Customer Reviews

Thieves of Baghdad

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book to be absolutely riveting. I took it on a business trip, and couldn't put it down! This book gives you and up close and detailed look at the team assembled to investigate and recover antiquities stolen from the museum in Baghdad. I found it refreshing to read an account written by the head of the team, who could capably give an accurate account. Too often, authors who "weren't there" write books based solely upon the accounts of others. That certainly isn't the case here. You won't be disappointed!

Colonel Bogdanos is a warrior, a police officer and a historian all in one. He is the real life incarnation of Jack Ryan. "The Thieves of Baghdad" reads like a novel, however, it gives us a glimpse of the life of a true hero. If you want to know how it felt to be there, read this book. Bogdanos is what I call "Good People".
Ed d'Alessandro
NYPD Emergency Service Unit, Retired

truth is stranger that fiction, is also more compelling! This isn't something that might happen it did. All the usual catch frases apply a page turner, couldn't put it down apply, but the fact is that this is real it is history that is unfolding even now and it is our history in the making. It's not history we studied in books but saw on the news in a depth and reality that a 3 minute news story can't hope to reach

Through all the foggy media hyperbole surrounding the Iraq war, one reasonable question emerges with persistent frequency: what price are we paying for being there, and is the cost worth it? The multitude of offered answers come tainted in full, depending on one's take on internal Iraqi strife, regional politics, and US motivations in the war on terror. But there's one fact, almost always forgotten in the morass of ink and flashbulbs, that should serve to define this conflict and underline the stakes for all of us. The Euphrates of present-day discord is also the cradle of our very civlization. It's the bigger questions about the future of that civilization that are playing out in Iraq. The story of the looting of the Iraq National Museum, and the subsequent recovery efforts by collaborative teams of Americans and Iraqis, is a sobering reminder of how far humanity has come, the richness of our common heritage, and how much we risk losing by succumbing to the tyranny of violence.


Matthew Bogdanos, the book's author and the investigation's head man, swooped in early with a dedicated squad of soldiers, scholars and investigators, and began to assess the scene like the dispassonate former Manhattan Assistant DA that he was. But Bogdanos brought more than a detective's skill to this operation. A hardscrabble kid from NY, Bogdanos' remarkable journey from the streets of working class Manhattan to the violated corridors of the Iraq Museum included formal education at Bucknell, Columbia, and the Marines, and the literal schooling of hard knocks in the boxing ring. Using books to escape his tortured childhood, he harnessed his native intelligence and street smarts to earn degrees in Law and Fine Arts, develop and hone a strong understanding of military history and strategy, and nurture of love of wisdom and philosophy that transcended continents and cultures. The right man at the right time, he flew in to Baghdad like an aesthetically attuned superhero to right one of the war's most egregious wrongs.

The Iraq Museum was home to some of the world's most priceless antiquities, including the Sacred Vase of Warka and the helmet of King Meskalamdug among countless others. These objects constitute an effective bridge over 30 centuries, and speak to us today about the human craving for beauty, God, and redemption. Sometime during the last days of the war some shadowy groups and individuals breached the Iraq museum's edifice and made off with some 15,000 of these irreplaceable objects.

Bogdanos' recounting of the hunt for Iraq's treasure takes the reader through a multitude of stories, about individuals both noble and venal, governments both ruthless and incompetent, and mysteries that seem destined never to be solved. There's little better way to get a sense of Iraq's internal politics, and the US's tortured role in them, than through the prism of Bodganos' investigation. Through his documentation we see the power of the press to distort, of the UN to patronize, and of the art community to resort to greed and corruption to move antiquities into the shadowy underworld of artifact barter.

Through it all Bogdanos retains his remarkable confidence in all things human, and most of all in himself and his ability to right this great wrong. He tells his tale well, and noone can doubt that his heart is in the right place. But it takes a big ego to live Matthew Bogdanos' life, and while that ego was put to good use in this mission, it sometimes grates on the nerves of the reader who's trying to distill all mountains of useful information the book offers. But in the end he makes us feel that nothing is impossible, that there is magic in the human soul, and that the treasures we covet, like those of the leprechaun at the end of the rainbow, are the most elusive, and the ones that tell us most about ourselves.

This is an interesting account of how Bogdanos, a Marine Reservist working as a district attorney/prosecutor in New York, enters active duty with the Marines and goes to Iraq. Along the way we hear of his personal experience on 9/11 as he goes to work and then tries to re-unite with his wife and young children on that harrowing day, and later helps with the recovery effort.

Bogdanos weaves narratives from ancient history along with modern-day combat details and tactical scenes from his personal experience during the war. He combines military expertise with his personal background as a prosecutor and criminal investigator, and his college studies in antiquities and ancient culture. As such he is uniquely qualified to conduct these investigations, and help his compatriots appreciate the significance of "some rocks" that they are trying to recover.

