UConn James Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 No link online yet, but in the Oct issue, there's a great article on the hunt for artifacts stolen from the Iraq National Museum in the days after the invasion. There's a book written by the subject of this article, Col. Matthew Bogdanos, called "Theives of Baghdad." He's called the Indiana Jones of Baghdad. I remember at the time, seeing the looters even while we were in Baghdad and shaking my head that we weren't doing anything about it. Priceless works were irreparably damaged. In hindsight, there was less stolen than previously thought --- ~14,000 pieces. In the article, the AL asks Bogdanos about the lack of security at the INM, and he went into a tangent about archaeologists for the last 20 years staying mum about atrocities.... Interesting to find out now that stolen antiquities smuggling is a source of $ for the terrorist activities since we've clamped down on the traditional funneling of funds. "I think what we have shown and what the events have shown is that never again will this country [the U.S.] ever ignore cultural property. In the future, in any armed conflict, when we are conducting mission analysis for a future conflict of any kind, I beliebve that forever and always we will now include the protection of cultural property as one of the factors in the mission analysis It's just too important. It's too important globally, it's too important as a message, as part of an information operations campaign to show the people that we really do care, whether it's Iraq ior Afghanistan, that we care about them, that we care about their cultural heritage, and we prove this by protecting their cultural property. That is a lesson I think we have learned well." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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