Syria: Media Disinformation

Cultural Property Observer, 'Renewed Media Disinformation Campaign Underway', Tuesday, February 17, 2015. The Committee on Cultural Policy has called attention to a renewed media disinformation campaign  on the fate of Syrian antiquities. Peter Tompa supposes that this

will be used to help justify the reintroduction of HR 5703, a flawed piece of legislation that would benefit the Assad regime and the archaeological lobby far more than it would "protect" Syrian cultural patrimony. No doubt any bill that calls for the repatriation of artifacts back to a dicataorship that purposefully destroys them, creates a new White House bureaucracy devoted to furthering the interests of a small group of connected insiders, and provides this same group with a funding source with no strings attached will heavily rely on the inflamatory claim that Western collectors support terrorism to avoid the hard questions about any such legislation that decision makers should ask.