U.S. Culture Advisers Resign Over Iraq Museum Looting


By Niala Boodhoo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two cultural advisers to the Bush administration have resigned in protest over the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum.



Martin Sullivan, who chaired the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, and panel member Gary Vikan said they resigned because the U.S. military had had advance warning of the danger to Iraq (news - web sites)'s historical treasures.

"We certainly know the value of oil but we certainly don't know the value of historical artifacts," Vikan, director of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, told Reuters on Thursday.

At the start of the U.S.-led campaign against Iraq, military forces quickly secured valuable oil fields.


"It didn't have to happen," Sullivan told Reuters. "In a pre-emptive war that's the kind of thing you should have planned for." Sullivan sent his letter of resignation earlier this week.

The Iraqi National Museum held rare artifacts documenting the development of mankind in ancient Mesopotamia, one of the world's earliest civilizations. Among the museum collection were more than 80,000 cuneiform tablets, some of which had yet to be translated.

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Very sad, indeed. The price of rare artifacts that date back to man's origins is incomprehensible. Once they're gone, they're gone. The realization of that is (or should be) sobering. However, I'm sure there are many knuckledraggers that can't fathom the significance of the loss.

Additionally, a bio lab was left unguarded and then subsequently looted. Vials of deadly virus such as smallpox, AIDS, botula, etc. were found shattered on the floor. It's also very likely that some samples were stolen and could be diverted to terrorists.

Finally, a bunker was found by the US Forces filled with drums of low-grade plutonium. It was first proclaimed the "smoking gun," but later verified by UN inspectors as a previously cataloged storage facility of material for energy production. In their zeal to be the hero to find WMDs, the US Forces left the bunker unguarded for several days. The UN inspectors pointed out that the low-grade plutonium can be processed into weapons-grade plutonium, and maybe you should think about guarding it. Since the seal to the bunker was destroyed, it's not known how much plutonium was there originally and whether any was stolen while unguarded.

Oops.

Kind of ironic, eh? How many feel safer now since invading Iraq?

Me. By a whole bunch. And reports today from the museum curators indicate that much less was lost through looting than was earlier thought.