achinery away.
Dr. Araji said his account was based largely on observations by government employees and officials who either worked at the sites or lived near them.
“They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites,” Dr. Araji said. “They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want. This was sophisticated looting.” […]
The peak of the organized looting, Dr. Araji estimates, occurred in four weeks from mid-April to mid-May of 2003 as teams with flatbed trucks and other heavy equipment moved systematically from site to site. That operation was followed by rounds of less discriminating thievery.
“The first wave came for the machines,” Dr. Araji said. “The second wave, cables and cranes. The third wave came for the bricks.”
Hajim M. al-Hasani, the minister of industry, referred questions about looting to Dr. Araji, who commented during a lengthy interview conducted in English in his office on Wednesday and a brief phone interview on Friday.
Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.
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