You know Hobby Lobby, the Wal-mart of art supplies and crafty nonesuches that lobbied and won the right to deny their employees contraceptive coverage under the ACA, citing their lofty Xtian objections?
Well, although their Bible doesn’t proscribe contraception it is pretty clear about theft and Hobby Lobby and Steve Green Jr, just got caught with their grubby paws in Iraq’s cookie jar.
“Earlier today, the United States filed a civil complaint to forfeit thousands of cuneiform tablets and clay bullae. As alleged in the complaint, these ancient clay artifacts originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and were smuggled into the United States through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, contrary to federal law. Packages containing the artifacts were shipped to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (“Hobby Lobby”), a nationwide arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and two of Hobby Lobby’s corporate affiliates. The shipping labels on these packages falsely described cuneiform tablets as tile “samples.”
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Seems that in 20o9 Hobby Lobby began aquiringing artifacts for it’s mega Xtian Museum in Washington D.C. They were fully informed on the rules of the road in that business…
“In October 2010, an expert on cultural property law retained by Hobby Lobby warned the company that the acquisition of cultural property likely from Iraq, including cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals, carries a risk that such objects may have been looted from archaeological sites in Iraq. The expert also advised Hobby Lobby to review its collection of antiquities for any objects of Iraqi origin and to verify that their country of origin was properly declared at the time of importation into the United States. The expert warned Hobby Lobby that an improper declaration of country of origin for cultural property could lead to seizure and forfeiture of the artifacts by CBP.
Notwithstanding these warnings, in December 2010, Hobby Lobby executed an agreement to purchase over 5,500 Artifacts, comprised of cuneiform tablets and bricks, clay bullae and cylinder seals, for $1.6 million. The acquisition of the Artifacts was fraught with red flags. For example, Hobby Lobby received conflicting information where the Artifacts had been stored prior to the inspection in the UAE. Further, when the Artifacts were presented for inspection to Hobby Lobby’s president and consultant in July 2010, they were displayed informally. In addition, Hobby Lobby representatives had not met or communicated with the dealer who purportedly owned the Artifacts, nor did they pay him for the Artifacts. Rather, following instructions from another dealer, Hobby Lobby wired payment for the Artifacts to seven personal bank accounts held in the names of other individuals.”
Taking advantage of war, chaos and the suffering of the Iraqi people, the fine Xtians of Hobby Lobby sought to appropriate the priceless cultural heritage of Iraq to re-”tile” the walls of their phony ass museum.
Green should be locked up, but what are the odds that he will be?
Way less than zero.