Jan 31, 10:56 AM EST
Iraq sculpture honoring Bush shoe-thrower removed
BAGHDAD (AP) -- The director of an Iraqi orphanage says a sculpture honoring an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush has been removed.
Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias.
She says the sofa-sized statue of a shoe was taken down on Saturday after being unveiled on Thursday.
Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes during a Dec. 14 news conference in Baghdad. Throwing shoes at someone is a sign of extreme contempt in Arab culture
Iraqi: Bush's 'icy smile' provoked shoe attack
by Trenton Daniel - Feb. 20, 2009 12:00 AM
McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD - When Iraqi journalist Muntathar al-Zaidi took the stand Thursday, he said that he hadn't planned to hurl his shoes at President George W. Bush, but the sight of the smirking leader at a Baghdad news conference got the best of him.
"He had an icy smile with no blood or spirit," Zaidi said. "At that moment, I only saw Bush, and the whole world turned black. I was feeling the blood of innocent people moving under his feet."
Zaidi's testimony Thursday marked the opening day of the high-profile trial. He's accused of assaulting a foreign head of state on an official visit when Bush made his widely televised farewell trip to Baghdad on Dec. 14.
Conviction could lock up Zaidi for 15 years.
It was the first time that Zaidi had appeared in public since Iraqi security agents arrested him after he threw his shoes at Bush, narrowly missing him, and called him a dog, an insult in the Arab world.
Judge Abdul Ameer Hassan al-Rubaie adjourned the trial until March 12 to ask the Cabinet whether Bush's presence qualified as an official visit.
Defense attorney Dhiyaa al-Saadi had filed an earlier appeal, seeking to drop the charges to "insulting a foreign leader," which would result in a prison term of two years and a fine, but the court denied the request.
Saadi and Zaidi's family charge that the journalist has been beaten while in custody.
The trial is certain to spotlight the strength and independence of Iraq's public institutions - in this case, the judiciary - as the U.S.-led occupation cedes authority to Iraqis and Washington moves to withdraw its troops by the end of 2011.
The case is also likely to draw further attention because some Iraqis suspect that Zaidi may have been coerced or paid to throw the shoes.
Since the December news conference, many Iraqis have hailed Zaidi a hero. An artist built a monument in his honor and lawyers throughout the Arab world volunteered to represent him.
Others, however, think that the journalist insulted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, because Bush was his guest. Maliki's office called the incident barbaric.
On Thursday, the crowd in the courtroom in Baghdad's Central Criminal Court swelled as more than 100 people showed up, including Zaidi's siblings, cousins and friends, who packed the first two rows. Some lawyers from Zaidi's 25-member defense team huddled at his side.
Iraqi politicians and Western and Iraqi reporters, as well as a couple of observers from the U.S. Embassy, also helped fill the room.
Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush jailed for 3 years
Associated Press
8:47 AM PDT, March 12, 2009
BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then- President George W. Bush was convicted today of assaulting a foreign leader and sentenced to three years in prison, provoking outrage among many Iraqis who consider him a hero.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi's bold act in December electrified many across the Middle East who saw it as a fitting protest against a president widely reviled for his policies in the region, including the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
A poll released today showed that an overwhelming majority of Iraqis surveyed considered al-Zeidi a hero.
The 30-year-old journalist pleaded not guilty to the assault charge, telling the three-judge panel that "what I did was a natural response to the occupation."
Reporters and family members were then ordered out of the courtroom for the verdict, which was relayed to them by defense attorneys and a court official. Defense lawyers said al-Zeidi shouted "long live Iraq" when the sentence was imposed.
Some of al-Zeidi's relatives collapsed after the ruling was issued and had to be helped out of the courthouse. Others were forcibly removed by guards after shouting "down with Bush" and "long live Iraq."
"This judiciary is not just," al-Zeidi's brother, Dargham, said tearfully after the verdict was announced.
