Who's Doing The Buying?

Jerry Bowles from Best of the Blogs writes about how looting of Iraq's national treasures was abetted by the military.

It brought to mind an article published in the Sunday Herald that stated;

FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level meeting with the US administration.

It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US defence and state department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its assistance in preserving the country's invaluable archaeological collections.

The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who favour a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and export of antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist' and has said he would support a post-war government that would make it easier to have antiquities dispersed to the US.

Is this the reason Rumsfeld laughed off the criminal behavior and the military opened roads to facilitate it?

Update: Body and Soul's Jeanne D'Arc is doing an excellent job following this travesty and offers these links;

pfaffenBlog & Making Light