BAGHDAD, Dec. 17, 2008
Iraq Gov't Divided Over Jailed Shoe Tosser
Lawmakers Loyal To Al-Sadr Demand Bush Protester's Freedom While Parliament Speaker Threatens To Resign
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Iraqis hold up a print depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a goal keeper trying to catch flying shoes and a print showing Iraqi journalist al-Zaidi throwing a shoe at President Bush during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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A man throws a shoe at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Baghdad. (AP Photo)
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A shoe is raised during a protest against the U.S. President's visit in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday. Dec. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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This undated photo shows Al-Baghdadiya television correspondent Muntadar al-Zeidi, who threw both of his shoes at President Bush during a news conference in Baghdad, Dec. 14, 2008. (CBS)
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Play CBS Video Video Shoe-Hurling Journalist Jailed An angry Iraqi journalist hurled a shoe at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad's Green Zone. Now the journalist is in jail while thousands demonstrate for his release. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
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Video Man Throws Shoes At Bush "CBS News RAW:" At a press conference in Baghdad with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Bush got a reminder of the fervent opposition to his policies when a man threw two shoes at his head.
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Video Bush's Unwelcomed Surprise President Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq at a press conference in Baghdad in what is most likely his last trip to Iraq. Sheila MacVicar has more on how the event took a bizarre turn.
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Photo Essay Bush's Final Trip To Iraq The president made a surprise visit (his last) to Baghdad.
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Interactive Iraq: 5 Years At War Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, had been expected to appear Wednesday before an investigative judge at Iraq's main court as a first step in a complex legal process that could end in a criminal trial.
Instead, the judge visited him in his jail cell and the family was told to return to the court in eight days, according to the journalist's brother, Dhargham al-Zeidi.
"That means my brother was severely beaten and they fear that his appearance could trigger anger at the court," he said.
However, Iraqi officials and another brother have denied that the journalist suffered severe injuries after he was wrestled to the floor when he hurled one shoe and then the other from close range at Bush during a news conference Sunday in Baghdad. Bush deftly ducked out of the way both times.
Al-Zeidi could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader. When he threw the shoes, he shouted at Bush in Arabic, "This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
His act of defiance won the obscure television reporter hero status in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world, much of which holds Bush personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis since the invasion.
In Pakistan, demonstrators held a candlelight vigil outside the U.S. Consulate in Lahore on Wednesday, carrying photographs of al-Zeidi and hand-painted signs saying things like "Hush, Hush Bush. We Hate You." And on a road in Karachi, a man painted "10" inside a large outline of a foot, with an arrow pointing to "BUSH" - a reference to Bush's joke about the shoe's size.
At a small rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, the head of a civil servant union displayed a pair of shoes he said he intends to send to al-Zeidi as a show of support.
In Iraq, followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as well as other Shiite and Sunni groups have staged demonstrations for the last three days demanding al-Zeidi's release.
The Sadrists particularly hope to exploit public sympathy for the reporter to regain political momentum they lost after their failure to stop the U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which parliament approved last month. The deal allows U.S. troops to remain in Iraq until 2012.
On Wednesday, al-Sadr's supporters in parliament interrupted a session in which lawmakers were to review a resolution calling for all non-U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of June.
Several Sadrist lawmakers interrupted, demanding that the session address al-Zeidi's case and allegations that he had been beaten in custody. A noisy argument broke out after other lawmakers shouted that the case was a matter for the courts, according to Wisam al-Zubaidi, an adviser to Khalid al-Attiyah, parliament's deputy speaker.
With legislators screaming at one another, speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, shouted: "There is no honor in leading this parliament and I announce my resignation."
Al-Mashhadani, who has not taken a public position on al-Zeidi, has a history of eccentric behavior and it was unclear whether the resignation was serious. Two years ago, the Shiite bloc ousted al-Mashhadani after a series of outbursts, but his fellow Sunnis forced his reinstatement.
An official in the speaker's office confirmed al-Mashhadani's announcement but said he was uncertain whether he meant what he said. The official said the speaker may have been made the remark because he was upset. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Even if the speaker follows through, his departure would not effect the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The prime minister was said to have been furious and personally humiliated by the shoe-throwing incident, considering it a breach of Arab rules of hospitality.
In Washington, deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Wednesday the decision about what to do with al-Zeidi is up to the Iraqis.
"Iraq is a democracy, these types of things happen in a democracy," Wood said. "That situation is going to have to work itself through the Iraqi judicial process. It's an Iraqi matter, so it should be left for the Iraqis to deal with."
