April 22, 2003

"Troops were told to guard treasures"

From this:

In a memo sent two weeks before the fall of Baghdad, the Pentagon office charged with rebuilding Iraq urged top commanders of U.S. ground forces to protect the Iraqi National Museum and other cultural sites from looters.

"Coalition forces must secure these facilities in order to prevent looting and the resulting irreparable loss of cultural treasures," says the March 26 memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), led by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, sent the five-page memo to senior commanders at the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC)...

The museum was No. 2 on a list of 16 sites that ORHA deemed crucial to protect. Financial institutions topped the list, including the Iraqi Central Bank, which is now a burned-out shell filled with twisted metal beams from the collapse of the roof and all nine floors under it.

Via Kaus, although I originally saw this at command-post in a report attributed to AFP, for which reason it was discounted.

Posted to Iraq at April 22, 2003 12:14 AM

Comments

Treasure -- Looting can be fun. The antiquities are on the market already, check out http://scari.org/excavations.html
Looks to me like one should follow the trail.
Right/Left -- I'm sure it's a vast conspiracy.
GOK

Posted by: Gus O. Kahan at May 5, 2003 02:57 PM