WP,pg1:After Handover, Hussein Palaces Looted(by Iraqi security,officials)

[DeepModem Mom]

After Handover, Hussein Palaces Looted
November Transfer Ceremony Was Hailed as Symbol of Progress in Iraq
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 13, 2006; Page A01


BAGHDAD, Jan. 12 -- On Nov. 22, the top U.S. military and civilian leaders in Iraq handed over Saddam Hussein's most lavish palace compound to the safekeeping and control of the new Iraqi army and government, in a ceremony whose intended symbolism was as impossible to ignore as the military brass band.

"The passing of this facility is a simple ceremony that vividly demonstrates the continuing progress being made by the Iraqi government and their people," said Col. Mark McKnight, commander of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, who handed the keys to the palaces to the governor of Salahuddin province.

But in the days after American forces and the Iraqi brass band pulled out of the circular palace drive on a bluff overlooking the Tigris River, local officials now say, looters moved in, ripping out doors, air conditioners, ceiling fans and light-switch plates from some of the compound's 136 palaces, leaving little more than plaster and dangling electric wires.

The culprits are some of the same Iraqi security forces and officials to whom Americans transferred control, police and the governor say.

"Thank God we were able to save the walls from the looters, because everything else was stolen," Gov. Hamed Hamood Shekti said by telephone....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/12/AR2006011202400.html

[deminks]

1. Like Rummy always said...

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things".

http://www.juancole.com/2005/09/looting-there-looting-here-fallujah.html

[rodeodance]

2. "he continuing progress being made"--but this is the rherotic of the day.

[rodeodance]

3. Looted(by Iraqi security,---this is process folks.

[rodeodance]

4. Military says palaces are no longer their concern (US taxpayer $$ paid

for these things!!).

...A trip to one of the palaces appeared to substantiate the allegations. A witness, visiting one palace now used by Iraqi police, found officers working in offices stripped of their baseboards and doors, with holes where some air conditioners had sat and plaited wiring in place of electrical switches.

According to local officials, the Iraqi troops responsible for the alleged pillaging came from elsewhere, including the northern city of Mosul.

Over several days after the transfer of control from U.S. to Iraqi hands, furnishings from the palaces turned up in one local market for sale by the truckload, said a Tikrit resident, Rashid Juburi.

U.S. military spokesmen, some expressing surprise, said this month that they had not known of the alleged looting spree after the handover. They stressed that the Tikriti palaces, after Baghdad's Green Zone the most prominent U.S. installations eventually slated for return to Iraqi authority, were no longer U.S. troops' concern.

[rodeodance]

5. November Transfer Ceremony Was Hailed as Symbol of Progress in Iraq

[rodeodance]

6. US military did not know of the looting--not their concern.

..............U.S. military spokesmen, some expressing surprise, said this month that they had not known of the alleged looting spree after the handover. They stressed that the Tikriti palaces, after Baghdad's Green Zone the most prominent U.S. installations eventually slated for return to Iraqi authority, were no longer U.S. troops' concern..........

[MrPrax]

7. Stunning Revelation...

The the US military and the WP is usually so reliable, that I won't even bother to it.

I'll presume that the 'museum' looting was done when the museums were "handed over" in a ceremony as well.

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Kicked

Sadly, cannot recommend :(

[daleo]

9. A Bush imposed government, made up of looters

What could be more natural?

[radfringe]

11. the Bush administration trumpeted

---snip---

In Washington, the Bush administration trumpeted the handover. "The Iraqi forces are becoming more capable on a daily basis, and so this was, I think, an important example of that process moving forward,"

-------------

things always look better when you just look at the Sunni side of Tikrit.......don't see any trouble when in a bubble

[Up2Late]

10. Harry Shearer read this on his radio show "Le Show" Sunday!

What great progress? :banghead:

<http://www.harryshearer.com/leshow/index.html>

<http://www.publicradiofan.com/cgi-bin/program.pl?programid=60>

[opihimoimoi]

12. Priceless....