Fox News employee charged with Iraq looting
[ed: Right wing Fox News & Talk Shows = Thieves, looters and perverts. LMAO!]
posted: April 24, 2003
by Curt Anderson
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Several members of the media and a U.S. serviceman have been caught attempting to ship Iraqi paintings, weapons and other war souvenirs to America, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.
At least 15 paintings, gold-plated firearms, ornamental knives, bonds and other items have been seized at airports in Virginia, Boston and London in the last week, according to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Items seized in the military case were flown to Fort Stewart, Ga.
“These seizures should serve as a warning to anyone who would take advantage of the transition currently under way in the newly liberated Iraq,” Commissioner Robert Bonner said.
Benjamin James Johnson, who worked as an engineer for Fox News Channel, is the only person charged or identified by the government.
A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria charges Johnson tried to bring 12 paintings into the United States last Thursday. They were contained in a large cardboard box that was examined by Customs agents at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint says that Johnson, who accompanied U.S. troops in Baghdad, gathered up the paintings at a palace that belonged to Odai Hussein, one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s sons. The paintings depict Saddam and Odai.
An examination of Johnson’s luggage also turned up 40 Iraqi Monetary Bonds and a visitor’s badge from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait.
Johnson, 27, of Alexandria, Va., has not been arrested but is to appear before a federal magistrate next Tuesday.
Johnson initially told Customs officials he was given the paintings by Iraqi citizens, then said he had planned to keep them “for decoration” and to provide one to his employer, the affidavit said. It is U.S. policy that all such items belong to the Iraqi people.
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