Iraqi journalist throws shoes at “dog” Bush.
Posted by Carlos C. on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Iraqi man shows his average rock throwing abilities by throwing his shoes at President Bush.
Sorry liberals, the shoes did not hit President Bush.
An Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes and an insult at George W. Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi premier at his Baghdad office on Sunday.
As the two leaders met in Nuri al-Maliki’s private office, a journalist sitting in the third row jumped up, shouting: “It is the farewell kiss, you dog,” and threw his shoes one after the other towards Bush.
Maliki made a protective gesture towards the US president, who ducked and was not hit.
The journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was frogmarched from the room by security staff, an AFP journalist said.
Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue’s face with their soles.
Some Iraqi journalists stood up to apologise.
The White House said Bush ducked to avoid the first shoe, while the second narrowly missed the president.
Bush said: “Thanks for apologising on behalf of the Iraqi people. It doesn’t bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw”.
Playing down the incident, the president later added: “I don’t know what the guy’s cause is… I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it.”
Check out the video!
President Bush ducked! Pretty nice moves.
UPDATE 1: President Bush Bush waved off the lead Secret Service agent in order to prevent a bigger incident.
Developing…
UPDATE 2: Politico.com
Welcome to Baghdad. An Iraqi reporter set off pandemonium Sunday by hurling two shoes at President Bush during a news conference that was the centerpiece of his secret good-bye visit.
Bush was cool under fire and prevented an even bigger incident by waving off his lead Secret Service agent, who was prepared to extract him from the room.
Video shows the president’s lead agent rushing to the podium, but the president immediately and subtly motions to him that it’s OK. The agent backs off.
The president successfully ducked both throws. Photos show him with his head down near the top of the podium. The embarrassing incident marred a visit meant to show off the improved conditions since the troop “surge” dramatically reduced casualties to U.S. troops.
“This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog,” the journalist shouted (in Arabic), Steven Lee Myers of The New York Times reported in a pool report to the White House press corps.
Myers reported that the man threw the second shoe and added: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Journalists at the scene said the hurler was Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter for Al-Baghdadia TV, an independent satellite channel based in Cairo.
A producer for the channel was murdered in Baghdad last year.
Myers wrote in his pool report: “The president’s appearance was interrupted by a man, apparently a journalist, who leapt to his feet and threw his shoe at the president, who ducked and thus narrowly missed being struck. Chaos ensued. The [man] threw a second shoe, which also narrowly missed the president. The man was roughly 12 feet from the lectern in the center of two rows of chairs, about two feet from the pool. A scrum of security agents descended on the man and wrestled him, first to the floor and then out of the ornate room where the press conference was taking place. The president was at no point injured and he brushed off the incident.”
“All I can report is it is a size 10,” Bush quipped.
The Iraqi journalist should blame Saddam Hussein, his forces, Muqtada al-Sadr, and Al Qaeda for all the dead people and orphaned children.
(1 Ratings)
Filed Under: = BREAKING NEWS =, News & Politics
December 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I would have caught them.
December 14th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS, MAYBE THEY LIKED BEING SHREDDED IN SADDAMS SHREDDING MACHINES BETTER….IGNORANT BUNCH OF THIRD WORLD IDIOTS!
December 14th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
WHERE WAS THE SECRET SERVICE?!
December 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
President Bush called off the Secret Service.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:12 am
You can’t expect everyone in Iraq to like him. If people came into the US and wouldn’t leave I’m sure you wouldn’t really like it either, but anyway, those are ninja-like reflexes that Bush has. It was rather impressing.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:35 am
People coming into the U.S. and not leaving is called illegal immigration.
But, I am a “racist” for wanting illegals to leave and wanting U.S. law enforced.