Dear Claudia, I am extremely grateful to you for your kind message. Sadly, all too often the reaction is to shoot the messenger (or at least to use the 21st century technique if filling his or her mailbox with hundreds of copies of abusive messages). I once worked out that in the four or five years I was monitoring the cultural devastation in former Yugoslavia for ICOM and then more widely for Blue Shield I received almost 20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) e-mails. So far things have not been so bad, though I am losing track of the number of replies that insist that the Baghdad and Mosul Museum collections have in fact been stolen not by looters but by the Museums' own staff (or by Saddam Hussein and that the trashing of the museums is to cover up these crimes. (I do not believe that the highly professional staff of the museums would do such a thing; even less that anyone who had would hang around afterwards and then put on performances deserving Oscars when describing what has happened. Can we also drop the Saddam conspiracy theory? Why should he steal antiquities that will prove extremely difficult to dispose of except at a small fraction of their purported market value if, as almost universally believed, he has several billions stashed away around the world in totally anonymous US dollars?) Patrick Boylan =========================== On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Claudia Polley wrote: > Patrick, > > Thank you for such in depth and accurate reporting of what's going on. While > most of us in the United States must rely on CNN "All war..all the time" we > realize the international press has a more rounded view of things. I hope > that the truth gets out about what is taking place, and that the military > commanders who know how to apply their troops in the proper way are commended > for their actions. > > As for the US government which continues to be influenced by a small group of > mighty business folk...well, the press needs to tackle this one head on. > We'll see what we can do. > > Best, > > Claudia Polley > > > Claudia Polley > Managing Director, USA > LORD Cultural Resources Planning and Management > > 1225 Eye St., NW Ste. 100 Washington, DC 20005 > 1.202.842.1092 direct 1.202.842.3322 fax 1.202.842.2992 office > 1.800.749.3486 toll-free > [log in to unmask] > <A HREF="www.lord.ca">www.lord.ca</A> > > "Bringing a World of Experience to Museums, Heritage, and the Arts" > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the > archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html