Al-Zeidi received the minimum sentence for the assault charge but could appeal the conviction, said court spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar. He could have received up to 15 years in prison for hurling his shoes at Bush during a Dec. 14 news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Defense lawyers said the judge showed leniency because of al-Zeidi's age and clean record. But they had hoped for an even lighter sentence, arguing the journalist's actions constituted an insult rather than an assault.
"The sentence was unexpectedly harsh," said Yehya al-Eitabi, one of some two dozen defense lawyers who attended Thursday's hearing. He said they would appeal the verdict.
Many Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad agreed.
"Al-Zeidi should have been honored and not sent to prison," said Salam Omar, who owns a mobile phone shop in eastern Baghdad.
Nassir al-Saadi, a Shiite lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the verdict was too harsh.
"Al-Zeidi was expressing his point of view about Bush in a democratic way. The court should have adopted a more humane approach and released him," he said.
But Serwan Gharaib, a 37-year-old journalist in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said al-Zeidi had violated journalistic ethics by exploiting his access to Bush.
"I may understand the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the occupation, but I do not understand the bizarre method of protest conducted by al-Zeidi," he said.
An ABC News/BBC/NHK poll released Thursday found that 62 percent of Iraqis surveyed considered al-Zeidi a hero and only 24 percent considered him a criminal.
Among Sunni Arabs, support for the young Shiite reporter was highest -- 84 percent, according to ABC. Support for him was lowest among the Kurds at 38 percent, ABC said.
ABC said the findings were based on 2,228 face-to-face interviews with a random national sample of Iraqis conducted Feb. 17-25. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The full survey will be released Monday ahead of the sixth anniversary of the war, ABC said.
The journalist has been in Iraqi custody since the shoe incident. Bush quickly ducked to avoid being hit and was not injured. Al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by guards and dragged away.
During Thursday's proceedings, al-Zeidi, wearing a beige suit over a brown shirt and brown leather shoes, walked swiftly to the wooden dock where defendants are kept and greeted the panel of three judges with a nod and a wave.
Presiding Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie asked al-Zeidi to enter a plea.
"I am innocent," he replied.
The proceedings took place under heavy guard with scores of armed policemen inside the courtroom and the Iraqi soldiers who escorted al-Zeidi waiting outside.
The trial began on Feb. 19 but was adjourned until Thursday as the judges weighed a defense argument that the current charge is not applicable because Bush was not in Baghdad on an official visit, having arrived unannounced and without an invitation.
Al-Rubaie read a response from the prime minister's office insisting it was an official visit.
Chief defense attorney Dhia al-Saadi then demanded that the charge be dismissed, saying his client's action "was an expression of freedom and does not constitute a crime."
He echoed al-Zeidi's testimony at the previous hearing, saying his client had been provoked by anger over Bush's claims of success in a war that has devastated his country.
"It was an act of throwing a shoe and not a rocket. It was meant as an insult to the occupation," the lawyer said.
The judge then turned to the defendant and asked whether he had anything to add.
"I have great faith in the Iraqi judiciary. It is a judiciary that is both just and has integrity," al-Zeidi responded.
Many people in the region -- angry over the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq -- have embraced al-Zeidi. They have staged large street rallies calling for his release, and one Iraqi man erected a sofa-sized sculpture of a shoe in his honor that the Iraqi government later ordered removed.
When al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush, he shouted in Arabic: "This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
Al-Maliki was deeply embarrassed by the action against an American president who had stood by him when some Arab leaders were quietly urging the U.S. to oust him.
A shoe and a sign reading, 'Go out USA', is placed on a pole in Sadr City as Iraqis protest President Bush's farewell visit and the arrest of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the president during a news conference in Baghdad. Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo, demanded the release of its correspondent, Muntather Zaidi.
December 15, 2008
Iraqi clerics call for shoe thrower's release
Mar. 13, 2009 06:12 AM
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Shiite clerics on Friday called for the release of the Iraqi journalist sentenced to three years in prison for throwing his shoes at George W. Bush.
