Newsman on Iraq looting charge
Sekhmet
A US television news employee has been charged with smuggling artworks
and monetary bonds from Iraq.
Benjamin James Johnson - an engineer for Fox news - stands accused of
bringing into the US 12 paintings taken from a palace belonging to
Saddam Hussein's son Uday and also of making false statements to the
police.
Mr Johnson, who was embedded with US troops during the Iraq war, was
arrested at Dulles International Airport near Washington. Fox says he
has been fired.
These items are not souvenirs or 'war trophies' but stolen goods that
belong to the people of Iraq
Gordon England,
Homeland Security Department
A US Government official warned returning soldiers and journalists
that looting would not be tolerated.
"These items are not souvenirs or 'war trophies' but stolen goods that
belong to the people of Iraq," Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
Gordon England said.
He was speaking at a news conference where he displayed looted objects
including gold-plated weapons.
'Presents from Iraqis'
When stopped by Customs officials, Mr Johnson declared just $20 worth
of cigarettes.
But a search of his luggage revealed the 12 paintings from Iraq.
Mr Johnson reportedly told the officials he had been given the
paintings by Iraqi citizens, but later admitted that they had been
removed from presidential palaces in Baghdad.
The paintings were part of a haul of stolen goods put on display by
the US Customs Department.
Several other journalists and one American soldier are also under
investigation.
US officials say the paintings themselves are not of any great value.
Online auctions
Customs agents at a US airport believe they have seized at least one
item taken from Baghdad museum, which was looted of thousands of
valuable artefacts as Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed.
PRESUMED MISSING
80,000 cuneiform tablets with world's earliest writing
Bronze figure of Akkadian king - 4,500 years old
Silver harp from ancient city of Ur - 4,000 years old
Three-foot carved Sumerian vase - 5,200 years old
Headless statue of Sumerian king Entemena - 4,600 years old
Carved sacred cup - 4,600 years old
The FBI refused to say at which airport the object had been
confiscated or the nature of the artefact, but customs officials
across the country have been put on high alert amid suspicions that
many of the stolen objects will end up on the US market.
Many objects from Iraq, looted both at the end of the first Gulf War
in 1991 and during the last, have already started turning up for sale
at online auctioneers, experts say.
"You won't find the big, expensive pieces on the internet, but the
smaller things that won't command as much attention," Dr Neil Brodie
of the UK's Illicit Antiquities Research Centre told BBC News Online.
"It's these pieces that are much harder to track down."
Artistic co-operation
The US has come in for intense criticism from archaeologists and art
historians for its failure to protect Baghdad's cultural heritage from
looters when lawlessness broke out.
Three White House cultural advisers resigned in protest, and
Washington subsequently announced plans to send FBI agents to join
Interpol police in the recovery operation, both inside and outside
Iraq.
The FBI says it will work closely with art collectors, auction houses,
museum curators and online sellers to track down any Iraqi pieces put
up for sale.
As well as the national museum in Baghdad, a museum in Mosul was
looted and the capital's Islamic Library, which housed ancient
manuscripts including one of the oldest surviving copies of the Koran,
was ravaged by fire.
The UN's cultural agency Unesco has called the loss and destruction
already suffered "a disaster".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/2966345.stm
Published: 2003/04/23 23:29:30
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