US military had detained Bush shoe attacker

The Iraqi TV reporter who hurled his shoes at US President George Bush was kidnapped once by militants and, separately, detained briefly by the US military.

Over time, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a 28-year-old unmarried Shiite, came to hate both the US military occupation and Iran’s interference in Iraq, his family said today.

Mr Al-Zeidi’s act of defiance on Sunday transformed an obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the US’s six-year presence in their country.

Several thousand people demonstrated in Baghdad and other cities to demand Mr Al-Zeidi’s release.

A charity run by the daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi bestowed a medal of courage on Mr Al-Zeidi, calling on the Iraqi government to free him.

Mr Al-Zeidi was being held in Iraqi custody for investigation and could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Mr Bush.

Conviction carries a sentence of up to two years in prison or a small fine - although it is unlikely he would face the maximum penalty given his new-found cult status in the Arab world.

Mr Bush was not hit or injured in the attack, and Iraqi security guards wrestled Mr Al-Zeidi to the ground immediately after he threw his shoes.

White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury when she was hit in the face with a microphone during the melee.

But Mr Bush took a drubbing later as Arab satellite TV networks repeatedly broadcast images of him ducking the shoes at the Baghdad press conference.

The sight of an average Arab standing up and making a public show of resentment was striking – especially against a leader widely blamed for a litany of crimes including the turmoil in Iraq, where tens of thousands of civilians have died in the war.

Mr Bush joked about the incident later telling reporters: “I’m pretty good at ducking as some of you know,” a reference to avoiding questions.

He downplayed the significance of the display saying he did not think “you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want but I don’t think that would be accurate.”

Mr Al-Zeidi’s three brothers and one sister gathered in their sibling’s simple, one-bedroom apartment in west Baghdad today.

The home was decorated with a poster of Latin American revolutionary leader Che Guevara, who is widely lionised in the Middle East.

Family members expressed bewilderment over Mr Al-Zeidi’s action and concern about his treatment in Iraqi custody. But they also expressed pride over his defiance of an American president who many Iraqis believe has destroyed their country.

“I swear to Allah, he is a hero,” said his sister, who goes by the nickname Umm Firas (mother of Firas, her oldest son), as she watched a replay of her brother’s attack on an Arabic satellite station. “May Allah protect him.”

The family insisted that Mr Al-Zeidi’s action was spontaneous – perhaps motivated by the political turmoil that their brother had reported on, plus his personal brushes with violence and the threat of death that millions of Iraqis face daily.

Mr Al-Zeidi joined Al-Baghdadia television in September 2005 after graduating from Baghdad University with a degree in communications. Two years later, he was seized by gunmen while on an assignment in a Sunni district of north Baghdad.

He was freed unharmed three days later after Iraqi television stations broadcast appeals for his release.

At the time, Mr Al-Zeidi told reporters he did not know who kidnapped him or why, but his family blamed al Qaida and said no ransom was paid.

In January he was taken again, this time arrested by American soldiers who searched his apartment building, his brother, Dhirgham, said. He was released the next day with an apology, the brother said.

Those experiences helped mold a deep resentment of both the US military’s presence and Iran’s pervasive influence over Iraq’s cleric-dominated Shiite community, according to his family.

“He hates the American physical occupation as much as he hates the Iranian moral occupation,” Dhirgham said. “As for Iran, he considers the regime to be the other side of the American coin.”