Sheik Suhail al-Iqabi, a follower of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the sentence against Muntadhar al-Zeidi is "a verdict against the Iraqi people who refuse the American occupation" of Iraq.
Efforts to release detained Sadrists and others who have opposed the American presence in the country also should be expedited, al-Iqabi said in his sermon in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. Al-Zeidi's brazen act during a December news conference by then-President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, where the former U.S. president is reviled for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
On Thursday, a court sentenced him to three years in prison on an assault conviction. Al-Zeidi had pleaded innocent and said his action was prompted by anger over Bush's claims of victory in a war that has devastated his country.
The speed of the trial - which took two relatively brief hearings - was likely to feed widespread suspicion among Iraqis that al-Maliki's U.S.-backed government orchestrated the process, although defense lawyers said they had no evidence of interference.
Another Shiite cleric in the Sadrist stronghold of Kufa also condemned the prison sentence.
"We just wonder on what law the judge has based his sentence. Was this verdict taken to satisfy their masters?" Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammadawi said during a sermon. "Why do you not try the Americans who are killing the Iraqi people in cold blood?"
The reporter's detention sparked mass protests in the Arab world and copycat protests elsewhere. But since December, demonstrations on al-Zeidi's behalf have drawn few participants.
Worshippers chanted slogans demanding the release of all detainees and burned American flags after Friday prayers in Sadr City in what has become a weekly protest.
Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, meanwhile, expressed concern about an uptick in violence after a deadly week in which Baghdad saw two of the deadliest attacks in months. The suicide bombings on Sunday and Tuesday killed a total of more than 60 people.
"The attacks that happened over the past few days represent a grave deterioration in the security situation and this issue should be reviewed," he said in a statement issued by the presidential council.
He said the three-member council led by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, would ask Iraq's prime minister and the general commander of armed forces to summon senior security officials to find out how the attacks could have happened and to make sure they won't be repeated.
In violence reported by Iraqi police on Friday, a bomb exploded in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing a woman and wounding a boy.
A roadside bomb also struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, wounding four officers.
Amnesty International, meanwhile, called on the Iraqi government to stop the execution of 128 prisoners on death row, saying the country's judicial system is ill-equipped to provide a fair trial.
The international rights organization said the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council had informed it that authorities were planning to carry out the death sentences in batches of 20 per week.
At least 34 of 285 people sentenced to death were executed last year, while at least 33 of 199 people sentenced to death were executed in 2007 and 65 people were put to death in 2006, according to the group. [ Hmmm.... Iraq looks like a clone of George W. Bush's home state of Texas which executes more people in the USA then any other state! Bet George W. Hitler played a major role in causing that to happen! We all know George W. Bush loves to kill people he thinks are criminals. ]
"Iraq's creaking judicial system is simply unable to guarantee fair trials in ordinary criminal cases, and even less so in capital cases, with the result, we fear, that numerous people have gone to their death after unfair trials," said Amnesty's regional director, Malcolm Smart.
Canadian protesters throw shoes at Bush effigy
Bush says it's 'essential' to help Obama
Posted 3/18/2009 7:22 AM ET
By Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writer
CALGARY, Alberta — Former President George W. Bush, making his first public speech since leaving office in January, says he wants Barack Obama to succeed and that it's "essential" to support the new leader. Bush declined to critique the Obama administration in Tuesday's speech, saying the new president has enough critics and that he "deserves my silence."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Obama's decisions threatened America's safety. Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has said he hoped Obama would fail.
"I love my country a lot more than I love politics," Bush said. "I think it is essential that he be helped in office."
Bush also said he plans to write a book that will ask people to consider what they would do if they had to protect the United States as president. "It's going to be (about) the 12 toughest decisions I had to make," he said.
"I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office and have them come in and say we have captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, the alleged killer of a guy named Danny Pearl because he was simply Jewish, and we think we have information on further attacks on the United States," Bush said.
Bush didn't specify what the 12 hardest decisions were but said Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
The invitation-only event titled a "Conversation with George W. Bush" attracted close to 2,000 guests who paid $3,100 per table. Bush received two standing ovations from the predominantly business crowd.
