Despite US administration saying they will do what ever they can to protect
antiquities, destruction continues.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0415-07.htm

Published on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
Library Books, Letters and Priceless Documents are Set Ablaze in Final
Chapter of the Sacking of Baghdad
by Robert Fisk

http://www.votetoimpeach.org

So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the
arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National
Library and Archives ­ a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical
documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq ­ were turned to ashes
in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of
Religious Endowment was set ablaze.

I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of
Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi history,
I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters
between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt
against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of
Baghdad.

And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters
of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for
troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all in
delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last
Baghdad vestiges of Iraq's written history. But for Iraq, this is Year
Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology
on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic
library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these
fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?

When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning ­ flames 100 feet high
More:
  http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0415-07.htm

http://www.votetoimpeach.org

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