A few days ago, writing about the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) between the US and the Iraqi “government”, Jonathan Steele wrote in the Guardian:
“The deal gives Iraq’s national resistance almost everything it fought for (…) From the American point of view, the main thing the pact does is to allow the US to withdraw with dignity. No hasty Vietnam-style humiliation, but an orderly retreat from an adventure which was illegal, unnecessary, and a disaster from the moment of conception. Like most Iraqis, I am content with that.”
The world could see how content Iraqis and Iraq’s national resistance are when Muntazer al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist, shouted, “This is the farewell kiss you dog… this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq” and threw at him his shoes during a news conference in Baghdad.
Iraqi Blogger Roads to Iraq reported yesterday:
The most important thing is that Iraqi Resistance group “Jihad and Reform” reacted on the Iraqi journalist act saying: “This is the referendum [on the Security Agreement] you asked for, you saw it with your own eyes”:
“While we admire this courageous act and we promise him that his courage will be written with gold in the history pages, we hold the Government of the Green Zone, the occupation administration the full responsibility in maintaining the life of the hero and warn them of torturing him.
We also call upon all Arab and international organizations interested in human rights specialized in defending the freedoms and rights of journalists to work stand beside the hero journalist and demanding his release.”
Iraqis protested at Bush’s farewell visit on Sunday to Iraq with people throwing shoes at passing US military vehicles. Thousands of Iraqis continue to take to the streets all over the country to demand the release of the Iraqi journalist and protest the occupation of their land.
“The flying shoe speaks more for Arab public opinion than all the despots/puppets that Bush meets with during his travels in the Middle East,” said Asad Abu Khalil, a popular Lebanese-American blogger and professor at Stanislaus University in California.
According to his brother, Muntazer al-Zaidi “hates the American material occupation as much as he hates the Iranian moral occupation. As for Iran, he considers the regime to be the other side of the American coin.” [I’d add here for the Western public opinion that’s been made obsessed about Iraqis’ religious affiliation since the 2003 illegal invasion of the country, that Muntazer al-Zaidi is a Shiite]
The Iraqi journalist has “a broken arm and ribs, and cuts to his eye and arm”. The sectarian Quisling gang of warlords and mafia hoods who’ve been pimping in the Green Zone for the past six years will never be able to forgive this Iraqi hero who’s shown the world their infamy. For this reason he needs all our support.
Please, sign this petition and write to journalists and journalists’ organizations, human rights advocates, your representative in your country’s Parliament and European Parliament. To save one life is to save humanity.
