"Go in Ali Baba! It´s all yours."

Information Clearing House - Translated from an article in Süddeutschen Zeitung a German newspaper -- Many Iraqis report on futile attempts to get soldiers to intervene. Even appeals to the command center in the Palestine Hotel remained fruitless. Looters were both simple people from the poor quarters and wealthy residents of the neighborhood. People stole for reasons of poverty, anger, revenge or greed, and their spoils were often sold off the same day on the streets.

The most surprising detail in all reports was the assertion that American soldiers often made the looting possible at all, by breaking open or unlocking well-protected doors and then animating bystanders to plunder: "Go in, Ali Baba, its yours!³ -- shouted the Americans, say Iraqi eyewitnesses. Among Americans., "Ali Baba" has become an almost generic term for Iraqi looters. A member of the UN Development Agency observed how Americans forced open the Technical University, opened computers and removed their hard drives, before allowing looters in.

...A resident reports how US soldiers commanded chance Iraqi bystanders on the museum grounds, to go into the museum and help themselves: "This is your treasure, get in!³ For three days the plunderers worked unhindered and carried away their booty in front of running cameras. The few museum employees who had returned to work tried desperately to get American troops to protect the museum. A few soldiers turned up for a short while, looked at what was going on and disappeared again with the remark: "This is not our order."