[CPProt.net] Iraq War & Archaeology site up in the air

[MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet]

And who might this dealer be? I have an idea. This might be the infamous
Safani, and the matter involved? The Michael C. Carlos Museum and a relief
looted from Iraq, and imported into the USA..
I am not sure, but it might be....

See our reports:
http://te.verweg.com/pipermail/cpprot/2004-December/000613.html





------ Forwarded Message
From: Francis Deblauwe <fdeblauwe at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 18:32:38 -0500
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: future of my 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology site up in the air

Dear friends,

My 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology site was pulled down (again) by the
University of Missouri-Kansas City.  The CIO of the university ordered it
and the IT staff was instructed not to contact me about it.  In short, I'm
afraid my 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology site won't be coming back online on
the cctr.umkc.edu web server.  From what I've been able to gather after
calling around all day Friday and pressing for information, a lawyer for a
New York antiquities dealer threatened the University of Missouri (UM).  He
claimed that the mere act of me posting an excerpt/summary of a web article
that accused the said dealer of smuggling was defamatory.  UM lawyers
valiantly decided that, as I am not actually a UM employee anymore anyway, I
shouldn't have been allowed to have a web site on university servers in the
first place and they instructed my whole academic web site to be taken down
without further ado.  Case solved!  I was not contacted about the merit of
the accusation nor was I in any way notified of the decision itself.  I only
learned about it this morning when I couldn't upload updated files and
called the server admin.

I am not sure which path I am going to take now.  I could migrate my site to
a paid-for server or get someone to donate server space, i.e., continue
pretty much as if nothing happened.  Alternatively, I could use this
unfortunate occasion to possibly change format, content, frequency, etc.
Indeed, I have been wondering of late if my site in its current incarnation
is still the best way for me to assist in improving the plight of
archaeology in Iraq.  Now there is the added worry that, so I am told,
according to the letter of US laws, even excerpting/quoting an article
written by someone else and published elsewhere in which a person is
supposedly falsely accused ("slandered") exposes me to legal action too.  I
was not aware of this---is this correct?  Honestly, who needs this kind of
aggravation?  I'm only trying to provide a public service to journalists and
policy makers of all ilk, encouraging them not to forget about archaeology
in Iraq, and also to gather information and news for my colleagues in
academia with busy teaching and research schedules as well as the interested
lay person.  Maybe I need to rethink all this?  I'd like to hear your
thoughts!


Sincerely,

Francis Deblauwe

-- 

++++++++++++++
Francis Deblauwe, Lic., Ph.D.
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
+1 (816) 943-6300
fdeblauwe [at] gmail [dot] com
--------------
Ceterum censeo Mesopotamiam antiquam muniendam esse
--------------
The 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology
http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/fdeblauwe/iraq.html
Academic Page of Francis Deblauwe
http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/fdeblauwe/academic.html
Writing Page of Francis Deblauwe
http://writing.deblauwe.org/writing.html
++++++++++++++


------ End of Forwarded Message