Shoes Of Vengeance
Times of London, in heartfelt reporting on the angst and anger of abu Tripol-e al-Shoedi, all the American war crimes that enraged him, misses the biographical insight noted by colleagues. He’s a braggart and a blowhard. via The Star:
“He was very boastful, arrogant and always showing off,” said Zanko Ahmed, a Kurdish journalist who attended a journalism training course with al-Zeidi in Lebanon. “He tried to raise topics to show that nobody is as smart as he is.”
Ahmed recalled that al-Zeidi spoke glowingly of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers organized protests Monday to demand his release.
Times article offers nothing to indicate whether this Shiite from south of Baghdad harbors any animosity for the monster who murdered hundreds of thousands of Shiites south of Baghdad. Here’s what did get his goat:
THE young Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W Bush had been incensed by a story he covered about an American soldier who used a copy of the Koran for target practice, according to his family.
Muntathar al-Zaydi, 28, who became an overnight hero in the Arab world, worked as a reporter for the popular al-Baghdadiya satellite TV station.
In May he was sent to report on an incident in Radwaniyah, west of Baghdad, in which Islam’s holy book was found riddled with bullets from an American sniper.
“He talked incessantly about the subject,” recalled his elder brother Uday. It was one of a number of assignments that appear to have radicalised Zaydi during his brief journalistic career.
“The war changed Muntathar’s psyche as a result of the horrific scenes he saw, as well as the cruel tragedies, which led to the scene we all saw at the press conference,” Uday added.
In three years at the station Zaydi witnessed many scenes of carnage, including suicide bombings and sectarian killings, his brother said. “But the incident that made Muntathar cry most was the story of Abir, the daughter of Mahmoudiya.”
It is a crime that still angers Iraqis, despite the apologies of the American command. In 2006 five American soldiers raped and killed 14-year-old Abir Janabi in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. They also shot dead her mother, father and seven-year-old sister. Four of the soldiers have been tried; three were sentenced to life imprisonment and the fourth was jailed for 27 months. The fifth, who had left the army, will be tried in a US civilian court early next year.
Speaking of guys named Uday, anyone ever get an apology or a prosecution for rape and murder under Saddam?
Never mind. Shooting at Korans is wrong, unlike throwing shoes at presidents. As Gateway notes, mentioning Islam and terrorism in the same breath, also wrong. And hurtful.
Protein Wisdom parses shoe verbiage trends, notes that the fastball pitch of shoes is morphing in a softball “toss.” Cookies are also “tossed.”
Topics: Iraq
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:34 am Comments (3) on Sunday, December 21, 2008
3 Responses to “Shoes Of Vengeance”
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December 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm
[...] Shoes of Vengeance– The Times Online is reporting today that Al-Zaidi was incensed by a story he covered about an American soldier who used a copy of the Koran for target practice. …So, in response, he assaulted the President of the United States. That ought to gain him some more sympathy from the Muslim World and Far Left. [...]
December 21st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Hate to disagree but shooting at korans is on a par with using bibles for toilet paper in the outhouse they call gaza strip.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am
It will be difficult to exceed the irony of the shoe-thrower, in full knowledge that nothing really bad was going to happen to him, throwing his shoes at the guy who made the shoe-throwing survivable.