Similarly, artifacts and similar items were destroyed and stolen by the United States', Britain's and allies' personnel which were involved in the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

That never happened. The museums are intact. You are telling a fib

Recheck your source(s).

I do not have. You are obliged to demonstrate it happened.

stop making excuses for ISIS...if US or Britain took similar items, I am 100% sure it's for preservation rather than destruction

You people sicken me with your defense of ISIS's actions...

You are incorrect in all instances.

1. My posts have not indicated any reference to the defence of ISIS.

2. Recheck the sources and references which were widely published in the media from 2003; including actual activities on the TVs; on the destruction and blatant removal of the various items in the museums and numerous places.

I have no obligation to demonstrate anything which were publicly published in various sources, including actual instances on the TV from 2003 on this issue.

Reminds me of the Taliban destruction of historical artifacts from Afghanistan Hindu and Greek Buddhist past.    

Islamic State's smashing of artifacts latest act of cultural hatred

hen Islamic State extremists took sledgehammers to what may have been centuries-old treasures in the Iraqi city of Mosul, they were indulging in a long and ruinous tradition of intolerance that has destroyed priceless artifacts around the planet.

In this image from video posted on a social media account affiliated with the Islamic State group, militants attack ancient artifacts with sledgehammers in the Ninevah Museum in Mosul, Iraq. (Associated Press)

 

From the Taliban's 2002 dynamiting of 6th century Buddha figures sculpted into a mountainside in Bamian, Afghanistan, to the Ansar Dine militants' smashing of UNESCO-designated cultural milestones three years ago in Timbuktu in northern Mali, fundamentalist Islamic radicals have made it their mission to destroy what they see as idolized false gods.

Fundamentalist Salafist Muslims have also attacked Sufi heritage sites in Libya and Egypt in recent years, and disrespect for cherished places of worship, museums, libraries and artworks has hardly been limited to the bellicose adherents of antiquated sharia law.

Islamic State says it destroyed

Nazi Christians looted Jewish homes of paintings and sculptures, many still residing in the museums and galleries to which the thieves and their brokers sold the seized treasures. Tourists, collectors and excavators for more than a century have pilfered souvenirs from the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia and Incan and Mayan monuments in Mexico and Central America.

For as long as wars have ravaged the world, victorious troops have taken cultural trophies from the vanquished, including some U.S. troops and contractors who "liberated" Baghdad from Saddam Hussein's rule in 2003.

Islamic militants destroyed temples, mausoleums and libraries when they overran Timbuktu in 2012. Some of the ancient treasures were secreted out for protection, as was this manuscript. (Sebastien Rieussec / AFP/Getty Images)

But the purloined can be returned once the lengthy legal battles and investigations of provenance are over, as occurred in late 2013 when Cornell University gave back to Iraq a vast collection of 4th century cuneiform tablets depicting daily life in the cradle of civilization, stone chronicles believed to have been looted during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The Islamic militants' attacks on religious symbols stir more passionate outrage, as their work with axes, drills, truncheons and firearms often reduces the statues and artifacts to rubble.

Such appears to be the case with Islamic State's video-taped destruction in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and home to a priceless trove of Assyrian and Akkadian statues at the National Museum dating to the 7th century BC.

The five-minute video that appeared Thursday on the Internet opens with militants ripping protective wrapping off statues. A bearded man appears, explaining that the artifacts are depictions of "pagan gods" that "were worshiped instead of Allah" as the camera lingers over parts of the museum.

"It is easy for us [to destroy these artifacts], and we do not care, even if they cost billions of dollars," the militant says before the statues are pushed and kicked off pedestals by fighters with unabashed glee. They then take to them with sledgehammers and electric drills. An Islamic nasheed, or chant, plays in the background.

Another video shows the militants apparently burning thousands of books and ancient poetry anthologies in a bonfire on a major thoroughfare in Mosul.

The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified, but their depictions were true to the fanatic battles waged against what the Salafists consider an offense against their god.

Islamic State espouses a particularly harsh interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, with punishments that include amputations, crucifixions and beheadings. It also considers many artifacts, landmarks and even graves as a threat that will lead to paganism.

