[CPProt.net] looting in Iraq.

[Christopher Seal]

Good idea, Duncan,

A few weeks before the current conflict began it was widely reported that the Bhagdad Museum staff was boxing up a lot of the collection. This would include, of course, the most valuable pieces. The "Director" was interviewed, his name was _____ Al-Takriti. 
Before Saddam Hussein took over, the Al-Takriti clan, Saddam's family, operated as a kind of mafia in Iraq. Afterward, the same people became high ranking members of the regime, because they were the only people Saddam could trust. Members of this and another, allied criminal gang, were placed at the top of every important insititution. They systematically looted Kuwait's national museum, which was possibly the best Islamic collection in the world. They never, ever, showed the least compunction about stealing important objects of any kind. 
There does not seem to be any proof at the moment that the items in the Bhaghdad Museum were actually taken by the general public. All of the photos of it that I have seen show rooms of EMPTY AND INTACT display cases in their ORIGINAL POSITIONS in the building, as well a considerable amounts of rubbish. Believe me, if an enraged mob had come through that place every single one of the cases would have been either taken or overturned and smashed, even if they were empty in the first place.
Given that the Al-Takriti clan treated all of Iraq's assets, both public and private, as their own for nearly three decades, and taking into account the fact that the Museum's vaults were, for the most part, OPEN, I have no doubt that my conclusion is correct that, as it became clear that Bhagdad was going to fall, the looting of the Museum was first carried out by the Al-Takritis and -perhaps- secondarily by some of the general public, and/or Museum staff which took the left-overs. One hopes the staff was able to take some pieces, at least, into their personal protection. That is certainly what I would heave done if I had been in their position. I would not place the blame on the lower ranking staff for this atrocious crime, but on the Museum Director and his clan.
The problem remains: how are these sublime and supremely important pieces to be recovered? 
Christopher Seal  
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