Shoes Thrown at President Bush | Shoes thrown at Bush by Iraqi Journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi

A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference.

An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president. The US president has now continued to Afghanistan to inspect troops there. He arrived before dawn at Bagram air force base, and is due to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai.

Earlier in Baghdad, Mr Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki signed the new security agreement between their countries. The pact calls for US troops to leave Iraq in 2011 - eight years after the 2003 invasion that has in part defined the Bush presidency.

Speaking just over five weeks before he hands over power to Barack Obama, Mr Bush also said the war in Iraq was not over and more work remained to be done. His previously unannounced visit came a day after Defence Secretary Robert Gates told US troops the Iraq mission was in its "endgame".

'Size 10'
In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurling a shoe at Mr Bush which narrowly missed him.

Showing the soles of shoes to someone is a sign of contempt in Arab culture. With his second shoe, which the president also managed to dodge, Mr Zaidi said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." Mr Zaidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, was then wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away.

"If you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw," Mr Bush joked afterwards. Al-Baghdadiya's bureau chief told the Associated Press that he had no idea what prompted Mr Zaidi to attack President Bush, although reports say he was once kidnapped by a militia and beaten up.

"I am trying to reach Muntadar since the incident, but in vain," said Fityan Mohammed. "His phone is switched off." Correspondents said the attack was symbolic. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein's statue after his overthrow.

'American security'
Mr Bush's first stop upon arriving in Baghdad was the Iraqi presidential palace in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, where he held talks with President Jalal Talabani. "The work hasn't been easy but it's been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace," Mr Bush said during his talks with Mr Talabani.

The Iraqi president called Mr Bush "a great friend for the Iraqi people, who helped us liberate our country". The BBC's Humphrey Hawksley, in Baghdad, says the key issue at present is exactly how American troops will withdraw within the next three years and what sort of Iraq they will leave behind. The US media has just published details of a US government report saying that post invasion reconstruction of Iraq was crippled by bureaucratic turf wars and an ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society. The report is circulating among US officials in draft form, says the New York Times. It reveals details of a reconstruction effort that cost more than $100bn (£67bn) and only succeeded in restoring what was destroyed in the invasion and the widespread looting that followed it, the newspaper said.

George Bush says being pelted with shoes could be one of the 'weirdest' moments of his presidency Mr Bush's visit, unannounced in advance and conducted under tight security, follows the approval last month of a security pact between Washington and Baghdad that calls for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011. US troops are first to withdraw from Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, by June next year.

Defence Secretary Gates said on Saturday that "the process of the drawdown" had begun. "We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq," he told US troops at an airbase near Baghdad. Mr Gates has been picked to stay on as defence secretary by President-elect Barack Obama.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Shoes
• President
• Bush
• Iraq
• iraqi
• Journalist
• throw
• thrown
• Muntadar
• al-Zaidi
• size
• 10

[Xayaat20]

to hell with Bush !! But honestly how is throwing a shoe at the stupid bloke called 'kalb' coz he is one, howz that deserving to go to prison?? FREE THE GUY!

[03205211235]

i want dat journalist hanged from a streetlamp. How da hell did he miss?

[gini20]

watch in the 0:16 who protects Bush

[PhuckTheLaw5150]

thats what that bitch made punk gets...trying to genocide the middle east..fucking racist prick the whole US government is a fucking piece of shyt

[nygiantsable]

that iraq fuck scumbag.. is the only fuckin dog

[1Ephraimite]

Psalms 60:8 "...over Edom will I cast out my shoe:..."

[waffle1997]

@03205211235 he shouldnt have missed i sure as hell wouldnt have,i would have hit him square in the face

[wangtangkiki]

@VampiresDoRule Try to laugh buddy.

[VampiresDoRule]

I Luv how he tried to make a joke "it was a size 10 shoe" No. Fucking devil.

[nkamkam1163]

@Cepoj

This journalist is a mother fucker,because president bush liberated his country and gave them freedom,if not saddam would fuck this journalist !!