Journalist Who Threw Shoes at Bush Asks for Pardon

[YWN666]

The Chicago Cubs have drafted the guy for the 2009 season.

 

[WillowTree]

Um...it's a shoe, actually two shoes, and he missed. If Bush had thrown his shoes, I'd be making fun of Bush, after all he is the POTUS. This guy is just a stupid journalist. Give him a break. Actually from some reports he's already had several breaks (bones), I think he's suffered enough.

nope, free the border patrol agents first, then we talk.

 

[Ravi]

He already gave the idiot freedom once, he's not obligated to do it a second time,, and if Bush had thrown the shoe you damn sure wouldn't be so generous.

That doesn't even make sense. Bush might be an idiot, but I doubt he'd throw a shoe at someone.

 

[irie]

Here's a tip .. if you want to know anything about the arab world, don't look for it in American press.

Arab world lauds Iraqi TV journalist’ shoe-hurling at Bush

Yeah lets turn to Al-Jazira for the really credible stuff..........

 

[jillian]

Yeah lets turn to Al-Jazira for the really credible stuff..........

About how the Arab world feels?

You might want to rethink that one. Al Jazeera might be nothing more than a bunch of propaganda, but it IS what that part of the world believes.... true or not.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

The Chicago Cubs have drafted the guy for the 2009 season.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

Yeah lets turn to Al-Jazira for the really credible stuff..........

Let's see .. Fox knows more about the arab world than Al-Jazerra? .. which has also been more credible and truthful about events in Iraq before and during the invasion than the American government.

By the way, that article came from India .. do you believe Al-Jazerra controls their thoughts as well? .. and, you didn't answer my questions.

 

[Lycurgus]

irie
Registered User

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackAsCoal
Here's a tip .. if you want to know anything about the arab world, don't look for it in American press.

Arab world lauds Iraqi TV journalist’ shoe-hurling at Bush

Yeah lets turn to Al-Jazira for the really credible stuff..........

I understand your feelings about the credibility of Al-Jazira, but, the point is valid. IMO we American's could benefit from reading online publications from around the world. Yes, you will find a lot of complaints about the US in them, from the UK to Asia, down into Africa and South America, but, within them you will also find information our media may not be sharing and you can gain a better understanding of others. It doesn't mean we might agree with them, but, I have found at times it can give me a better understanding of what I read in our papers.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

I understand your feelings about the credibility of Al-Jazira, but, the point is valid. IMO we American's could benefit from reading online publications from around the world. Yes, you will find a lot of complaints about the US in them, from the UK to Asia, down into Africa and South America, but, within them you will also find information our media may not be sharing and you can gain a better understanding of others. It doesn't mean we might agree with them, but, I have found at times it can give me a better understanding of what I read in our papers.

I ONLY find credibility in online and foreign press.

I read an article in the NYTimes a couple of days ago that was still portraying the toppling of Saddam's statue as a real event. Mindless. The entire world knows better .. and so does the NYTimes .. the truth has been taped and filmed .. and they've seen it.

Additionally, and most particularly, if one is seeking some truth about the arab world, the American media cannot be trusted to give you the truth .. most especially if it concerns Israel.

Americans are invented and controlled and the internet may be our last bastion of real freedom.

 

[irie]

Let's see .. Fox knows more about the arab world than Al-Jazerra? .. which has also been more credible and truthful about events in Iraq before and during the invasion than the American government.

By the way, that article came from India .. do you believe Al-Jazerra controls their thoughts as well? .. and, you didn't answer my questions.

What question?????????I went through the thread 2 times and didn't see a question posed to me????
My point was that Al-Jazira and the like are hopelessly anti-American. Now if your point is that if you a want a middle eastern slant go to a source in that area then I'll buy into it. To think, however, that they are middle of the road, tell both sides of the story journalists, is naive at best. Your post, perhaps conveniently, excluded the source paper and merely displayed a link to DNA- world.....Oh, and FYI, not once did I allude to the concept that Al-Jazira controls anything. I guess truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[irie]

I understand your feelings about the credibility of Al-Jazira, but, the point is valid. IMO we American's could benefit from reading online publications from around the world. Yes, you will find a lot of complaints about the US in them, from the UK to Asia, down into Africa and South America, but, within them you will also find information our media may not be sharing and you can gain a better understanding of others. It doesn't mean we might agree with them, but, I have found at times it can give me a better understanding of what I read in our papers.

My point was simply that just because it came from a "foreign" source does not make it so. I would concur that information gleaned from other/foreign sources can offer a different perspective.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

What question?????????I went through the thread 2 times and didn't see a question posed to me????
My point was that Al-Jazira and the like are hopelessly anti-American. Now if your point is that if you a want a middle eastern slant go to a source in that area then I'll buy into it. To think, however, that they are middle of the road, tell both sides of the story journalists, is naive at best. Your post, perhaps conveniently, excluded the source paper and merely displayed a link to DNA- world.....Oh, and FYI, not once did I allude to the concept that Al-Jazira controls anything. I guess truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

My bad, the questions were not to you.

Truth lies in the eyes of those who seek it. No single source should be trusted as truth no matter where it comes from .. however, it would also be naive not to recognize that Americans are indoctrinated with propaganda from our media every bit as much as arabs are. We hold no proprietary license on truth.

That being said, I can give you many instances of finding undeniable truth on Al-Jazerra, tryth not told in American media .. as you can find what you'd term distortions of truth.

Truth is in the eyes of the seeker.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

Damn, I'm good.

Maliki is desperately looking for a way out.

