CNN: ISIS ‘Systematically Looting;’ ‘Selling Antiquities’ on the Black Market

[rush transcript]

“Well, what we know is that going back quite some time, that ISIS as its gained more territory, both here in Iraq and in Syria has not only been taking over these archaeological sites which total about 4,500 between Syria and Iraq. Now, we’ve seen – we’ve all seen these videos that ISIS is posted of them destroying things like the ‘Winged Bull of Nineveh’ dating back to almost 1,000 B.C. But what they have also been doing away from the cameras, Chris, is systematically looting and selling antiquities, that smaller antiquities easily smuggled and selling them on the black market. Now, we understand at this point, according to Iraqi officials, there is even a department within the so-called government of ISIS that issues licenses to individuals, basically giving them free reign to excavate to loot whatever artifacts they can find and they eventually make it on to the international black market for antiquities. Now, just a few weeks ago in Italy, I spoke to an official who’s involved in monitoring the trade in smuggled antiquities. He says much of this or a lot of this – these antiquities ends up in the United States, which, of course, is, he said, the biggest market for stolen antiquities.”