Antiquities expert Eleanor Robson of University College London deplored the attacks in a BBC interview as "the cultural equivalent of the worst of the beheading videos," referring to Islamic State signature recordings of their beheadings of captives, including Western journalists and aid workers.

Follow @cjwilliamslat for the latest international news 24/7

Special correspondent Nabih Bulos and Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Sana, Yemen, contributed to this report.

Another case of Muslims trying to outdo others in their sick inclinations.

A miniscule reference of the United States personnel and other involvement in the removal and destruction of items in the museums and numerous places widely published in the media from 2003.

So now they are Muslims!!!So they are informed by Islam!!!

Originally Posted by Demerara_Guy:

Originally Posted by RiffRaff:

Originally Posted by Demerara_Guy:

Similarly, artifacts and similar items were destroyed and stolen by the United States', Britain's and allies' personnel which were involved in the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

stop making excuses for ISIS...if US or Britain took similar items, I am 100% sure it's for preservation rather than destruction

You people sicken me with your defense of ISIS's actions...

You are incorrect in all instances.

 

1. My posts have not indicated any reference to the defence of ISIS.

 

2. Recheck the sources and references which were widely published in the media from 2003; including actual activities on the TVs; on the destruction and blatant removal of the various items in the museums and numerous places.

November 17, 2009 9:39 AM MST

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A.P. photo/ Karim Kadim, File -- Babylon

During the Iraq War and before the insurgency, media reports accused U.S. forces of destroying ancient Iraqi artifacts or letting them get stolen; those reports were false.

“A Jan. 15, 2005, BBC report, for example, began…’Coalition forces in Iraq have caused irreparable damage to the ancient city of Babylon, the British Museum says.’  It continued with such details as ‘sandbags have been filled with precious archeological fragments and 2,600 year-old paving stones have been crushed by tanks,’ and that long trenches were dug ‘through archeological deposits.’”

Another claim was that a coalition helicopter base cracked the animal bas-reliefs on Babylon’s original walls. 

 

In truth, Iraq’s National Museum retains its great treasures, many having been kept locked in vaults.  What happened?

 

Saddam’s regime looted the Museum of some of his country’s national heritage.  It even substituted fake items for genuine ones.

 

Western Archeologists, including critics of the U.S., inspected the important, southern fifth of Iraq.  They found that the archeological sites suffered almost no damage since Saddam.  Saddam had damaged the ancient Babylon site by building a palace in it, removing ancient remains clumsily, deploying a tank regiment there, etc..

 

Marine Chaplain Emilio Arrero, records arriving early and finding the murals and other parts of the site already damaged.  He described “how they worked conscientiously to protect the site, ejecting looters, undertaking repairs of the perimeter and establishing ground rules for the war’s duration.”  

 

The helicopters were too far away, and rise too vertically, to have damaged artifacts, far below ground.  Iron railings, still in place, indicated that allied tanks had not crushed sensitive areas.  The allied trenches reported by UNESCO had been dug and sandbags filled beyond the site.

The earlier reports were defamatory.  Some of the same archeologists who sponsored them have begun acknowledging the truth, but too slowly and softly  (Wall St. J, 11/14, A15).

A miniscule reference of the United States personnel and other involvement in the removal and destruction of items in the museums and numerous places widely published in the media from 2003.

========================

The statements of the BBC report on January 15, 2005, in Stormborn's article, is correct and was corroborated by other sources at the time of the incidents.

Straight up bullshit lies. The net is prodigious with refutations of these lies. The Museums exist and their curators are not asking the US to return their artifacts.

France went into Timbuktu to preserve its library from al Shabab. ISS emptied the Mosul library of ancient manuscripts dating to t he first century and pre islam. The artifacts being destroyed are even older. I wish the British and Americans did "steal" them. Now they are lost forever

Straight up bullshit lies. -- Is what you are peddling on the issue.           

Provide the evidence dundahead!

Provide the evidence dundahead! --- again, usual statement to yourself, Stormborn.          

