Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T04:36:12.139Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Immortality in the Secret Police Files: The Iraq Memory Foundation and the Baath Party Archive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2011

Bruce P. Montgomery
Bruce P. Montgomery
Affiliation:
University of Colorado at Boulder. Email: Bruce.Montgomery@Colorado.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shortly after the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, Kanan Makiya, a long time Iraqi dissident and professor of Middle East studies at Brandeis University, uncovered a major trove of documents belonging to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and his security forces. The documents proved highly important in reflecting the inner workings of the Baath Party system in his final years in power. Soon after the discovery of the documents, the Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF), a private Washington, D.C.–based group founded by Makiya, took custody of the records, later depositing them with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University to provide a safe haven for them. The deal ignited immediate international controversy and charges of pillage from some Iraqi officials, archival organizations, scholars, and others who also demanded their immediate return to the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad. On the surface, these charges of theft and plunder appear plausible enough, but on examination, a different and complicated narrative emerges in light of the conventions of war, U.S. law, and the Iraqi penal code, as well as the chain of events surrounding their taking and removal by nonstate actors in the Iraqi theatre of war and occupation.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , August 2011 , pp. 309 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archaeological Institute of America. “President Signs Emergency Protection for Iraqi Antiquities Act,” press release, 7 December 2004.Google Scholar
Boyle, Patrick J.Review of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague Convention of 1954). Paris, UNESCO, 1993.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Kevin. War and Cultural Heritage: An Analysis of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and Its Two Protocols. United Kingdom: Institute of Art and Law, 2004.Google Scholar
Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 82: Iraqi National Foundation for Remembrance, signed into force by Paul Bremer on 28 April 2004.Google Scholar
Coalition Provisional Authority Regulation 1 (16 May 2003) ⟨http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/index.htm#Regulations⟩ accessed 3 May 2011.Google Scholar
Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number Seven; Penal Code, 10 June 2003 ⟨http://www.nahrain.com/d/cpa/regulations/20030610_CPAORD_7_Pneal_Code.pdf⟩ accessed 7 May 2009.Google Scholar
“Contemporary Challenges to IHL: Privatization of War—Overview” International Committee of the Red Cross. ⟨http://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/contemporary-challenges-for-ihl/privatization-war/overview-privatization.htm⟩ (29 October 2010) accessed 3 June 2011.Google Scholar
Dobbins, James, Jones, Seth G., Runkle, Benjamin, and Mohandas, Siddharth. Occupying Iraq: A History of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2009.Google Scholar
Elsea, Jennifer K., and Garcia, Michael John. “Cultural Property: International Conventions and United States Legislation,” CRS Report for Congress, 8 April 2004.Google Scholar
Eskander, Saad. “An Open Letter to the Hoover Institution,” History News Network. ⟨http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/51649.html⟩ (23 June 2008) accessed 21 September 2008.Google Scholar
Eskander, Saad. “Records and Archives Recovery in Iraq: Past, Present, and Future,” Iraq National Library and Archives. ⟨http://www.iraqnla.org/fp/art/art1.htm⟩ (2006) accessed 17 November 2009.Google Scholar
Eskander, Saad. “Minerva Research Initiative: Searching for the Truth or Denying the Iraqis the Rights to Know the Truth?” Social Science Research Council, The Minerva Controversy. ⟨http://essays.ssrc.org/Minerva/2008/10/29/eskander/⟩ (2008) accessed 11 June 2011.Google Scholar
Faite, Alexandre. “Involvement of Private Contractors in Armed Conflict: Implications under International Humanitarian Law.” ⟨http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/other/pmc-article-310804.htm⟩Google Scholar
Fleck, Dieter, ed. The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2nd ed.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Gerstenblith, Patty. “Protecting Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict: Looking Back, Looking Forward.” Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Summer 2009).Google Scholar
