Soon to Be Freed, Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist Showered With Gifts: "I Feel Like Michael Jackson"

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Soon to Be Freed, Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist Showered With Gifts: "I Feel Like Michael Jackson"

By Martin Chulov and Rory McCarthy, The Guardian. Posted September 11, 2009.

Muntazer al-Zaidi has won the adulation of millions, who believe his act of defiance did what their leaders had been too cowed to do.




As his size 10s spun through the air towards George W Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi -- the man the world now knows as the shoe-thrower -- was bracing for an American bullet.

"He thought the secret service was going to shoot him," says Zaidi's younger brother, Maitham. "He expected that, and he was not afraid to die."

Zaidi's actions during the former U.S. president's swansong visit to Iraq last December have not stopped reverberating in the nine months since.

Next Monday, when the journalist walks out of prison, his 10 raging seconds, which came to define his country's last six miserable years, are set to take on a new life even more dramatic than the opening act.

Across Iraq and in every corner of the Arab world, Zaidi is being feted. The 20 words or so he spat at Bush -- "This is your farewell kiss, you dog. This is for the widows and orphans of Iraq" – have been immortalized, and in many cases memorized. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142529/soon_to_be_freed%2C_shoe-throwing_iraqi_journalist_showered_with_gifts%3A_%22i_feel_like_michael_jackson%22/

[Walk away]

1. Dead? n/t

[moggie]

2. Nobody told him MJ died?

He's going to be heartbroken, poor guy!

[tekisui]

3. Not a lot of news makes it into Iraqi prisons, I guess.