BUSH'S `KISS GOODBYE'
by New Worker Arab Affairs Correspondent
THOUSANDS of Iraqis have taken to the streets of Baghdad, Mosul and
many other towns to demand the release of Muntadar al Zeidi, the journalist
who threw his shoes at George W Bush during a news conference in
Baghdad last Sunday. Many demonstrators carried shoes mounted on
sticks in solidarity.
The Iraqi journalist who works for a Cairo-based TV station got up shouting
"this is a farewell kiss, you dog" and "this is for the widows and children of
Iraq" before hurling his shoes at the American president. Although he
missed his target Al Zeidi now faces charges that could land him in jail for
two to 15 years. His brother says Al Zeidi has cracked ribs, and injuries to
his hand and face after being badly beaten in custody.
Al Muntadar works for Al Baghdadia TV and they have demanded his
immediate release "in line with the democracy and freedom of expression
that the American authorities promised the Iraqi people". Programme
director Muzhir al Khafaji described Zaidi as a "proud Arab and an open-
minded man," who had worked at Al Baghdadia for three years. "We fear for
his safety," he said adding that Zaidi had been arrested twice before by the
Americans and that there were fears that more of the station's 200
correspondents in Iraq could be arrested.
The man who forced Bush to duck and dive has become a hero on the Arab
street and far beyond. Saddam Hussein's former lawyer Khalil al Dulaimi is
forming a team to defend Zaidi and that around 200 lawyers have offered
their services for free. "Our defence of Zaidi will be based on the fact that
the United States is occupying Iraq, and resistance is legitimate by all
means, including shoes," he said.
Vast sums of money are being offered for the shoes that are being held as
evidence by the puppet police in Baghdad. The former coach of the Iraqi
football team has offered £65,000 for the shoes and a Saudi millionaire says
he will pay £6.5 million for the pair.
In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said the Iraqi reporter had courage.
Chavez said he was glad the shoes didn't hit Bush but smiled broadly
during a video of the incident played during a cabinet meeting broadcast on
Venezuela television.
"It's a good thing it didn't hit him. I'm not encouraging throwing shoes at
anybody, but really, what courage!"
Portuguese Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Saramago praised the Arab's act
of defiance. "We needed the final blow, we needed those shoes that the Iraqi
television journalist threw his shoes at a liar and shameless Bush standing
in front of him", he declared.
On Tuesday students and lecturers at Anbar University in the northern Iraqi
city of Ramadi drove an American patrol out of the campus in a hail of
stones and shoes. Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim, whose hits
include I Hate Israel and the McFalafel song for McDonald's has now
released [Bush] You're Useless which goes "hats off for Muntadar and his
shoes…I wish it had hit your face and punctured your eyes".
But symbolic violence was matched by the real thing as the partisans
stepped up their attacks, timed for the Bush visit and that of Gordon Brown
who flew into Baghdad on Wednesday. Partisans fired a Katyusha rocket
into the fortified Baghdad Green Zone military compound while Bush was
there holding talks with the leaders of the puppet regime last Sunday. Three
people including two so-called police commandos were killed and seven
others wounded on Tuesday when a bomb exploded near the Technology
University in central Baghdad. And the puppet "minister of science and
technology" escaped with his life when his motorcade was hit by a car bomb
near the Babel Hotel in the south of the capital, which has been rocked by
bombings throughout the week.
Gordon Brown said that British combat forces would be withdrawn from
southern Iraq "in the first half of 2009". Brown, like Blair before him, has
loyally followed Bush's footsteps in the Middle East. But he deviated slightly
on this occasion. There was no usual press conference at the end of his
talks with puppet premier Nuri al Maliki. No doubt Brown clearly wanted to
avoid being the target of another enraged journalist's shoe.