About 200 protested outside the event; four of them were arrested. Some protesters threw shoes at an effigy of Bush, a reference to the Iraqi journalist who tossed his shoes at the former president during a December news conference in Baghdad.
"He shouldn't be able to go anywhere in the world and just present himself as a private citizen," protest organizer Peggy Askin said. "We do not have any use for bringing war criminals into this country. It's an affront."
While Bush is unpopular in Canada, he is less so in oil-rich Alberta, the country's most conservative province and one sometimes called the Texas of the north.
"This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the United States and I couldn't think of a better place to give it than Calgary, Canada," Bush said.
The event's organizers declined to say how much Bush was paid to speak at the gathering.
Bush was full of jokes during his appearance. He joked that he would do more speeches to pay for his new house in Dallas.
"I actually paid for a house last fall. I think I'm the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008," he quipped.
He also said his mother is doing well. Barbara Bush was released from a Houston hospital Friday, nine days after undergoing heart surgery. "Clearly he can't live without her," Bush said of his father and former President George H.W. Bush.
Bush seemed to enjoy himself even though the event started later than expected because of tight security. "I'll sit here all day," Bush said during a question-and-answer session. "I'm flattered people even want to hear me in the first place."
Court reduces sentence for Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi shoe thrower to one year
Court reduces sentence for Iraqi shoe thrower
Posted 4/7/2009 12:35 PM ET
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court has reduced the prison sentence for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from three years to one.
Court spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar says Tuesday's decision was made because the journalist had no prior criminal history.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi was sentenced to three years in March after a quick trial. Al-Zeidi had pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting a foreign leader and said his action was a "natural response to the occupation."
The journalist's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, where the former U.S. president is reviled for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Al-Zeidi faced up to 15 years.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi released from prison after 9 months
Muntadhar al-Zeidi is lucky he was not arrested in the American Police state. If arrested in the USA he probably would have gotten a 30 year term with no chance of parol.But luckily in Iraq he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and got out in 9 months.
Iraqi shoe thrower says he was tortured
Sept. 15, 2009 07:07 AM
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush was released Tuesday after nine months in prison, and he said Iraqi security forces tortured him with beatings, whippings and electric shocks after his arrest.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, whose stunning act of protest last December made him a hero around the Arab and Muslim worlds, said he now feared for his life and believed that U.S. intelligence agents would chase after him.
"These fearsome services, the U.S. intelligence services and its affiliated services, will spare no efforts to track me as an insurgent revolutionary ... in a bid to kill me," he told a news conference at the TV station where he works.
"And here I want to warn all my relatives and people close to me that these services will use all means to trap and try to kill and liquidate me either physically, socially or professionally," he said, wearing a scarf in the colors of the Iraqi flag draped around his neck.
The 30-year-old reporter's act of protest deeply embarrassed Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who was standing beside Bush at a Dec. 14 news conference when al-Zeidi suddenly shot up from his chair had hurled his shoes toward the podium.
Bush, who was on his final visit to Iraq as American president, was unhurt but had to duck twice to avoid being hit.
Al-Zeidi was wrestled to the ground by journalists and al-Maliki's security men.
The reporter said Tuesday that he was abused immediately after his arrest and the following day. He said he was beaten with iron bars, whipped with cords and was electrocuted in the backyard of the building in the Green Zone where the news conference was held.
"In the morning, I was left in the cold weather after they splashed me with water," he said.
He promised to reveal the names of senior officials in the Iraqi government and army who he said were involved in mistreating him.
An unrepentant al-Zeidi explained that his actions were motivated by the U.S. occupation and said that while he is now free, his country is still "held captive."
"Simply put, what incited me toward confrontation is the oppression that fell upon my people and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by placing it under its boots," he said.
In January 2008, al-Zeidi was arrested by U.S. soldiers who searched his apartment building and released him the next day with an apology.
