18
news without borders
Comment
by Patrick Cockburn
LONDON: The sight of the Iraqi
reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi hurling
his shoes at President Bush at a
press conference in Baghdad (on
Sunday) will gladden the heart
of any journalist forced to attend
these tedious, useless, and almost
invariably obsequious, events. “This
is a farewell kiss,” shouted Muntazer.
“This is from the widows, the orphans
and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Official press conferences of any
kind seldom produce real news, but
the worst are usually those given by
foreign leaders on trips abroad in
which they and their local ally suggest
that they are in control of events and
all is going according to plan.
One of the many infuriating,
though also ludicrous, events in
Iraq since the invasion of 2003 has
been American and British leaders,
arriving in secret at the enormous
US base at Baghdad airport and
travelling, accompanied by numerous
armed guards, by helicopter to the
heavily-fortified Green Zone. After
a few hours there they would give
upbeat press conferences, sitting
alongside the Iraqi leader of the day,
claiming significant improvements in
security and chiding the assembled
journalists for ignoring such clear
signs of success.
Periodically reality would break
in, such as the time a mortar bomb
exploded nearby the press conference
hall at the very moment when UN
Secretary General Ban ki-Moon was
lauding security improvements,
compelling him to cower down
behind a display of artificial flowers.
Visiting US politicians during
the presidential election sought
determinedly to manicure what
American television viewers would
see. Diplomats at the US embassy
complained that staffers of Republican
candidate Senator John McCain had
asked them not to wear helmets and
body armour when standing next to
him in case these protective measures
might appear to contradict his claim
that the US military was close to
military victory. For similar reasons
theSun
Keep out ... a message
I USED TO THINK THAT ALL THESE OFFICIAL VISITS
DID LITTLE HARM, EVEN IF THEY DID NO GOOD
staffers of the Vice-President
Dick Cheney demanded
“This is that the siren giving a seven
from the or eight second warning of
widows, incoming rockets or mortar
rounds to people in the Green
the Zone be turned off during his
orphans visits.
and those I used to comfort myself
who were with the thought that these
official visits did little harm
killed in even if they did no good. Iraqis
Iraq.” were all too aware of the grim
– Muntazer reality of their lives to be taken
in by official posturing. After
five years of war, American
voters have seen too many
claims of success in Iraq
deflated by news of fresh
slaughter to be deceived into
thinking that the war was
being won.
In retrospect I think I was
over-optimistic: The foreign
leaders who visited the Green
Zone or other US or British
military camps came away
with the dangerous idea
that they knew something
about Iraq. They would
depart not realising that the
most important political
fact was that the majority of
Iraqis detested the US-led
occupation whatever they
thought of Saddam Hussein.
Even the foreign minister
Hoshyar Zebari, widely seen
as pro-American called the
occupation, “the mother of
all mistakes”. This explains
the popular enthusiasm
for Muntazer on display in
Baghdad yesterday.
The history of the Iraqi
occupation is now beginning
Shoe-throwing reporter
becomes the talk of Iraq
BAGHDAD: The Iraqi journal-
ist who threw his shoes at US
President George W. Bush has
become the talk of Iraq, hailed by
marchers as a national hero but
blasted by the government as a
barbarian.
The little-known Shi’ite report-
er, said to have harboured anger
against Bush for the thousands
of Iraqis who died after the 2003
US-led invasion, had previously
made headlines only once, when
he was briefly kidnapped by gun-
men in 2007.
TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi
remained in detention on Monday,
accused by the Iraqi government
of a “barbaric act.” He faces trial
on charges of insulting the Iraqi
state, said the prime minister’s
media adviser, Yasin Majeed.
His employer, independent al-
Baghdadiya television, demanded
his release and demonstrators
rallied for him in Baghdad’s
Sadr City, in the southern Shi’ite
stronghold of Basra and in the
holy city of Najaf, where some
threw shoes at a US convoy.
“Thanks be to God, Muntazer’s
act fills Iraqi hearts with pride,”
his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, said.
“I’m sure many Iraqis want to
do what Muntazer did. Muntazer
used to say all the orphans whose
fathers were killed are because
of Bush.”
| WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17 2008
to feel like ancient history but
it is relevant because the US
and Britain are committing so
many of the same mistakes
as they did in Iraq. Just at
the moment when Bush was
dodging footwear in Baghdad
accompanied by the Iraqi
prime minister Nouri al-Maliki,
Gordan Brown was appearing
with the Pakistani president
Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad.
Asif Ali is seen as a weak
leader, uncertain of what
he should do and with
limited authority over the
Iraqi military. But, as in
Iraq in the past, his constant
appearance besides visiting
foreign dignitaries convinces
Pakistanis that he is a US
puppet. The constant finger-
wagging against Pakistan by
Brown, the US secretary of
State Condoleeza Rice and
others may do something
to encourage the Pakistani
government to act against
organisations like Lashkar-
e-Toiba and its civilian arm
Jamaat-ud-Dawa. But it also
encourages a sense in Pakistan
that it is being besieged,
encircled by India to the east
and a pro-Indian Afghan
government to the west. The
US drone attacks on Pakistani
territory increase this fear of
military encirclement.
One does not have to spend
long in Pakistan to discover
that many Pakistanis, perhaps
a majority, dislike the US
more than they do India. It is
all very well for Brown to call
for “action not words” against
Zaidi shouted “this is a good-
bye kiss from the Iraqi people,
dog,” at Bush in a news confer-
ence he held with Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell
visit to Baghdad on Sunday.
The journalist then flung one
shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck,
followed by another, which sailed
over Bush’s head and slammed
into the wall behind him. Throw-
ing shoes at someone is the worst
possible insult in the Arab world.
Zaidi was dragged struggling
and screaming from the room
by security guards and could be
heard shouting outside while the
news conference continued after
momentary mayhem.
The government said Zaidi
had carried out “a barbaric and
ignominious act” that was not
fitting of the media’s role and
demanded an apology from his
television station.
Al-Baghdadiya television
played endless patriotic music,
with Zaidi’s face plastered across
the screen. A newscaster read
out a statement calling for his
release, “in accordance with the
democratic era and the freedom
of expression that Iraqis were
promised by US authorities.”
It said that any harsh measures
taken against the reporter would
be reminders of the “dictatorial
era.” – Reuters