-----Original Message-----
From: Kendrick, Dawn
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 3:29 PM
To: 'Watson, Holly E.'
Subject: Iraq National Library
I did not take it as a political statement, just as news. What I felt was
an intense anguish at the loss of such a fabulous collection. As
librarians, I think we can all understand, empathize and cringe at such
destruction.
I believe all of us also will agree human life is by far more important than
material possessions and we hurt and morn over any human loss, but, as
librarians, we also recognize and can visualize the picture of
history/culture going up in flames as a huge loss.
Dawn P. Kendrick, MLIS
Assistant Law Librarian - Reference
Washington State Law Library
Temple of Justice
Box 40751
Olympia, WA 98504-0751
360-357-2136/360-357-2153 fax
-----Original Message-----
From: Watson, Holly E. [mailto:hwatson@jenkens.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 3:04 PM
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: RE: Iraq National Library
This list is not intended as a forum for political views, and most of us
like it that way.
But as long as we're ignoring that fact....
The Iraqis are going to need the revenue those oil fields can bring in - no
wait, I forgot this war is all about oil - the evil American hegemon is
going to take all the profits. Well, oil fires are a huge environmental and
health danger nonetheless.
And the same people screaming for American forces to protect the hospitals
and museums and libraries will also accuse those forces of war crimes if
civilians happen to get hurt in the process, even if the civilians are the
same ones doing the looting.
I mean heck - rape and torture and the imprisonment of children and all that
stuff is certainly regrettable, no one is denying that, but at least the
libraries and museums were safe.
Thank goodness for Fisk and other champions of unbiased reporting like him.
I will stop now.
-----Original Message-----
From: Library [mailto:Library@KVN.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 4:38 PM
To: 'Janet Fischer'; ccheng@ggu.edu; chlee@ggu.edu; ctucker@ggu.edu;
eshey@ggu.edu; gkemp@ggu.edu; jbenson@ggu.edu; jlanman@ggu.edu;
marnold@ggu.edu; mdaw@ggu.edu; mgerber@ggu.edu; mnasralla@ggu.edu;
nsheldon@ggu.edu; sfeller@ggu.edu; shess@ggu.edu; skorver@ggu.edu;
law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: RE: Iraq National Library
"Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, manned by U.S.
Marines. They did nothing to stop Tuesday's continuing trickle of looters."
That about says it all.
Janet- I was just writing about this to friends. The U.S. had a moral and
legal obligation to protect the cultural institutions of Iraq and has turned
a blind eye. There is no way many of these items can be replaced. But
don't worry. Troops are protecting Iraqs oil wells. The hospitals,
libraries and museums will have to fend for themselves.
>From Islam Online:
http://www.islam-online.net/English...article10.shtml
Paula Lichtenberg, Librarian
Keker & Van Nest LLP
Original Message-----
From: Janet Fischer [mailto:jfischer@ggu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 1:21 PM
To: ccheng@ggu.edu; chlee@ggu.edu; ctucker@ggu.edu; eshey@ggu.edu;
gkemp@ggu.edu; jbenson@ggu.edu; jfischer@ggu.edu; jlanman@ggu.edu;
marnold@ggu.edu; mdaw@ggu.edu; mgerber@ggu.edu; mnasralla@ggu.edu;
nsheldon@ggu.edu; sfeller@ggu.edu; shess@ggu.edu; skorver@ggu.edu;
law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Iraq National Library
FYI.
Janet
Looters Ransack Iraq's National Library
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq (news - web
sites)'s National Library, leaving a smoldering shell Tuesday of precious
books turned to ash and a nation's intellectual legacy gone up in smoke.
They also looted and burned Iraq's principal Islamic library nearby, home to
priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves swept through the National Museum
and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled this region's role as the
"cradle of civilization."
"Our national heritage is lost," an angry high school teacher, Haithem Aziz,
said as he stood outside the National Library's blackened hulk. "The modern
Mongols, the new Mongols did that. The Americans did that. Their agents did
that," he said as an explosion boomed in the distance as the war winds down.
The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu, sacked Baghdad in the
13th century. Today, the rumors on the lips of almost all Baghdadis is that
the looting that has torn this city apart is led by U.S.-inspired Kuwaitis
or other non-Iraqis bent on stripping the city of everything of value.
But outside the gutted Islamic library on the grounds of the Religious
Affairs Ministry, the lone looter scampering away was undeniably Iraqi, a
grizzled man named Mohamed Salman.
"It was left there, so why leave it?" he asked a reporter as he clung to a
thick, red-covered book, a catalog of the library's religious collection.
The scene inside was total devastation. Not a recognizable book or
manuscript could be seen among the dark ash.
The destruction has drawn condemnation worldwide, with many criticizing
U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to prevent or stop the looting,
sometimes carried out by whole Iraqi families.
The United Nation's cultural agency and the British Museum announced Tuesday
they will send in teams to help restore ransacked museums and artifacts.
Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, called on customs officials, police, art dealers and
neighboring countries to block the trading of stolen antiquities.
Among the National Museum's treasures were the tablets with Hammurabi's Code
¯ one of mankind's earliest codes of law. It could not be immediately
determined whether the tablets were at the museum when war broke out.
Thieves smashed or pried open row upon row of glass cases at the museum and
pilfered or destroyed their contents. Missing were the four millennia-old
copper head of an Akkadian king, golden bowls and colossal statues, ancient
manuscripts and bejeweled lyres.
The looting and burning ¯ the museum in the northern city of Mosul also was
pillaged ¯ has dealt a terrible blow to a society that prides itself on its
universities, literature and educated elite.
"I can't express the sorrow I feel. This is not real liberation," said an
artist in a wing of the National Library that had been looted but not
burned.
The thin, bearded, 41-year-old man, who would not give his name, was going
through old bound newspapers and tearing out pages whose artistic drawings
appealed to him. "I came yesterday to see the chaos, and when I saw it, I
decided to take what I could," he said.
The three-story, tan brick National Library building, dating to 1977, housed
all books published in Iraq, including copies of all doctoral theses. It
preserved rare old books on Baghdad and the region, historically important
books on Arabic linguistics, and antique manuscripts in Arabic that teacher
Aziz said were gradually being transformed into printed versions.
"They had manuscripts from the Ottoman and Abbasid periods," Aziz said,
referring to dynasties dating back a millennium. "All of them were precious,
famous. I feel such grief."
No library officials could be located to detail the loss. Haroun Mohammed,
an Iraqi writer based in London, told The Associated Press some old
manuscripts had been transferred from the library to a Manuscript House
across the Tigris River.
Except for wooden card catalog drawers and a carved-wood service counter
which somehow escaped the flames, nothing was left in the National Library's
main wing but its charred walls and ceilings, and mounds of ash. The floor
on the ground level was still warm from the flames. Long rolls of microfilm
littered the courtyard.
"This was the best library in Iraq," said music student Raad Muzahim, 27,
standing among piles of paper in the periodical room. "I remember coming as
a student. They were hospitable, letting students do their research, write
their papers.
Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, manned by U.S.
Marines. They did nothing to stop Tuesday's continuing trickle of looters.
Janet Fischer
Acquisitions/Government Documents Librarian
Golden Gate University Law Library
536 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
phone: 415-442-7826
fax: 415-512-9395
email: jfischer@ggu.edu
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