Al-Zaidi was in Paris to promote his campaign for the "victims of the US occupation in Iraq" when a fellow Iraqi critic turned the tables on him, shouting: "Here's another shoe for you."
The thick-set man with an Iraqi accent made a brief speech in Arabic during the question and answer session, defending US policy and accusing Zaidi of "working for dictatorship in Iraq," before throwing his shoe.
The missile was thrown hard at Zaidi's head, but he managed to dodge it and it bounced harmlessly off a curtain erected behind the speakers by the event's hosts, the Foreign Press Welcome Center in Paris.
Zaidi's brother grappled with and slapped the man, whom witnesses later described as an asylum-seeker they know only as "Khayat", before venue staff and bystanders separated them and the aggressor was hustled away.
As I noted previously: "Al-Zaidi was once head of the student union under Saddam Hussein. [He was also a fellow Baathist]. Another individual to head the National Students Union in Iraq was a fellow by the name of Umar Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti. Mr. al-Tikriti, who was also the head of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen, allegedly provided support for the Iraqi insurgency. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in March of 2005.
"What's more, Mr. Al-Zaidi - the notorious shoe thrower - had previously been detained in November of 2007 for two weeks after videotaping the scene of an improvised explosive device that targeted an American Humvee. Why they released him from detention is anyone's guess..."
No comments:
Post a Comment