Iraq National Museum looted during the war... not!

I was discussing the fate of the looted National Museum in Iraq with some friends the other day, a most heart wrenching story back in 2003. We all bemoaned the sad fact that "thousands of years of history went down the drain in a couple of days". We disagreed on some details and so I turned to our trusted Google to help find the details. Did I ever find details...!!!

According to this report by Charles Krauthammer, the looting never happened! Yes, some items did go missing but altogether only 33. To quote from the report: "The source of the lie, Donny George, director general of research and study of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities, now says (Washington Post, June 9) that he originally told the media that "there were 170,000 pieces in the entire museum collection. Not 170,000 pieces stolen. No, no, no. That would be every single object we have!"

The funny thing is that while the original (now proven) lie went around the world several times over, the correction did not. Why? Because it was not "sensational news", there were more interesting other war stories at the times, so why bother with something that would have possibly caused some red faces in media circles.