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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (403398)	5/6/2003 6:38:35 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

Posted on Mon, May. 05, 2003 Most antiquities found, unharmed By Christine Spolar CHICAGO TRIBUNE BAGHDAD - The vast majority of the Iraqi trove of antiquities feared stolen or broken have been found inside the National Museum in Baghdad, according to American investigators who compiled an inventory over the weekend of the ransacked galleries. A total of 38 antiquities, not tens of thousands, are now believed to be missing. Among them is a single display of Babylonian cuneiform tablets that accounts for nine missing items. The single most valuable missing piece is the Vase of Warka, a white limestone bowl dating from 3000 B.C. The inventory, compiled by a military and civilian team headed by Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, refutes reports that Iraq's renowned treasures of civilization - as many as 170,000 individual artifacts - had been scattered or lost during the U.S.-led war against Iraq. It also raises questions about why any of the artifacts went missing. The looting may have occurred April 10-12, two days after museum officials fled the grounds amid a battle in which gunners of the Fedayeen paramilitary force entered the complex and began firing on advancing U.S. tanks. In one instance, investigators found that intruders had taken some less-valuable artifacts from a storage room in the basement of the museum. That theft, in a little-known storage area, has raised suspicions that the thieves had knowledge of the museum and its storage practices. Investigators, armed with chisels and a sledgehammer, broke through hastily constructed barricades Saturday to search several large storage rooms in the museum. In one storage area on the second floor, they discovered evidence of a gunner's nest. From debris left behind, investigators concluded that a gunner was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and rocket-propelled grenades. About a foot from the gunner's lookout was a hole punched through the wall by a 25mm shell. Investigators surmised that the gunman fled after that single volley from allied forces. Damage to the museum's administrative offices was extensive, with desks, wiring, water fixtures and chairs hauled out by looters. Artifacts, apparently obscured in some instances by the rubble left by looters, emerged largely unscathed. "There is no comparison in the level of destruction seen in the museum and that seen in the administrative offices," Bogdanos said. "It's absolute wanton destruction in the offices. We didn't see anywhere near that destruction in the museum. [People] stole what they could use. They left the antiquities." Investigators, still compiling information about what possibly occurred during the chaotic takeover of Baghdad by U.S. and British troops, are concluding that little damage occurred to antiquities displayed at the museum. Investigators counted 17 display cases out of 300 to 400 cases there as destroyed. Many of the items apparently were removed before the looting. In addition, investigators have counted 22 items that were damaged, including 11 clay pots on display in corridors. Most of those damaged artifacts are restored pieces and can be restored again, museum officials told investigators. The most significant of the damaged pieces was the Golden Harp of Ur. But investigators determined that the golden head on the damaged antiquity, feared missing, was only a copy. Museum officials confirmed to investigators that the original head was placed in a storage vault at the Iraqi Central Bank sometime before the war. The inventory was compiled after investigators examined five large storage areas in the museum Saturday to check for looting. Each room was lined with shelves holding plastic containers filled with envelopes of small, less-valuable artifacts, such as individual beads or amulets. There was no apparent sign of forced entry to the storage sites, and the doors were locked when investigators arrived. Museum staff told investigators they had no keys to the room, so investigators remain uncertain how entry was made. Investigators found that the basement storage area, which held thousands of small items not deemed suitable for display, had been disturbed in one of the four rooms. They broke through a cinder-block barrier to the room to find hundreds of cardboard boxes intact and about 90 plastic boxes, containing about 5,000 less-valuable items, missing. A boxful of such items was retrieved about a week ago near Al-Kut, investigators said, and it is likely that the intruders are attempting to move other such artifacts outside Baghdad.