UNESCO's World Monuments Fund places entire country of Iraq on endangered

[housewolf]

Looted Art Said Used to Fund Terrorists

By SOPHIE NICHOLSON, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 23, 3:57 PM ET

PARIS - Wealthy art patrons are buying stolen artifacts from
Iraq and inadvertently funding terrorist activity, the director of Iraq's national Museum said Thursday. Some of the objects are entering the U.S., he said.

<snip>

"Rich people are buying stolen material," museum director Donny George told reporters. "Money is going to Iraq and they (terror groups) are buying weapons and ammunition to use against Iraqi police and American forces," he said.

<snip>

"People in the international community must stop buying these things ... This money is going to the terrorists," he said at a
UNESCO conference on Iraq's cultural heritage.

<snip>

Of the 15,000 objects stolen from the national museum, almost 4,000 have been returned to the country and more than 4,000 others are in neighboring countries for safekeeping, George said.

It is impossible to assess the scale of theft or damage at archaeological sites outside Baghdad, said a committee of experts gathered at UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. cultural agency.

<snip>

UNESCO's World Monuments Fund this week placed the entire country of Iraq on the list of the world's most endangered cultural sites. It was the first time an entire country has been listed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050623/ap_on_re_mi_ea/unesco_iraq_museums

[aquart]

1. It's an archaeologist's nightmare.

Thank you, George.

The damage done by Barbara's sons never stops.

[necso]

2. I suspect that some of the archaeological (and other) looting

was planned in advance of the invasion. The widespread (near) collapse of civil order in Iraq was not only to be expected after the invasion (based on the idiocy of the plans), but it can be seen as being actively encouraged by a number of neocon policies in Iraq after the invasion -- when the widespread collapse of civil order was widely known to be a very real problem. And, of course, in the circumstances of civil disruption, there are always those who will recognize and take advantage of the situation.

The neocon "power-players" are looters, nihilists and vandals -- and you can see this in (practically) everything that they touch.