DG thanks for posting about the destruction of historical artifacts.  It shows the world just how dunce these mad stupid fools are.

DG just wanna excuse ISIS

Yea US also bombed the Bamiyan Buddhas. What a moron!

That one made me upset!!

If you were here then I advised going in and bombing the Taliban idiots then for their destruction of world heritage. It is no less than destroying the towers in NY. It actually is a progression of that disrespect for life and culture.

DG is as ass and he would be sanctioned for trolling on any other board for  repeating   nonsense and going on the personal attack rather than contributing by explaining his statements.

Dey might be among us.

I heard ISIS have their eye on Cuffy statue!

I bet if they could they would see it as western barbarism and go after it.

No, Kofi was a Muslim. He rebelled against the Dutch Christian masters. But you are not allowed to build statues of Muslim heroes.

The local ISIS group will pull it down after election

The British Museum has a rich collection of artifacts from the Middle East, North Africa and other places that it acquired over centuries.

Nationalists have for decades been demanding that the British Museum repatriate those treasures to their respective homelands.

What ISIS has done in Iraq is a perfect reason why the British Museum must not let go of its disputed collection.

Those bloody things are safe in Britain!

Your exclusive choice to continue expressing lies and disinformation.

What a moron! -- an expression of yourself.      

(CNN) -- The U.S. military did major damage to the site of one of the wonders of the ancient world while converting it into a base, the United Nations said in a new report.

An U.S. soldier looks over the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq in 2004.

The site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was converted into Camp Alpha shortly after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

The troops and their contractors caused "major damage" by digging, cutting, scraping and leveling while they were revamping the site to meet military standards, the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, said in a report.

"Key structures that were damaged include the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way," the report added.

The Ishtar Gate, an entrance to the northern part of the city, is decorated with animals that portray the symbol of the god of the city of Babylon.

"Damage to the gate includes smashed bricks on nine of the bodies of the animals adorning the gate," according to the report.

A military official said she had not seen the U.N. report, but added that one of the reasons troops set up a base at the site was to safeguard

DG -- going on the personal attack <==> all of the specific statements will show that you-Stormborn is the one who engages with personal attacks.     

Noted Wally.

Who said so? The Koran speaks to idolatry not figurative depictions of humans. That is derived of the traditions but one again sees the contradiction where we have modern media that creates facsimiles in light and on paper and now in 3d printing. Do you think Muslims will refuse the new forms of prosthetic being printed from an image of actual body part? Let me know what they say about digital media. Al Jazeera is not broadcasting geometric patterns but actual representation of people. Muslims all over the world are now interacting with representations of human forms. 

Back to your old stupid circular references. This a classic example of trolling...a purely gratuitous post about nothing. Raymond said he is cleaning up the board and when one uses circularity as strategy the need to be booted from the board if they continue with it.

I said you lied and deliberately so based on repetition of misinformation. I ask that you support your argument not from news reporting but from the scholars in the field who insist the US pillaged the museums of Iraq. Surely you can find Iraqi sources who "lost" artifacts to be complaining and pointing fingers.

Again, the one asserting something needs to demonstrate they tell the truth. I actually give you a source document you can use to back track and verify your sources if you care to do so or had the integrity to do so instead of repeating a lie that establishes the preconditions for the stereotypes that Americans steal treasures of others.

No present day museums accept artifacts from other countries unless those countries explicitly loaned them for display. The idea that any nation can arbitrarily  appropriate artifacts and presume they can keep them is a falsehood. That is the domain of under ground collectors that was mainly western is being increasingly dominated by the Chinese. Even if you say the war caused an outflow of artifices to collectors in the west   will also not be completely correct.

I said you lied and deliberately so based on repetition of misinformation. -- The information I provided are facts and it is perfectly your choice to not accept them.

Your 200+ words are, as usual, simply your endless ramblings.      

As I said you are as useless as the missing teeth in your mouth. Now let me see you come back with the circular tripe of me speaking to myself...I am speaking to you fool....

you are as useless as the missing teeth in your mouth. --- no wonder you-Stormborn are extremely irritated without teeth and wandering helplessly in the wilderness.