Bush on farewell visit to Iraq dodges flying shoes


Bush farewell visit to Iraq marred by ‘shoe attack’




Iraqi reporter throws shoes at President Bush

What happened to Bush in Iraq was loud cry against occupiers - Lebanese Hezbollah





A journalist hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday, highlighting the hostility toward the outgoing US leader who acknowledged the war was still not won.

An Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush is reportedly being held for questioning by the Iraqi prime minister's guards.

An official says the reporter (Muntadar al-Zeidi) is being interrogated over whether anybody paid him to hurl his shoes at Bush during a press conference Sunday in Baghdad. The reporter is also being tested for alcohol and drugs. The shoes are being held as evidence. The reporter's colleagues say he was kidnapped last year by Shiite militias and released after his TV station, Al-Baghdadia, intervened.

An Iraqi reporter called President George W. Bush a "dog" and threw his shoes at him on Sunday, sullying a farewell visit to Baghdad meant to mark greater security in Iraq after years of bloodshed.

Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama, Bush sought to underline improved security by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone.

He declared the war "not over" despite recent gains.

In a sign of lingering anger over the war that will define the Republican president's foreign policy legacy, an Iraqi journalist shouted in Arabic "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," and hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.


Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.


"It's like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It's a way for people to draw attention," Bush said. "I don't know what the guy's cause was. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."


The journalist was leapt on by Iraqi security officials and U.S. secret service agents and dragged from the room screaming and struggling.

Meanwhile, Arabs across the Middle East are hailing the shoe incident as a proper send-off to the unpopular U.S. president. Thousands took to the streets today in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, where they burned American flags and called for the release of the reporter. The Iraqi government has condemned the act.