Journalist Throws Shoes at Bush in Baghdad

Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi throws shoes at Bush during the news conference with Prime MInister Nuri al-Maliki in his palace in Baghdad, Iraq.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

The shoe thrower shouted “This is your farewell kiss, you dog!” and “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” in arabic after he was pinned on the ground by security personnel, he screamed: “You killed the Iraqis!” 

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt.

Al-Zaidi a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt, drew international attention in November 2007 when he was kidnapped while on his way to work in central Baghdad. He was released three days later.

The U.S. president’s  whirlwind trip in this city is shrouded in secrecy.
The visit to the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it, was his way of highlighting a drop in violence and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

“The war is not over,” Bush said, but “it is decisively on it’s way to being won.”

~ by topofthenews on December 15, 2008.