Argot Navis

I came across this piece by John Curtis today (via(via)) about the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and many archaeological sites in Iraq. It's an interesting, and rather sad, read, but this part struck me as particularly crazy:

'Suddenly, without warning, we were overtaken at high speed by a powerful Nissan saloon car and forced to stop. In the Nissan were four men bristling with weapons. They pulled our driver out of the car, took him to the other vehicle, and two of the robbers climbed into our car.

Both vehicles were then driven off the road, for about a mile into the scrub. The men roughly searched all our pockets and bags, took our money and passports. They then asked a few questions, and on learning that we were archeologists they demanded to know if we had any “antikas”. Of course we didn't, but they took my bag anyway so that they could check later at their leisure. They then pushed us back into our car, and I had the temerity to ask if I could have my passport back. Rather surprisingly in retrospect, the leader threw it into the car and they drove off. It was fortunate for us that this incident happened before insurgents started to kidnap foreigners.'

Yikes. I really don't know if I would have been brave enough to ask them to return my passport. I'm thinking probably not. I will say, though, that one of my career goals is to not be robbed at gunpoint. Cross your fingers for me.