In 2003, just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a German archaeological team led by Jörg Fassbender announced a discovery that should have made international headlines. They believed they had located the tomb of Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk, whose epic is one of the oldest written stories in human history.
If true, it would confirm that Gilgamesh was a real historical figure. It would also mean uncovering a burial site described in the text as containing knowledge from before the flood. The implications were staggering.
But the discovery was never fully investigated. Within weeks, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. Archaeological work halted. The site was sealed. And no further information was released.
On April 9, 2003, Baghdad fell. U.S. forces entered the city. And while the world watched the toppling of Saddam's statue, something else was happening in the shadows.
On the night of April 10, before the city had even stabilized, a specialized team entered the National Museum of Iraq. Eyewitness accounts and later investigations describe a rapid, methodical operation. The team used shaped charges to blow open specific storage vaults. They ignored gold artifacts and priceless antiquities. Instead, they took Sumerian cylinder seals, cuneiform tablets, and objects related to the Anunnaki. Among the stolen items was the Sumerian King List, one of the most important historical documents ever discovered.
The operation was fast. Professional. And it targeted specific items, not general plunder.
Why would anyone loot a museum and take only ancient texts and symbolic relics, leaving behind treasures worth millions?
The official narrative blamed looters and chaos. But the evidence suggested something else. This was not random theft. It was retrieval.
Dr. Michael Salla, a professor of international relations at American University, made a series of controversial claims starting in 2004. According to Salla, the invasion of Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction. It was about technology. Specifically, stargate technology discovered beneath the ziggurat at Ur.
Salla's background lends weight to his statements. He is a credentialed academic with expertise in diplomacy and geopolitics, not a fringe conspiracy theorist. Yet his claims are extraordinary. He asserts that the U.S. government, or factions within it, were aware of ancient portal technology in Iraq and moved to secure it before Saddam could activate it.
According to Salla, Saddam had partnered with German engineers to unlock sealed chambers beneath Ur. The chambers were protected by what he described as a "time lock," an ancient mechanism tied to celestial alignments. The year 2003 was significant because the lock was set to open.
Salla further claimed that the artifacts taken from the museum were transported to the United States and integrated into classified programs, including one code-named "Looking Glass," which allegedly involves temporal manipulation and dimensional gateways.
Other whistleblowers emerged. Dan Burisch and Corey Goode, both claiming former military and intelligence backgrounds, supported parts of Salla's narrative. They described programs involving ancient technology recovered from Iraq and other sites, technology that allowed glimpses into alternate timelines or dimensions.
These accounts are difficult to verify. Burisch and Goode's histories are contested. But the core question remains: why did the U.S. prioritize a museum over military targets? Why were specific artifacts taken and never returned? And why, after the fall of Saddam, were archaeological sites in Iraq systematically destroyed by extremist groups like ISIS?
ISIS targeted Sumerian and Akkadian ruins with precision. Sites like Nimrud, Hatra, and Nineveh were bombed or bulldozed. Ancient libraries were burned. Artifacts were pulverized. The destruction was not random. It was systematic, as though erasing evidence.
Who benefits from the destruction of ancient knowledge? And what were they trying to hide?
The invasion of Iraq remains officially justified by the search for WMDs, weapons that were never found. But the looting of the National Museum, the seizure of specific artifacts, and the subsequent destruction of archaeological sites suggest a different motive.
If Salla is correct, the real target was not Saddam's military. It was the knowledge buried beneath Mesopotamia. Knowledge of gates, portals, and technologies that predate recorded history.
Whether that knowledge was recovered, destroyed, or remains hidden is unknown. But the pattern is clear. Someone wanted it. And they were willing to start a war to get it.