AMMAN, Iraq — Saddam Hussein’s former lawyer said on Monday he was forming a team to defend the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush during his farewell visit to Baghdad.
“So far around 200 Iraqi and other lawyers, including Americans, have expressed willingness to defend the journalist for free,” Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP.
Iraq faced mounting calls on Monday to release the journalist who hurled his shoes at Bush, an action branded shameful by the government but hailed by many in the Arab world as an ideal parting gift to the unpopular US president.
Colleagues of Muntazer al-Zaidi, who works for independent Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia, said he “detested America” and had been plotting such an attack for months against the man who ordered the invasion of his country.
Zaidi jumped up as Bush was holding a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday, shouted “It is the farewell kiss, you dog” and threw two shoes at the US leader.
Both missed after Bush ducked, but Zaidi was wrestled to the ground by security guards and arrested.
The Jordanian press also welcomed Zaidi’s action.
“Hurling shoes at Bush was the best goodbye kiss ever... it expresses how Iraqis and other Arabs hate Bush,” wrote Musa Barhoumeh, editor of Al-Ghad independent Arabic newspaper.
Hundreds of Iraqis joined anti-US demonstrations to protest at Bush’s farewell visit to Iraq last Sunday.
The Iraqi government however branded Zaidi’s actions as “shameful” and demanded an apology from his Cairo-based employer, which in turn was calling for his immediate release from custody.
It is not known where Zaidi is currently being held.
Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam’s statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue’s face with their soles.
In Cairo, Muzhir al-Khafaji, programming director for the television channel, described Zaidi as a “proud Arab and an open-minded man,” saying he had worked at Al-Baghdadia for three years.
“We fear for his safety,“ he told AFP, adding that Zaidi had been arrested twice before by the Americans and that there were fears that more of the station’s 200 correspondents in Iraq would be arrested.
No repeat of incident in RP
Palace officials do not see the shoe-throwing incident against Bush in Iraq being replicated in the country with President Arroyo, who is no stranger to heckling herself.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the incident where an Iraqi journalist threw Mr. Bush a pair of shoes during a press conference was not uncommon to world leaders.
He said some European leaders were pelted with eggs by protesters and in some parliaments, members engaged in fistfights.
He and Presidential Management Staff chief Secretary Cerge Remonde also said in separate interviews that Filipinos are known all over the world for their hospitality and being well-mannered and courteous.
“Well, you know, it happens everywhere. There are parliaments in other countries where there are fistfights. Of course, there are extremes like what happened as we read it in the papers,” Ermita said.
He said Filipino journalists and Filipinos in general are “different.”
“Filipinos are more civil than that,” Remonde said.
Presidential Security Group chief Brig. Gen. Celedonio Boquiren was not worried about possible copycats in the country.
Mrs. Arroyo, who has been sustaining low popularity ratings, is no stranger to heckling, mostly from left-leaning activists, in some of her public engagements.
She has maintained that she is not bothered by her low survey ratings as long as she is able to implement economic and political reforms.
Opposition senators asserted yesterday that there is no need for a repeat of the incident in the Philippines to dramatize discontent against the Arroyo administration.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who was witness to the ouster of former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, said he does not think that such act will be done against Mrs. Arroyo.
Enrile said Filipinos respect elders and people in power.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel said it would just be a waste of time if a stone is literally thrown against President Arroyo.
In jest, opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Mrs. Arroyo could duck anyway even if a stone is thrown her way, apparently making a pun on the President’s height.
Seriously, Lacson said the President should still be regarded with respect because of her position. – Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez with AFP