Posted on 12/29/2008 12:54:00 PM PST by Sub-Driver
US activists call for release, pardon of Iraq shoe-thrower Dec 29 03:52 PM US/Eastern US activists on Monday urged Baghdad to release the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush, insisting that his gesture was meant to insult, not harm the US leader.
"This was a form of insult... If he had wanted to hurt George Bush, he would have chosen a different weapon," Medea Benjamin of the Codepink peace activism group told AFP at a rally of about a dozen people outside the Iraqi consulate in Washington.
Zaidi, 29, threw his shoes at Bush during the US president's surprise visit to Iraq on December 14, an action considered a grave insult in the Arab world.
He is due to appear in court in Baghdad on Wednesday on charges of "aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit," an offense which could see him go to jail for up to 15 years.
Handing down a stiff sentence to Zaidi would "fan the flames of anti-Americanism," said Benjamin of Codepink, founded by US women in 2002.
"This should be seen as a non-violent act of civil disobedience which, as Bush said, happens in a democratic society. If indeed that is the case, then he should be pardoned."
The protesters tried to hand-deliver a petition for Zaidi's release to the Iraqi ambassador to Washington, but "there was nobody at the embassy to receive us," Benjamin said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Since when is a dozen people called a “rally”?
Why the hell didn’t someone throw a shoe at her?
Why doesn’t she just suck a (Birmingham) gaspipe?
There. Fixed it.
for those out of the loop, a “Birmingham” gas pipe is a cheap, untested firearm made to be sold to the natives.
So, it looks as if we have been given the green light to throw shoes at Medea. Not trying to hurt her, just trying to insult her. So, she won’t press charges, I guess. I wish she would visit my neighborhood.
I say we should offer to trade Katie Couric for the shoe thrower. He’s morally superior as a journalist because he admits his predjudices while she does not.
So we end up with Katie in jail in Iraq and a goofy Iraqi reporter running around the US. And, as a bonus, the average morality of American journalism will increase just a little bit.
Seems like a good deal to me. What say you?
While the shoe-throwing incident may have only been an insult to our president, it likely scared the pants off the Iraqi president. Could have been him. That is why they are getting tough with the ‘journalist’ that chucked the shoe.
It's assault, no matter how you want to slice it.
It's one of the most condescending remarks one can make in that part of the world.
The guy needs to do time in an Iraqi prison. With freedom comes responsibility and personal culpability. His actions done by his own free will.
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This really isn't a new thing. Attempts and games like this are played all the time. I remember a German peace-nick (A Gruene of course) years past throwing red paint into the face of an American general at a news conference. These spectacles reappear from time to time.
I guess that next time some brain deap moron from “code Pinko” is speaking, I have the right to throw as hard as I can, my steel toed boot at the dittzy broad.
And, face it: fifteen years in the can, for what?
And I was so looking forward to delivering Codepink this present. Oh woe is me.
Geez, that was totally uncalled for!!!
Boy, there’s some real hotties over there at Code Pink! Hubba, hubba! Maybe they can recruit Helen Thomas, Babs Streisand and Cynthia McKinney into their coven.
He is going to be released - just as soon he recovers from:
1) double hand amputation,
2) double foot amputation,
3) tongue amputation,
4) blinding,
5) eardrum rupturing.
Then send him back to his family - once he puts his ‘X’ on the bottom of his statement of how grateful he is for his light sentance.
He could then be a shining example of what happens when you throw a shoe at an American president - as opposed to Putin, King Abdulah, etc.
Yeah, those people are totally out of control.
Thanks Vet, for bringing that to our attention.
I’d rather use rocks and bottles if that’s alright.
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