Word: iraqi
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...opponents of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, it was an Eid bonus. With the hubbub over the Status of Forces Agreement having died down, the movement led by the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had run out of things to denounce: Zeidi's "heroism" was just what they needed to return to the streets, bearing the usual banners of protest and U.S. flags to burn. The Sadrists also made political hay of Zeidi in parliament, bringing it to a standstill. The gadfly speaker, Mahmoud Mashadani - no mean headline-grabber himself - threatened to resign.(See the Top 10 Awkward Moments...
...didn't take long for other shoes to drop. Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who fastballed his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad over the weekend, remains in custody, but his act of individual protest has feverishly rippled out across the country, sparking uproar in parliament and pride on the streets. The obscure correspondent for al-Baghdadiya, a satellite-TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo, could face from two to seven years' imprisonment for hurling his footwear at the U.S. President and for calling Bush...
...Sadrists were saying 'We are talking about having immunity for foreign troops here while an Iraqi is in prison for insulting a foreigner,'" says Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish lawmaker who attended the session. "They're trying to embarrass al-Maliki in an election year, to portray him as an American puppet." (See the Top 10 Awkward Moments...
...Zaidi's case is now before the Iraqi judiciary, but few in Iraq expect the courts to have the last word in this case. The correspondent's actions were not merely an affront to the U.S. President; they discombobulated al-Maliki as well, who was standing beside Bush as he nimbly dodged the size-10 leather projectiles. Al-Zaidi has penned a letter of apology to the Prime Minister, asking for a pardon and saying his actions were directed squarely against Bush and not at al-Maliki, according to Omar Almashhadani, a spokesman for the Sunni Tawafuk parliamentary bloc...
Iraq - indeed, the entire region - is watching what happens next to this formerly little-known Iraqi journalist. That leaves al-Maliki with few good options. The Prime Minister has worked hard in the past year to cultivate his nationalist bona fides, increasingly pushing back against Washington and driving a hard bargain on a recently approved bilateral security pact with the U.S. Yet those finely honed patriotic credentials could crumble if al-Maliki deals harshly with al-Zaidi...