U.N. Security Council Update on Missing Kuwait National Archives

UPDATE: Here is the formal press announcement from the U.N. Security Council.

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2012/sc10680.doc.htm

The U.N. Security Council met yesterday to consider U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's 33rd Report pursuant to paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999), which relates, in part, to the continuing issue of Kuwait's missing national archives seized by Iraq during the 1990 invasion.

The Secretary-General's latest report again laments that "no substantial progress has been made in the search for the national archive, nor has credible information about its fate or whereabouts emerged," but notes that "Iraq-Kuwait relations have improved" and that "Iraq has demonstrated, by finding other missing Kuwaiti property [referring to the property returns here and here], that its credible and sustained efforts in this regard can bear results."

The report also updates on the activities of Iraq's new high-level committee focused on the missing Kuwaiti archives noting that the committee:

had met on 4 January 2012 and recommended that the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers should request all ministries and other non-ministerial institutions to inform the committee of any properties and files belonging to the Government of Kuwait no later than 15 February 2012.

The report notes, however, that the U.N. "has not received an update on the results of those efforts."

On a recommendation from the Secretary-General, the Security Council extended the mandate of the U.N. High Level Coordinator on the issue, Gennady Tarasov, until the end of 2012 and also again reiterated its earlier call for an "intensification" of Iraq's efforts to find the missing national archives.

Saddam's Document Destruction Order

I previously posted about Saddam's wartime document preservation strategy ("When we are in a war, important documents must have two copies in two different locations. What if this location is bombed or burned?) as well as a wartime document evacuation order ("In preparation for any foreign attack (God forbid) be prepared to disperse documents from headquarters to private residences in various geographic locations").  Thanks to Nate Jones and the National Security Archive we now also have a full document destruction order available on Unredacted in a post called "Declassified Iraqi Memo Points to the Genesis of the Insurgency."

The document, which the National Security Archive obtained via FOIA, is dated Jan. 23, 2003 and indicates that it is from the "Republic of Iraq, Presidential Office, Iraqi Intelligence Service" and is addressed to "All National Offices." It states:

please do what is necessary if, God forbid, the Iraqi Command falls to the Coalition Forces -- the Americans, British and Zionists. To all the associates in your offices, and specifically the departments mentioned above, proceed in accordance with the following instructions:

1- Demolish and burn all offices in the country, especially [those] associated with ours and other departments.

2- Change your residence from time to time.

3- Sabotage electrical power stations.

4- Sabotage water stations

5- Recruit reliable sources and direct them to the mosques.

6- Associate with the Islamic Hawza 'Alemiya in Najaf. [Translator's comment: The Hawza is an Islamic religious teaching institution.]

7- Associate with the national and Islamic groups and parties.

8- Cease all internal and external communications.

9- Purchase stolen weapons from the public.

10- Develop relationships with those returning from abroad.

11- Assassinate the clergy in the mosques. [Translator's comment: Clergy here includes both Imams and orators (guest speakers).]

A couple of points about this document.

The stamps on the document indicate that the U.S. government was treating the document as U.S. Top Secret (it was also marked Iraqi Top Secret) and that it, at least the copy obtained by the National Security Archive, was declassified in 2009.  This is despite the fact that (1) the document was previously published in the London newspaper Al Hayat in July 2003 (the link to the image of the document on MEMRI is dead, but is still available courtesy of the Internet Archive here) and (2) it was also apparently posted by the U.S. government on the "Iraqi Freedom Documents" portal in 2006.  It is unclear whether the U.S. classification of the document would comport with current U.S. doctrine on DOMEX and captured documents which states:

As a general rule, captured and acquired documents and media are considered unclassified unless they originated in the US and/or an allied nation and are marked as classified. Capturing units may classify document and media to protect sources and methods or on-going operations, however, such classification should be kept to the lowest level possible and with minimal use of caveats. Documents that bear foreign classification markings are handled according to US classification standards, regardless of their original foreign classification.

In an earlier article (see pp. 1033-34), I cited the first ordered action in this document (based on the Al Hayat version) - "Demolish and burn all offices in the country" - to highlight the precarious position of government documents on the eve of foreign attack. As the great Ernst Posner wrote, defending nations "have discovered that in their fight against the conqueror the destruction of records may be a weapon as powerful as the dynamiting of railroads and the blowing up of bridges."  At those times it is the attacking forces that often have more of an interest in preserving the documents intact and the greatest danger of destruction may come from the government that created them.

Thanks again to the National Security Archive. I have added the original and translation to the Captured Documents Index under its Harmony number CMPC-2003-016373.

"Gaddafi Archives" Exhibit in London

For anyone in, or visiting, London, from June 21-29 at the Slade Research Centre there will be an exhibit called "The Gaddafi Archives - Libya before the Arab Spring" as part of the London Festival of Photography.  The description states (with my emphasis at the end):

Through carefully collated photographs, documents, artefacts and videos this exhibition will shed light on the recent history of Libya, starting with the reign of King Idris and spanning the regime of Colonel Gaddafi. The exhibition will highlight photography’s role in recording and documenting an important period in Libya’s history that we can only now begin to truly understand. Pictures and documents from state intelligence buildings and destroyed Gaddafi residences that were found by Human Rights Watch's emergencies director Peter Bouckaert, and recorded and photographed at the sites, will be presented. All original materials were left where they were found after being photographed or have been since been returned to the National Transition Council in Libya.

Coverage by the Guardian here (thanks rainbyte).  Previous coverage of seized documents from Libya is here, here, here, and here.

Iraqi Jewish Archives Dispute Affecting U.S. Archaeological Teams in Iraq?

AK News is reporting (thanks Chuck Jones) that the "Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has stopped dealing with US archeology and exploration teams because the US administration has failed to fulfill its promises to return Iraqi antiquities that were transported to the US by the US forces in 2003."  Among the "historic remains" cited is:

a bulk of Jewish archives that were found in the basement of Iraqi intelligence services in Baghdad. The Iraqi officials have on several occasions requested from the US authorities to return the Jewish archives and other antiquities. Iraqi officials accuse the US of not intending to return those archives and other historic remains as they have not responded to the Iraqi requests.

The article adds a significant allegation (not unlike another recent allegation here) that the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has:

information that indicates the archives ha[ve] been moved to Israel and that Israel describes the archives as Jewish heritage. "But that is Iraqi heritage. Therefore we have decided to cut our relations with the US regarding archeology. We have now stopped dealing with the US exploration teams in Thiqar and Duhok provinces."

U.S. Gov't Wants More Time to Consider Sanctions Against Russia Over Jewish Archives

A quick follow up on Judge Lamberth's recent invitation to the U.S. Government to provide its views regarding possible contempt sanctions against the Russian Federation, the Russian State Library, and the Russian State Military Archives for failing to surrender a Jewish library and archives in the Chabad v. Russian Federation case (for full background see here and here).  On Friday the U.S. government filed a two-page "status report" which asked for additional time until August 10, 2012 to respond noting:

The plaintiff's motion raises significant issues that require further consideration by the Executive Branch before a final decision can be made with regard to the response by the United States to the Court's order. The United States is actively engaged in its deliberations with respect to those issues. The United States expects to complete its deliberations by August 10, 2012, and intends to advise the Court of its position by that date. The United States respectfully requests that any decision addressing plaintiff's motion be deferred until it has completed its deliberations. The United States appreciates the Court's invitation and its consideration in this matter.