Punishment for the Shoe Thrower Puts Maliki in a Spot

It didn't take long for other shoes to drop. Muntazer al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who fastballed his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad over the weekend, remains in custody, but his act of individual protest has feverishly rippled out across the country, sparking uproar in parliament and pride on the streets. The obscure correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo, could face from two to seven years imprisonment for hurling his footwear at the U.S President and for calling Bush a dog.

Iraq's parliamentarians, who rarely shy away from showboating, didn't disappoint either. There were rowdy scenes in the legislature as lawmakers from anti-U.S cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc interrupted a discussion about the fate of non-U.S troops in Iraq to demand al-Zeidi's immediate release. Noisy exchanges ensued, culminating with the mercurial speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, threatening to resign. "I can't work in such a situation!" he shouted, according to lawmakers who attended the session. It's not clear if Mashhadani, who is known for his outbursts, will follow through. But the Sadrists, in particular, are keen to exploit the massive public sympathy for the Shi'ite reporter to turn up the heat on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over the issue, especially ahead of provincial elections slated for January 31.(See "Aftermath of a Shoe Attack".)

"The Sadrists were saying, 'We are talking about having immunity for foreign troops here while at the same time an Iraqi is in prison for insulting a foreigner,'" says Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish lawmaker who attended the session. "They're trying to embarrass Maliki in an election year, to portray him as an American puppet." (See the Top 10 Awkward Moments of 2008.)

Zedi’s case is now before the Iraqi judiciary, but few in Iraq expect the courts to have the last word in this case. The correspondent’s actions were not merely an affront to the U.S President; they discombobulated al-Maliki as well, who was standing beside Bush as the U.S. President nimbly dodged the size 10 leather projectiles. Zeidi has penned a letter of apology to the Prime Minister, asking for a pardon and telling him that his actions were squarely directed against Bush and not at Maliki, according to Omar Almashhadani, a spokesman for the Sunni Tawafuk parliamentary bloc. "It is too late now to regret the big and ugly act that I perpetrated," Zeidi wrote in the letter, according to the Associated Press. "That's going to help him in court," Mashhadani said, "but if he's tried and sentenced to a few years, it will leave Maliki with a bad reputation."

The Prime Minister has been trying to shed his reputation for being beholden to the U.S. Now, the groundswell of public support for Zeidi's actions has made it even more difficult. The correspondent has become an instant folk hero not only in Iraq but also across a region that feels vindicated in some small measure that David got one over Goliath. In Jordan lawmakers observed a minute's silence in solidarity with the jailed reporter. An Egyptian man has reportedly offered his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to "this hero," telling the Gulf Daily News "this is something that would honor me." A Lebanese television channel has proffered Zeidi a job, with his salary effective "from the second he threw the shoe." There's a repressed glee in the many demonstrations across the Middle East in support of Zeidi, a sense of pride that an ordinary Arab furiously expressed the disdain and anger that many feel toward the U.S President for his calamitous legacy in the Middle East. And that Zeidi did so using his shoes — an insult of choice in the Arab world — makes it even more delicious for many.

Iraq and the entire region is watching what happens next to this formerly little-known Iraqi journalist. That leaves Maliki with few good options. The prime minister has worked hard in the past year to cultivate his nationalist bona fides, increasingly pushing back against Washington and driving a hard bargain on a recently approved bilateral security pact with the U.S. Yet those finely honed patriotic credentials could crumble if Maliki deals harshly with Zeidi.

Still, it's doubtful that Zeidi will be released without trial, despite the intense public pressure, merely because such public affronts to leaders are extremely rare in the Middle East and unlikely to go unpunished. Justice must not only be done but be seen to be done and so Zeidi will most likely be tried and then either released with a fine or a muted sentence, according to several parliamentarians. Few doubt that he will not be convicted. "It's about what happens after the conviction," says Othman. "Maliki could do something about it then, pardon him or release him with a fine. Many people support Zeidi." Othman adds: "People will blame Maliki if he is sentenced, or if he's been tortured... and we are in an election year." Maliki must tread lightly, to make sure that most disdained item of clothing in the Arab world, the shoe, trample his ambitions at the ballot box.
Punishment for the Shoe Thrower Puts Maliki in a Spot - TIME

 

[Xenophon]

Here's a tip .. if you want to know anything about the arab world, don't look for it in American press.

Here's a tip for you, I have been to more Muslim countries then you can name, you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[editec]

I thought he was a big hero, why is he groveling now?

You mean aside from the broken arm?

Perhaps he's had a change of heart?

 

[Paulie]

I thought he was a big hero, why is he groveling now?

Seriously, what a pussy.

He's going to lose a lot of respect on the playground.

 

[editec]

That doesn't even make sense. Bush might be an idiot, but I doubt he'd throw a shoe at someone.

Of course not.

That's what Pinkerton goons are for.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

Here's a tip for you, I have been to more Muslim countries then you can name, you don't know what you are talking about.

Yet the evidence proves me right .. in spite of how ever many muslim countries you've been to.

The evidence suggests that it is you who doesn't know what he's talking about .. and I'm content with the judgment of the evidence.

 

[Xenophon]

You mean aside from the broken arm?

Perhaps he's had a change of heart?

Just no love for Bathists these days.

 

[editec]

Seriously, what a pussy.

He's going to lose a lot of respect on the playground.

He's forever going to be the heroic man who insulted the POTUS.

People whose experience includes living under the yoke of tyranny (and remember the Iraqi people lived under Saddam's regime) understand that when confronted with monsters who have the power of life and death, it is sometimes best to play their games until you are released from their clutches.

In terms of political theater, the man's actions were academy award material.