American Council For Cultural Policy - American Invasion of Iraq and Activities of ACCP

American Invasion of Iraq and Activities of ACCP

The council appeared in the forefront of cultural heritage protection debates during the American 2003 invasion of Iraq. A 2003 article in Science discusses Ashton and Pearlstein's advocacy for "liberalization" in the issuance of foreign-dig permits in Iraq and reconsideration of Iraqi cultural heritage laws to allow “some objects certified for export." On ACCP's activities concerning Iraqi cultural heritage, Zainab Bahrani’s article "Looting and Conquest" takes a critical counter-position. Bahrani wrote that “William Pearlstein, of the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), an organization that met with the White House and the Pentagon right before the war and right after the looting, is appealing for the cultural theft to continue by other means, calling Iraq's antiquities-preservation laws "retentionist," and saying he "hoped that Iraq would grant more excavation permits and consider export permits for redundant objects." She adds that such “opportunism opens the door to more cultural and historical plunder, a base scramble much like the parceling off of sites and antiquities that occurred in the nineteenth century.”