Villa State

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes on U.S. President George W. Bush in a supreme insult suddenly talk about Iraq.

The little-known Shiite journalist allegedly harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died in 2003 after the invasion, had made headlines once when he was briefly kidnapped by unknown persons in 2007.

-TV Muntazer al-Zaidi journalist remained in custody Monday, accused by the Iraqi government a “barbaric act”.

His employer, the independent al-Baghdadiya television, and demanded his release, demonstrators rallied for him in Sadr City in Baghdad, the southern Shiite stronghold of Basra and the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.

“Thank God, the Iraqi Muntazer heart filled with pride,” his brother, Udai Al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television, demanding that the Iraqi government free him.

“I am sure that many Iraqis want to do what has Muntazer. Muntazer used to say all orphans whose father was killed because of Bush. ”

Zaidi cried, “this is a farewell kiss to the Iraqi people, dog,” Bush at a press conference the U.S. president held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the ordinary course of unannounced visit to Baghdad on Sunday farewell.

The journalist then distant a shoe Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over the head of Bush and criticized in the wall behind him. Run shoes someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and can be heard shouting outside, while the press after brief chaos.

“Barbarians”

Zaidi said the Iraqi government had made “barbaric and shameful act” that do not correspond to the role of the media.

“He tried to attack the president visit,” the Media Center of the Council of Ministers said in a statement.

“At the same time, we condemn this outrageous act, we ask the television journalist in this public apology for this law, which sulle reputation of all Iraqi journalists and the media.”

Al-Baghdadiya television demands the immediate release Zaidi, “according to the era of democracy and freedom of expression has been promised that Iraqis by U.S. authorities.”

He said the tough measures taken against the journalist would have memories of the dictatorship era “Washington said its forces invaded Iraq to end.

Zaidi, who is in his late 20s, spent more than two days blindfolded, barely eating and drinking, after gunmen forced into a car while walking to work in November 2007.

He said that the captors had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and he used his tie to blindfold him and bound his hands with shoelaces.

He never learned the identity of the kidnappers, who questioned him about his work, but has not demanded a ransom.

Zaidi colleagues say that anger on President Bush, blaming him for the bloodshed that has plagued Iraq after the invasion. It seems that he had not lost relatives during the sectarian killings and unrest in recent months have finally begun to decline.

A few supporters of the anti-American Shiite spiritual Moqtada al-Sadr called for his release in Basra, south of the city that controls Iraqi oil exports.

Larger groups Sadrists also protested in Baghdad Sadr City and in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. In Najaf, witnesses said protesters threw shoes at a passing U.S. convoy.

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