."
In Washington, the FBI announced today it had sent agents to Iraq to assist in recovering stolen antiquities.
"We are firmly committed to doing whatever we can to secure these treasures to the people of Iraq," FBI Director Robert Mueller told a news conference at the Justice Department. One official said there will be about 25 FBI agents in Iraq on that task.
Art Thieves Sneak In
Iraq boasts an estimated 10,000 ancient archaeological sites, and the region, known 6,000 years ago as Mesopotamia, is valued among archaeologists as the cradle of civilization. The government-owned Iraq National Museum hosted some of the world's most prized collections of ancient and Islamic art.
Art experts and historians say that professional thieves have used the looting as cover to steal irreplaceable items from the Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections in Iraq museums and libraries. Already, the items are appearing on the black market.
"It looks as if part of the theft was a very, very deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "It really looks like a very professional job."
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