Varying views of the Bush regime on looting, compiled by Lori Price

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Rumsfeld: There's nothing wrong with a bit of looting 11 Apr 2003 The United States Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has tonight dismissed reports of mass chaos and lawlessness in Iraq as "exaggerated". "The so-called looting is not as bad as some reports have suggested," he said at a Pentagon briefing. "Yes, people are ransacking hospitals, burning down buildings and fighting each other in the streets, but it's not that bad. Stuff happens."

How and why the US encouraged looting in Iraq By Patrick Martin 15 Apr 2003 "The widespread looting in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities, following the collapse of the Ba’athist regime of President Saddam Hussein, was not merely an incidental byproduct of the US military conquest of Iraq. It was deliberately encouraged and fostered by the Bush administration and the Pentagon for definite political and economic reasons."

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Bush Promises to Restore Order in N.O. 01 Sep 2005 President Bush opened the day at the White House where he expressed unhappiness with the efforts so far to provide food and water to hurricane victims and to stop looting and lawlessness in New Orleans.

New Orleans police ordered to halt looting 31 Aug 2005 Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos. The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans. Looters also chased down a police truck full of food.

CLG