Nevertheless, the outburst in parliament as well as street demonstrations reflect the passions stirred up by the incident across Iraq, where many people harbor conflicting views of the U.S. presence.
Iraqis are supposed to vote in a referendum next summer about whether to accept the U.S.-Iraq security deal, and the Sadrists hope to use the al-Zeidi case in their campaign against the agreement. The Sadrists want the Americans to leave immediately and without conditions.
Many Iraqis cheered the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein and remain apprehensive about whether Iraq's squabbling politicians can hold the country together after the Americans leave.
But most Iraqis are also fed up with more than five years of what they consider foreign military occupation and the violence - which has been reduced but has not ended.
Clearly, though, al-Zeidi's action, which has been aired repeatedly on Arab satellite television stations, struck a nationalist chord among many Iraqis, who long to take full control of their country. The images were cathartic for many in the Middle East, who have for years felt their own leaders kowtow to the American president.
Thousands have taken to the streets in the days since al-Zeidi's arrest, heralding his actions and calling for his release.
About 1,500 people demonstrated Wednesday in the Baghdad Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah to demand the reporter's release. Al-Zeidi was kidnapped in the same neighborhood last year and was freed unharmed a few days later.
"This is a natural reaction to the American acts of tyranny and occupation in Iraq," said demonstrator Khalil al-Obeidi.
Protesters carried banners denouncing al-Zeidi's arrest, news photos of his lunging forward toward Bush and a cartoon of al-Maliki as a soccer goal keeper trying to catch flying shoes.
In other developments:
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 71 CommentsShoes with Historical Value need to be in the George W. Bush Library or sold on E Bay for $$$$$.
He must have liked him a lot more than Bush.
Posted by Grandesign at 02:44 AM : Dec 18, 2008
I think you miss then entire problem here. The Shoe was thrown at a man who has LIED, deceived and abused an entire people of TWO countries. The dispute is about the treatment of the person who launched the disagreement. These people NEVER asked us to come into their country and start telling them how to govern themselves, we did that on our own. They were grateful for the overthrow of Saddam and IF we had left them to their own methods of coming to a conclusion on governing themselves we''d be viewed in a much different light. The problem then as now is the same. The Reich in this nation think they are better than or superior to all others. The shoe simply put an end to any opinion that Bush is liked or admired in that or any other country on this Planet.
Ya gotta admit, the man has a very valid point.
The Iraqi people are not a happy people. They are the atypical welfare people who want everything given to them. And once we Americans stop supporting them, they are going to want what we have. A democracy cannot be sustained without an educated electorate--or else it just becomes a popularity contest with religious overtones. I don''t know what hope there is for them to ever become autonomous as a country. Their parliment can become completely unraveled at the throwing of a shoe.
Proverbs 6:16-19
16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Posted by jerr11 at 12:00 AM : Dec 18, 2008
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Pl 1st shed 1 tear for what your ancestors did to native Americans in US & S.America ...
those acts must be very holy & pious eh?....
see whose hands the bloods are on now?...
pl contemplate the consequences of those deeds ...before thou cast 1st stone if must
Proverbs 6:16-19
16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
And I say to ye, that when the day of judgement comes, He will smite them down with His Mighty Sword.
Those that would bear false witness and kill innocent men and women for profit.
Posted by LordSunTzu at 11:39 PM : Dec 17, 2008
Whenever you start talking about Muslim terrorists, I''m wondering what''s the weather like in Tel Aviv.
Hey buddy, we''ve bankrupted the country and sacrificed 4200 Americans for you.
Is that enough?
You want us to fight Iran for you?
Why don''t you nuke them yourselves?
You got them bombs.
Posted by LordSunTzu at 11:37 PM : Dec 17, 2008
We all know what we''re fighting for - Halliburton''s bottomline.
Billions of no-bid contracts.
War is great for business!
playing with religion is a v dangerous thing as we have seen....a stronger force will always come into the picture & destroy the injustices....the forefathers & followers of faith of shoethrower killed & looted zillions of innocents in the name of religion ..let us mourn for them 1st...let us not be blinded by the sympathies we have for that one religion...Bush played his part in that time frame in history...nothing to be sentimental about...let these religious followers who crop up in several countries expressing solidarity know how it felt like what they did to others
Very well said! I''ll never understand why we let that ape-child play with matches!
Proverbs 6:17
17 A proud look, (the Decider) a lying tongue (935 Lies), and hands that shed innocent blood (4200 Dead Americans).
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