Vindicated at Last

We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.

- The Iraqi information minister, during the invasion of Iraq.

Shoes thrown at Bush on Iraq trip

In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him.

"All I can report is a size 10," Mr Bush said according to the Associated Press news agency.

- BBC article

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I approve of the throwing of shoes at politicians, and it is one of the great virtues of modern democracy that people can do such things and not get tortured to death. I seem to remember Baghdad Bob's late boss once gouged out a woman's eyes with his own hands for shouting insults at him in the street.

In other news, US man uses pizza in self-defence.

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A day later - An Iraqi official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the journalist was being interrogated to determine whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at President Bush.

He was also being tested for alcohol and drugs, and his shoes were being held as evidence, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On the bright side, the shoe-throwing is uniting Sunni and Shia - the journalist being the former (if I don't misremember), while the latter are protesting his detention and calling him a hero.

"He [George Bush] deserves to be hit with 100, not just one or two shoes. Who wants him to come here?" said a man in Baghdad.

More: The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC...

A spokesperson for the Iraqi military says the journalist is in good health and said the allegations were untrue.

It is unclear whether the reporter may have been injured when he was wrestled to the floor at the news conference, or at a later point...

Meanwhile, offers to buy the shoes he threw are being made around the Arab world, reports say.

"He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam's regime," [his boss] said.

Mr Zaidi has previously been abducted by insurgents and held twice for questioning by US forces in Iraq.

In November 2007 he was kidnapped by a gang on his way to work in central Baghdad and released three days later without a ransom.

He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.

Mr Zaidi never learned the identity of his kidnappers, who questioned him about his work before letting him go.