Thieves of Baghdad; One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures

New York: Bloomsbury, 2006. Fifth Printing. Trade paperback. Very good. James Sinclair (Maps and Diagrams). x, 335, [1] pages. Includes Author's Note, Afterword, Notes, Works Cited, Acknowledgments, Glossary, and Index. Color plates, maps, and diagrams follow page 134. All translations from Greek and Latin are by Matthew Bogdanos. Inscribed by the author to General Petraeus, In admiration for your leadership and lifetime of service, Respectfully Matthew Bogdanos. There is courage to celebrate here. It is the courage of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines; of Iraqis and Afghans; of customs agents and archaeologists; of cops and journalists. Only the errors are the author's. The story is theirs. David Howell Petraeus AO, MSC (born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and commander, U.S. Forces - Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010, to July 18, 2011. His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as commanding general, Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008. As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq. Colleagues noted that Petraeus had played an important role as both a combat leader and strategist in the post-9/11 world. Thieves of Baghdad is a riveting account of Colonel Matthew Bogdanos and his team's extraordinary efforts to recover over 5,000 priceless antiquities stolen from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad. A mixture of police procedural, treasure hunt, war-time thriller, and cold-eyed assessment of the international black market in stolen art, Thieves of Baghdad also explores the soul of a truly remarkable man: a soldier, a father, and a passionate, dedicated scholar. Matthew Bogdanos has been an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan since 1988-where New York tabloids call him "pit bull" for his relentless prosecution of criminals such as the 15-year-old "Baby-Faced Butchers" for their 1997 grisly Central Park murder and rappers Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Jamal "Shyne" Barrows for their 1999 shootout. A colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, middleweight boxer, and native New Yorker, he was raised waiting tables in his family's Greek restaurant in lower Manhattan and holds a classics degree from Bucknell University, a law degree and a master's degree in classics from Columbia University, and a master's degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marines in 1980, he served as a Judge Advocate until he left active duty to join the District Attorney's Office, rising to Senior Homicide Trial Counsel in 1996. Recalled to active duty after losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he joined a multi-agency task force in Afghanistan and received a Bronze Star for counterterrorist operations against al-Qaeda. He then served in Iraq and the Horn of Africa as the head of that task force and received a 2005 National Humanities Medal from President George Bush for his work recovering Iraq's priceless treasures. He has returned to the DA's Office where he still boxes for the New York City Police Department Widows & Orphans Charity and continues the hunt for stolen antiques.