Gravois, John. “Disputed Iraqi Records Find a Home at the Hoover Institution,” Chronicle of Higher Education. ⟨http://chronicle.com/article/Disputed-Iraqi-Records-Findd-a/21469⟩ (1 February 2008) accessed 9 September 2010.Google Scholar
Gravois, John. “A Tug of War for Iraq's Memory,” Chronicle of Higher Education. ⟨http://chronicle.com/article/A-Tug-of-War-for-Iraqs-Memory/4009/⟩ (8 February 2008) accessed 1 October 2010.Google Scholar
Hague Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907, Stat.2277 TS539.Google Scholar
Hague Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907, Annex I (“Hague Regulations”) article 53 stat.2277, TS 539.Google Scholar
Hague Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907, arts. 27, 28, 43, 46, 53, 56.Google Scholar
History News Network. “Fight Breaks Out Among Archivists and Historians About Decision to Turn Over Iraqi Archives to Hoover Institution.” ⟨http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/46897.html⟩ (29 January 2008) accessed 17 November 2009.Google Scholar
Human Rights First. “3 Years after Blackwater Massacre in Iraq, Contractors Still Lack Accountability and Oversight.” ⟨http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2010/09/16/3-years-after-blackwater-massacre-in-iraq-contractors-still-lack-accountability-and-oversight/⟩ (2008) accessed 10 July 2011.Google Scholar
“International Humanitarian Law and Private Military/Security Companies.” International Committee of the Red Cross. ⟨http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/faq/pmsc-faq-150908.htm⟩ (15 September 2008) accessed 3 June 2011.Google Scholar
Keefe, Patrick Radden. “Iraq: America's Private Armies.” New York Review of Books 51, no. 13 ⟨http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2004/aug/12/iraq-americas-private-armies/⟩ (12 August 2004) accessed 11 July 2011.Google Scholar
Kenyon, Peter. “Saddam's Spy Files: Keys to Healing or More Hurting?” Southern California Public Radio. ⟨http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId-127986894⟩ (22 June 2010) accessed 21 May 2011.Google Scholar
Mufti, Hania. Iraq: State of Evidence. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2004.Google Scholar
O'Keefe, Roger. The Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977,” International Committee of the Red Cross. ⟨http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/470?opendocument⟩ (2005) accessed 1 June 2011.Google Scholar
“Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-international Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), entered into force December 7, 1978,” International Committee of the Red Cross. ⟨http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/470?opendocument⟩ (2005) accessed 1 June 2011.Google Scholar
“Protocol for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, The Hague, 14 May 1954.” International Committee of the Red Cross. ⟨http://www.icr.org/ihl.nsf/FULLl/410?/OpenDocument⟩ accessed 19 May 2010.Google Scholar
Remarks Following a Meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and an Exchange with Reporters, 39 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 549, 6 May 2003. Also see Coalition Laws and Transition Arrangements during Occupation of Iraq. The American Journal of International Law Vol. 98, No. 3 (Jul., 2004), pp. 601–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“SAA/ACA Joint Statement on Iraqi Records,” The Society of American Archivists. ⟨http://www.archivists.org/statements/IraqiRecords.asp⟩ (22 April 2008) accessed 9 June 2010.Google Scholar
Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Touchstone, 1959.Google Scholar
Singer, P. W.Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Singer, P. W. “Can't Win With 'Em, Can't Go to War Without 'Em: Private Military Contractors and Counterinsurgency,” Policy Paper Number 4, September 2007, Foreign Policy at Brookings.Google Scholar
Spurr, Jeffrey B.Email from Jeffrey B. Spurr to Bruce P. Montgomery, 21 June 2010, including attachment: “A Report on the Activities of the Iraqi Delegation,” to IraqCrisis Listserv, 19 May 2010.Google Scholar
Spurr, Jeffrey B.Email from Jeffrey B. Spurr to Bruce P. Montgomery. Email from Jeffrey B. Spurr to Bruce P. Montgomery, 21 June 2010, including attachment: “Devastation and Controversy: Consequences of the U.S. Invasion for Iraqi Archives and Archival Documents since 2003.”Google Scholar
Swartz, Nikki. “Iraq Records Spark Controversy.” Information Management Journal 42, no. 5 ⟨http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3937/is_200809/ai_n30992380/⟩ (September/October 2008) accessed 28 May 2010.Google Scholar
Thurlow, Mathew D. “Protecting Cultural Property in Iraq: How American Military Policy Comports with International Law.” Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal 8 (2005) pp. 153–187.Google Scholar
Toman, Juri. The Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Paris: UNESCO, 1996.Google Scholar