Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Lost from the Baghdad museum: truth

The Guardian has a story talking about the state of affairs at the Iraqi National Museum. It is starting to look like there wasn't nearly as much looting as was first described, furthermore it the article implies that the majority of looting that did occur was done by insiders from the Iraqi Government. Over the last week or so we have seen several articles about the recovery of items thought to be lost. I hope that this continues to be the trend. Here is a quote from the story:

Cruikshank also tackled George directly on events leading up to the looting. The Americans had said that the museum was a substantial point of Iraqi resistance, and this explained their reticence in occupying it. Not true, said George, a few militia-men had fired from the grounds and that was all. This, as Cruikshank heavily implied, was a lie. Not only were there firing positions in the grounds, but at the back of the museum there was a room that seemed to have been used as a military command post. And it was hardly credible that senior staff at the museum would not have known that. Cruikshank's closing thought was to wonder whether the museum's senior staff - all Ba'ath party appointees - could safely be left in post. Furious, I conclude two things from all this. The first is the credulousness of many western academics and others who cannot conceive that a plausible and intelligent fellow-professional might have been an apparatchiks of a fascist regime and a propagandist for his own past. The second is that - these days - you cannot say anything too bad about the Yanks and not be believed.