on BBC TV -- do read last Para. Time to correct the record re. the pillaged Museum in Baghdad. See this article in the (liberal) Guardian.

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Bet I don't see this on most US PBS especially Pittsburgh WQED TV whih fills
it's airtime with infomercials.

Dave


------ Forwarded Message
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 00:03:37 +0100
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] do read last Para. Time to correct the record re. the
pillaged Museum in Baghdad. See this article in the (liberal) Guardian.

Dave:

> Subject: Time to correct the recrod re. the pillaged Museum in Baghdad. Se e
> this article in the (liberal) Guardian.
>
> It was a hoax. Many were suckered. Read it and weep for all those who
> weeped.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,974193,00.html
>
> - Neil
...

> On Sunday night, in a remarkable programme on BBC2, the architectural
> historian Dan Cruikshank both sought and found. Cruikshank had been to the
> museum in Baghdad, had inspected the collection, the storerooms, the
> outbuildings, and had interviewed people who had been present around the
> time of the looting, including George and some US troops. And Cruikshank was
> present when, for the first time, US personnel along with Iraqi museum staff
> broke into the storerooms.
...

It really was a *truly remarkable* programme, and I strongly urge you
and your IPers to see if you can get to see it somehow, perhaps via
PBS.

It was called "Dan Cruickshank and the Raiders of the Lost Art", and
was screened on BBC2 at 9pm on Sunday, 8 June. Don't let the cute
title put you off. This was a one hour long documentary, by a serious
historian, well-experienced in TV presentation, showing day by day
during a return trip to Baghdad just after the war (he'd also made a
trip there a few months before the war) how he gradually came to
understand what must have happened at the Museum, and what sort of
people were (and I fear still are) running it.

Unfortunately I cannot find the programme, or (at least yet) anything
based on it, in the BBC's very comprehensive web-site - though I did
come across a series of articles, by Cruickshank, based on one of his
earlier programs about Afghanistan:

Afghanistan: At the Crossroads of Ancient Civilisations
Once a cultural crossroads, Afghanistan has been ravaged by 22 years
of war and the Taliban regime whose systematic destruction of the
country's cultural heritage culminated in the blowing up of the
Bamiyan Buddhas. Early in 2002, Dan Cruickshank travelled to Kabul to
investigate what treasures remain and find out how Afghanistan's
people have dealt with attempts to destroy their culture and national
identity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/sept_11/afghan_culture_01.shtml

This will give you some idea of Cruickshank's talents.

Cheers

Brian Randell

-- 
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


------ End of Forwarded Message

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