Bogdanos takes personal initiative to go to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and investigate the "looting." In the process we get to learn about the museum and its staff, along with detailed schematics of the facility. Bodganos' investigation has elements of a criminal investigation and an archealogical reconstruction, as they search the museum along with the many-nuanced workplace culture of the Iraqi staff, some of whom may have been facilitating the "looting" or "hiding things for safekeeping" depending on who you believe.

In the end, Bogdanos records the numbers on what was found to be missing and what was recovered, revealing that initial media reports were wildly inaccurate when they gave the impression that the museum was cleaned out. In fact, little was taken, and much recovered (although a few important items are still missing). Bogdanos leaves open the likelihood that well-heeled collectors of stolen antiquities were having their minions fulfill their "shopping lists" and he describes how the international criminal justice community can continue to interdict these efforts. From the physical evidence found in the museum, he reconstructs a time line of what was happening during the looting and the unsolved mysteries that remain.

Bogdanos does seem to toot his own horn a bit overmuch, but then he's a proud Marine who's served his country with zeal.

Matthew Bogdanos' Thieves of Baghdad is an interesting novel of the robbings of museums in Iraq. His story keeps the reader interested in seeing the other side of the war in Iraq, that being what happened to the history of Iraq. Bogdanos takes us in to the museums and shows us what happened with looters, professional thieves and a misguided media trying to report what had happened.

When you think of war, you rarely think of robberies as being able to tell part of the story. Bogdanos makes a compelling argument of the importance of a country's history and artifacts in helping a country rebuild its identity. He takes in to these museums as they try and retrace what happened and what was stolen (often hard to tell due to poor record keeping) and who would have stolen it. Though normal citizens often did some of the stealing, Bogdanos shows how he was able to determine that many of these robberies were either inside jobs or by professional thieves.

He tells of stories of how the media was quick to jump on stories with grossly inaccurate numbers of some of the robberies (media reported over 100K artifacts stolen when that numbers was grossly inflated by tens of thousands) due to incompetence or another agenda. He tells of stories of mistrust between museum bureaucrats and the US marines that were trying to help them get their artifacts back. Compelling stuff.

The story though often gets bogged down by Bodanos and his need to 'boast.' He makes it clear throughout that he is telling the story of the marines and the good work that they did and that this was not a story about himself, but disproves that argument by his countless references to how much people appreciated him and his commitment to serve his country and risk his life to help the Iraq community. There are only so many times that we can read how he extended his servive, re-enlisted and was the only American that several of the Iraq museum bigwigs would talk to.

Overall though, it was a fine effort and an interesting story that I knew very little bit about.

What a great read! It reads like a first hand report and hence you feel as if you are there. Anyone who has an interest in that part of the world, and all that is going on there, should read it. Powerful and enlightening.

Matthew Bogdanos' story of the lost antiquities of the Bahgdad Museum is a fascinating and informative account of his experiences with an interagency counterterrorism unit following 9/11. However, its not just about Bahgdad, as he tells us about the challenges he faces growing up in downtown New York, his roots in Greek and Middle Eastern classics, etc. In fact, despite the extraordinary depth of his knowledge of classic literature, arts, and history, there is a certain air of self-promotion throughout the book that the reader just can't overlook. Nonetheless, I found Bogdanos' writing to be sophisticated and interesting and I felt that I finished his book with a better understanding of U.S. efforts to help the Iraqi people help themselves (despite the efforts of their fellow Iraqi's to sell their own heritage to the highest bidders). The beautiful photos add great depth to Bogdanos' account and spark the reader's interest in the history and art of the region. Enjoy this highly unusual account of one man's war time experiences.

My brother was Col. Bogdanos right hand man featured in this book, Senior Master Sergeant Roberto Pineiro. I remember Bobby emailing me when he was there, but not giving me any details since his mission was classified at the time. I can truthfully tell you that this is an accurate story.

Many war stories are written by some guy in a Malibu beach house who grew up watching too much TV. Col. Bogdanos has given us the spellbinding true story of what life was like in Baghdad during that phase of the war. I can't wait for the movie. This is a great book.

Thieves of Bagdad is a rich and fascinating account of 40+ yrs of life experiences gained in NYC and from around the globe.
For me the most fascinating aspect of the book is Matthew Bogdanos's strive & total commitment not to get seduced by shallow realities but to get to the often evasive truths.When, at times, his findings contradict the mighty "pen" holders and the well heeled & well connected, he does NOT hold back!
It is to his credit that he tells his story without rancor, which in today's world of self serving spin is quite a remarkable accomplishment.
The book is an inspiration for us all. Not only in content & style, but in the promise that he will donate the royalties of his book to the Iraq Museum.
9 STARS!
Christine Hess