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
