Community | December 15, 2008 | 11 comments

Iraqi shoe-throwing reporter becomes the talk of Iraq

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Vierotchka
By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in a supreme insult has suddenly become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.

The little-known Shi'ite reporter, said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by unknown gunmen in 2007.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi remained in detention on Monday, accused by the Iraqi government of a "barbaric act." He would be sent for trial on charges of insulting the Iraqi state, said the prime minister's media advisor, Yasin Majeed.

His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Baghdad's Sadr City, in the southern Shi'ite stronghold of Basra and in the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.

"Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride," his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television.

"I'm sure many Iraqis want to do what Muntazer did. Muntazer used to say all the orphans whose fathers were killed are because of Bush."

Zaidi shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush's head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

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11 comments // Iraqi shoe-throwing reporter becomes the talk of Iraq

  • wendygoft
    • 0
      wendygoft  
    • He is my President and also the President of millions of other Americans who complained from afar without doing anything to stop the current administration that includes ALL of capital hill....I am sure when they bombed The World Trade Center there were people from the middle east in one of those buildings however to make a point Those cowards destroyed thousands of innocence not only affecting the American economy but disrupting the world and they would have killed you too even if you were wearing an i hate bush t shirt and burning the American flag..I wish we werent at war and could sit down with the barbarians and negotiate however how do you sit down with a people that are so willing to destroy their own countrymen, women and children with car bombs and random violence to make their point...if you have a solution please feel free to introduce it to the world and then take action and save us all.

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Talking about accepting responsibility, wendygoft, your monstrous president and his clique have destroyed Iraq, poisoned it forever with thousands of tons of depleted uranium, massacred a million and a quarter Iraqis, destroyed Iraq's infrastructure, pillaged Iraq of its greatest treasures, and you get all het-up when a courageous Iraqi expresses utter contempt for your president? You have all your priorities mixed up, or are a sociopath like your president. It is your president who has shamed your country, not that Iraqi journalist who merely pointed out the truth and treated your president with great mildness compared to what your president deserves.

    • 3 years ago
  • wendygoft
    • 0
      wendygoft  
    • This is ridiculous..i hope he goes to jail..oh and F.Y.I. Bush doesnt know how to fly a fighter jet so he didnt drop bombs on anyone...the United States could have had him impeached and the American people could have insisted on it.. The American Military did as they were told..The lack of respect that Americans have for each other and this dog eat dog and every man for himself mentality was not created by the bush administration...NO AMERICAN PRIDE AND GOOD OLE AMERICAN GREED created this monster its just easier to point fingers than accept responsibility. He shamed my country!! How dare he throw something at MY President! LOCK HIM UP!!

    • 3 years ago
  • Brockie
  • unimatrix0
  • SANMedia
    • 0
      SANMedia  
    • Damn, he missed just by inches!!! Either way, it was just a pair of shoes. Bush threw bombs at innocent people, that's far worse than the shoe-throwing.

    • 3 years ago
  • krush_productions
  • TerryA
    • 0
      TerryA  
    • You never throw a shoe directly at someone. The journalist should have anticipated which way Bush would lean and thrown there.

      Thank God he wasn't part of the Iraqi Army. Maybe he was, and that was part of his problem.

    • 3 years ago
  • themanwithadog
  • PamelaSC
    • 0
      PamelaSC  
    • Of course the Iraqi government "has" to take the stance that this was barbaric. I'll bet it's a completely different story behind the scenes, though....

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
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