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 [Iraq] war and right after the looting [of the National Museum of Iraq], 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."
Bahrani wrote that William Pearlstein, from the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), a group that met with the White House and Pentagon before and after the Iraq war, is advocating for continued cultural theft by other means. He criticizes Iraq's antiquities preservation laws as "retentionist" and suggests they should grant more excavation permits and consider export permits for redundant objects.