We’ve all been circulating the funny shoe tossing games that have been popping up on line, folks around the world – and even the White House press corps – have been making jokes about “shoevenirs,” and you can’t turn on a tv or load up youtube without seeing the video over and over – but look closely and the story is less amusing.

Take a look at this version of the event – it’s taken from a different angle than the one getting the most play. In the second section you can clearly hear Al Zaida crying out as Iraqi security guards grab him and begin to pummel him, dragging him by his hair out of the room – and then you can see George’s smirk.

As RockRichard points out over on VoteVets:

For all the talk about spreading democracy, liberating a people, and establishing the rule of law, American President George W. Bush, the so-called leader of the free world, stood idly by as a man was subjected to cruel and unusual pre-trial beatings for the act of throwing shoes at a person.

And today, while the reports are understandably a bit confused since it does not seem that any independent sources have had actual access to Al Zaida wherever he is being held, there are numerous reports that he has been beaten even more:

“He has got a broken arm and ribs, and cuts to his eye and arm,” said Durgham [a brother]. “He is being held by forces under the command of Muwaffaq al-Rubaie,” Iraq’s national security adviser, he added.

"All that we know is we were contacted yesterday by a person – we know him – and he told us that Muntazer was taken on Sunday to Ibn-Sina hospital," Maitham al-Zaidi said. "He was wounded in the head because he was hit by a rifle butt, and one of his arms was broken." Asked about the brother’s remarks, various Iraqi officials denied having responsibility for the case.

I asked the Iraqi embassy in Washington today for a statement explaining where Al Zaida is being held and what his condition is – but after multiple calls during which even their voice mail was unavailable and one conversation promising a response, crickets.

The U.S. State Department – ignoring the very evidence we can see and hear above – did make a statement:

We would condemn any kind of unnecessary force used against the reporter. I don’t know that that happened. But certainly, if that did take place, we would condemn that.

And while the White House stated that the President “harbors no hard feelings” they have conveniently just noticed the sovereignty of Iraq and says “they will have a process that they follow on this.”

As Patrick Cockburn, in an essay pointing to the real danger of these political visits to Iraq – not in any risk of harm to the traveling pols, but that:

“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.”

points out:

In Baghdad Mr Bush could see for the first time in five years, in the shape of pair of shoes hurtling towards him, what so many Iraqis really think of him.

In his smirk while Al Zaida’s cries out in pain, and his unwillingness to call for his release, we once again see what George Bush thinks of Iraqis.

Now it’s up to us to let both the Iraqi government and the White House know what we think of their treatment of Al Zaida and insist that he be protected from further abuse. You can call the White House and leave a comment at 202-456-1111 and you can call the Embassy at (202) 742-1600. The National Lawyer’s Guild is organzing a shoe drive to show support for Al Zaida – all the details are here.


Related posts:

  1. Changing of the Guard: US Troops Withdraw from Iraqi Cities; Maliki Declares “Sovereignty Day”
  2. CIA: Focus on the Beatings, Not the Incompetence
  3. Jeb Bush: Stop Blaming My Brother for Driving the Country Off a Cliff
  4. US Contractors Held in Iraqi Jail for Green Zone Murder
  5. Let’s Stop Max Baucus’s Bipartisan Fetish In Health Reform