The Jersey City native recounts his extraordinary adventures in Thieves of Baghdad (Bloomsbury Publishing, $25.95), written with William Patrick.
Colonel Bogdanos served on the U.S. government’s counter-terrorism team, composed of military and police officials, in search of priceless artifacts looted following the American-led takeover of Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003. Bogdanos spoke about the experience at Don Bosco earlier this year, his first trip back to his alma mater since he graduated in 1974.
“Even many people who are opposed to our policy in Iraq are foursquare in favor of what we’re doing with antiquities,” Bogdanos says. “Today, we stress division among people: red state, blue state, Shia, Sunni. But our civilization can be traced back to Iraq. Recovering antiquities is a way for all of us to understand that there is more that unites us than divides us.”