From the Guardian, another piece about the shoe throwing journalist:
Zaidi is in custody and faces up to two years’ jail for insulting a foreign leader.
Isn’t that like ‘following the wrong religion’ or praising the wrong man-with-bombs?
Neither Bush nor Maliki have sought charges, but investigating judge Dhia al-Kinani said last week he did not have the legal option to drop the case.
Right. No legal option to drop charges.
Uday al-Zaidi said his brother told him the apology letter was written against his will because of the torture inflicted on him during his detention, including being doused with cold water while naked.
“He told me that he has no regret because of what he did and that he would do it again,” Uday said.
“The thing that makes you cry and laugh at the same time is that when the prime minister said that that my brother was not tortured and will not be tortured, he was under severe torture by security authorities.”
I’m pretty sure that no-one has the legal option to turture either.
The prime minister said Zaidi admitted in the letter that a known terrorist had induced him to throw the shoes.
“He revealed … that a person provoked him to commit this act and that person is known to us for slitting throats,” Maliki said, according to the prime minister’s website. The alleged instigator was not named.
So he’s not an attention grabbing Afghan-Factor wannabe after all.
The prime minister said his government remained “committed to protecting the journalist in performing his professional duty” and guaranteed him the right to practise his profession “on condition that he does not violate the dignity of others”.
Hahaha! Excellent. I just had a vision of Rebekah Wade up in the dock, for ‘violating the dignity of others’ and ending up wearing a ‘community payback’ hi-vis jacket.
I can’t buy this becuase I still have a problem with the basic act and the response to the act. I’m sure you’re not a fan but Harry’s Place has a good piece on the matter, not perfect but a good piece.
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/12/22/why-muntadhar-al-zaidi-is-no-hero/
Fair enough.
But i) Saddam was an evil man and this bloke would’ve been severely fucked, rather than just fucked now, but that doesn’t excuse him getting a beating in custody. I don’t know how much he resisted arrest, if at all, and has to expect a few bruises from the secret service after pulling a stunt like this. But fucking him up in custody is ok as long as we don’t do it as badly as Saddam would’ve, eh? Why is Saddam the bench mark between good and evil?
ii) “on condition that he does not violate the dignity of others”. Nice free press.
iii) If he is supported by or supports Al Sadr or has a poster of Che or thinks Stalin was the massiah, so what? It isn’t this journalist chap that I support. He has down what he did. Just because I am critical of how he has been treated afterwards doesn’t mean I support Sadr killing transgender Iraqis or some Iranian that wants to flatten New York.
No, I’m not a big fan of Harrys’ Place.
The Zionist use this trick alot, screaming anti-sematism to any criticism of Israel. Only here Harry Place has done it with Anti-Americanism.