Bush ducks shoes after signing Iraqi security pact

15 December 2008 | 06:05:55 AM| Source: SBS staff and agencies

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US President Bush reacts after an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at him at a press meeting about his new pact with Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki which says US troops will leave Iraq by 2011. (AP)

An Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes and an insult at US President George Bush, without hitting him, as the US president was shaking hands with the Iraqi premier in Baghdad. Bush and Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki signed a security pact during the outgoing US leader's 'surprise' visit to Baghdad under which US troops would leave Iraq by 2011.

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As the two leaders met in Nuri al-Maliki's private office, a journalist sitting in the third row jumped up, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog," and threw his shoes one after the other towards Bush.

 

Maliki made a protective gesture towards the US president, who ducked and was not hit.

 

 The journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was frogmarched from the room by security staff, an AFP journalist said.

 

 Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles.

 

 Some Iraqi journalists stood up to apologise.

 

 The White House said Bush ducked to avoid the first shoe, while the second narrowly missed the president.

 

Bush said: "Thanks for apologising on behalf of the Iraqi people. It doesn't bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw".

 

Playing down the incident, the president later added: "I don't know what the guy's cause is... I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."

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Your Comments

15 Dec 2008 20:44 AEST

adam radojkovic

From: melbourne

mr

I have never seen a leader hated as much as Bush is around the world. He and his neo -conservative mates, with the media (the enablers) and corporate sector acting as a war cheer-squad, have caused so much misery and grief, are the true terrorist in this world. They are the ones who present a risk to me and my family's welfare - an unacceptable risk. Again SBS quotes 90,000 dead in Iraq when scientific analysis has it more than 1 million. Another example of how the enablers perpetuate the lie

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15 Dec 2008 17:00 AEST

alex mckinnon

From: NSW

Yes, but...

Being shot with a tazer gun is certainly preferable to the real thing, and I do believe police should have their guns replaced by tazers. However, tazers aren't completely safe either. Several lawsuits are underway in the US filed by the families of those supposedly killed from being shot with tazers. I think police re-education is the real solution. If policemen shoot to kill a scared 15 year old, imagine how gung-ho they'll become with supposedly 'non-lethal' weapons.

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15 Dec 2008 16:50 AEST

amr

From: perth

shame

what a shame that shoes is missed

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15 Dec 2008 7:10 AEST

iraqi

From: iraq

i happy he deserve it

i happy he deserve it

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Disagree (1 people disagree)
 

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