The year before that, al-Zeidi, a Shiite, was kidnapped by gunmen while on an assignment in a Sunni district of north Baghdad. He was freed unharmed three days later after Iraqi television stations broadcast appeals for his release.
Those experiences, his family has said, helped mold his resentment of the U.S. military's presence in Iraq.
Outside his home in central Baghdad, celebrations erupted at the news of his release, with women crying out and breaking into traditional Iraqi dances.
"I congratulate the Iraqi people and the Muslim world and all free men across the world on the release of Muntadhar," his brother Uday told a crowd of dozens of journalists and others. "Every time Bush turns a new page in his life he will find Muntadhar's shoes waiting for him."
Al-Zeidi's brother said the reporter will travel to Greece on Thursday for medical checkups and because he had concerns about his safety.
"He fears for his life," Uday said, adding that he would sleep at an undisclosed location Tuesday night.
Al-Zeidi's protest stirred millions across the Arab world who have been captivated and angered by images of destruction and grieving since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" he shouted at Bush in Arabic as he hurled the shoes. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he continued.
For days, the scene was played endlessly on regional and international TV channels.
Al-Zeidi was to have been freed Monday, but the release was held up for a day because of delays in processing paperwork.
After his release, al-Zeidi was driven first to the offices of Al-Baghdadiya, the TV station where he works. Later, he is expected to rejoin his family at their apartment in a rundown two-story building in central Baghdad.
His relatives have been preparing for days to welcome him, hanging balloons and posters of the reporter.
Several children from the family gathered outside the home, carrying posters of al-Zeidi that said: "Release the man who restored national unity."
There were also about a dozen sheep and a butcher standing by to slaughter some of them upon al-Zeidi's return in a traditional practice on celebratory occasions.
His protest was widely celebrated and even inspired Internet games and T-shirts and led some to try to offer their daughters to him in marriage. There were also reports that a Saudi man wanted to pay $10 million for one of the shoes.
Shortly after his arrest, a charity run by the daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi bestowed a medal of courage on al-Zeidi.
Al-Zeidi, who turned 30 in prison, was convicted of assault in March. His three-year prison sentence was reduced to one because he had no criminal record before the shoe-throwing incident. He was released three months early for good behavior.
The family says al-Zeidi might use his celebrity status to promote humanitarian causes such as the rights of orphans and women.
His employer, Al-Baghdadiya TV, expects he will return to work as a television reporter for the station, though some have questioned how he would be able to work again as a journalist in Iraq.
Sale de carcel la periodista que lanzó zapatos a George W. Bush
SourceSale de presidio periodista que lanzó zapatos a George W. Bush
Al Zaidi trabajaba para el canal de televisión Al Bagdadia, cuando lanzó sus zapatos al entonces presidente de Estados Unidos..
Montazer al Zaidi, el periodista iraquí que lanzó sus zapatos al ex presidente de Estados Unidos George W. Bush en diciembre de 2008, ha salido hoy en libertad tras pasar nueves meses en la cárcel, informó el canal de televisión Al Bagdadia.
Al Zaidi trabajaba para esa cadena cuando, durante una rueda de prensa de Bush y del primer ministro iraquí, Nuri al Maliki, lanzó sus zapatos al entonces presidente de EU mientras le decía: "Éste es tu beso de despedida, perro".
Según uno de sus hermanos, Al Zaidi, chií de 28 años será trasladado a un país árabe, que no se ha divulgado, para recibir tratamiento médico por las torturas recibidas en la cárcel.
El periodista fue sentenciado a tres años de cárcel por insultar al "presidente de un país extranjero", aunque el tribunal de apelación redujo la sentencia a sólo un año.
La justicia consideró como atenuantes las circunstancias en las que se produjo el incidente y el estado psicológico del periodista cuando cometió el acto, que, según él, se debió a la ocupación estadounidense de Irak.
Muchos de sus compatriotas le consideran un héroe, al igual que muchos ciudadanos de los países árabes.
Some more news articles about the heroic shoe throwing Muntadar al-Zeidi or Muntadar al-Zaidi