Boghdadiya channel calls to release journalist who attacked Bush

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The satellite channel al-Boghdadiya urged the Iraqi authorities to “immediately” release its correspondent Muntadher al-Zaydi who hurled his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday. “Al-Boghdadiya channel calls for the immediate release of its correspondent Zaydi in line with the new era of democracy and freedom of expression the U.S. authorities had promised the Iraqis,” according to a release by the channel as received by IraqiNews.com. President Bush quickly ducked when a pair of shoes were hurled at him Sunday. “This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog,” Zaydi shouted in Arabic as he threw his shoe at Bush during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The shoe narrowly missed the president’s head. The man, a correspondent for Al-Boghdadiya television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, then pulled off his other shoe and chucked it, yelling, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” Bush ducked again as al-Maliki put out his arm to block the shoe. Secret Service and Iraqi security agents pounced on al-Zaydi. They wrestled him to the ground before dragging him from the room. An Iraqi government official says al-Zaydi is being held for questioning by Maliki’s guards and is being tested for alcohol and drugs. Bush brushed off the incident. “It’s like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It’s a way for people to draw attention,” the president said. The channel’s release said that any measures that would be taken against Zaydi will just be “reminiscent of the acts witnessed during the dictatorial regime with all its violence, random detention, mass graves and confiscation of public as well as private freedoms”. Zaydi, a young man of no more than 30 years old, has worked for al-Boghdadiya since its establishment in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He had been kidnapped two years ago by unidentified gunmen while stepping out of his home in al-Bab al-Sharqi area, central Baghdad. A week later he was found lying on the ground near auto selling stores in al-Nahda square, Baghdad, at a late night hour. Zaydi is considered one of the journalists outspokenly criticizing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. He had written several reports opposing the U.S. military presence in the country. To Iraqis, the incident represented a major insult to the U.S. president. “In traditional Middle Eastern societies, it’s very rude to show someone the bottom of your feet. Throwing a shoe at someone is very much a way of saying, ‘You’re beneath me. … I hold you in contempt,’ ” says Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. The president described the incident as a “bizarre moment” and compared it to the disruption of his White House news conference with President Hu Jintao of China by a Falun Gong follower. He said it would be wrong to extrapolate from the single instance the feelings of the entire country. “I don’t think you can take one guy and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq,” he said while on a flight to Afghanistan after his departure from Baghdad on Sunday night. “The war is not over,” Bush said, but “it is decisively on its way to being won.” Maliki, who spoke before the shoe incident, praised progress: “Today, Iraq is moving forward in every field.” Iraqis famously slapped their shoes on a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square here shortly after the city fell to coalition troops in April 2003. In 2004, after four American contractors were ambushed and killed in Falluja, insurgents hanged two corpses from a bridge as people flailed at them with shoes. The president’s father was also once the target of Iraqi disrespect. After the Persian Gulf War, Saddam installed a tile mosaic floor depicting George H