Being Had In Baghdad
buzby | 07.05.2003 23:54
The context for the remarks is the incredible reduction in the estimate of the number of artworks lost in the ransacking of Baghdad's National Museum.
-The Non-Pillage of Baghdad -
"It is very common for the first information following a crisis to be wrong, and when I say wrong, I mean wrong."
So spoke Ronald Noble, the Secretary General of Interpol, at a conference yesterday in Lyon, France, devoted to the recovery of stolen Iraqi artifacts. The context for Mr. Noble's remarks is the incredible reduction in the estimate of the number of artworks lost in the ransacking of Baghdad's National Museum.
The claims have gone from 170,000 items first reported to the 30 to 40 that British Museum curator John Curtis confirmed missing at a press conference Monday in New York. Mr. Curtis's figure roughly tallies with that given by the Marine colonel investigating the looting.
And therein lies a story that always had another agenda attached to it. The initial reports coming out of Baghdad quoted the weeping deputy director of the museum, who blamed the Americans for allowing the destruction of "170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years." A segment of the press corps eager to snatch defeat from the jaws of George W. Bush's victory quickly took up the theme.
It wasn't long before the American liberation of Iraq was likened to the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. How typical, they sneered, for a Texas Republican to protect the oil fields (which will help feed Iraqis) while leaving the heritage of Western civilization naked.
But the latest news now appears to confirm what the Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov reported from Baghdad three weeks ago: Most of these works had been secreted away in anticipation of an attack. Moreover, as Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Lyon conference, the theft of Iraq's treasures was carried out by organized criminals who knew what they were looking for. Surely one key question is who at the museum might have helped. (Hint: It wasn't Donald Rumsfeld.)
Perhaps the biggest problem here is that the Iraqis didn't keep very good records, something Western museums, with the help of Unesco, are now trying to correct. None of this is to deny the terrible damage that did occur, the priceless bits of Iraq's heritage that have been stolen or destroyed -- or the many thousands more works that might be confirmed missing when curators finally go through the storehouses.
It is to say, however, with Mr. Noble that the key to restoring Iraq's museum will be to start dealing in information and facts, not "rumors and anecdotal stories."
The Wall Street Journal | May 7, 2003
Think about it....talk about it.
Buzby
"It is very common for the first information following a crisis to be wrong, and when I say wrong, I mean wrong."
So spoke Ronald Noble, the Secretary General of Interpol, at a conference yesterday in Lyon, France, devoted to the recovery of stolen Iraqi artifacts. The context for Mr. Noble's remarks is the incredible reduction in the estimate of the number of artworks lost in the ransacking of Baghdad's National Museum.
The claims have gone from 170,000 items first reported to the 30 to 40 that British Museum curator John Curtis confirmed missing at a press conference Monday in New York. Mr. Curtis's figure roughly tallies with that given by the Marine colonel investigating the looting.
And therein lies a story that always had another agenda attached to it. The initial reports coming out of Baghdad quoted the weeping deputy director of the museum, who blamed the Americans for allowing the destruction of "170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years." A segment of the press corps eager to snatch defeat from the jaws of George W. Bush's victory quickly took up the theme.
It wasn't long before the American liberation of Iraq was likened to the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. How typical, they sneered, for a Texas Republican to protect the oil fields (which will help feed Iraqis) while leaving the heritage of Western civilization naked.
But the latest news now appears to confirm what the Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov reported from Baghdad three weeks ago: Most of these works had been secreted away in anticipation of an attack. Moreover, as Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Lyon conference, the theft of Iraq's treasures was carried out by organized criminals who knew what they were looking for. Surely one key question is who at the museum might have helped. (Hint: It wasn't Donald Rumsfeld.)
Perhaps the biggest problem here is that the Iraqis didn't keep very good records, something Western museums, with the help of Unesco, are now trying to correct. None of this is to deny the terrible damage that did occur, the priceless bits of Iraq's heritage that have been stolen or destroyed -- or the many thousands more works that might be confirmed missing when curators finally go through the storehouses.
It is to say, however, with Mr. Noble that the key to restoring Iraq's museum will be to start dealing in information and facts, not "rumors and anecdotal stories."
The Wall Street Journal | May 7, 2003
Think about it....talk about it.
Buzby
buzby