Bush's Legacy - Progress Pond

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In this image from APTN video, a man throws a shoe at President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Baghdad. The man threw two shoes at Bush, one after another. Bush ducked both throws, and neither man was hit. (AP Photo/APTN)

Bush’s Visit to Baghdad Shrouded in Secrecy

BAGHDAD (AP) – On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

“This is the end!” shouted the protester, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

Getting hit by a shoe, the ultimate Iraqi contempt

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

5 Comments

Salunga on December 14, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Heres your WMD. The guy has a good arm. Two nice throws.

dada on December 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm

ya gotta love the look on malarki’s face…it’s like… wtf’s this bozo doin’ here?…l got enough problems already.

Salunga on December 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm

I wonder about the story of the man that threw the shoe? Was he Iraqi? Had he found a way to keep his family intact and alive before the great “liberation”? Has he watched family members die? Has he lost his home? Did these things happen because George Bush wanted to be a “wartime president” and act out his childlike war fantasies? Did his family and country suffer because of Bush’s inferiority complex?

I want to know, I want his story. He threw that shoe for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. He threw that shoe for me. That I know. I wish him much luck in the future.

idredit on December 15, 2008 at 10:11 am

Be confident, there’s no statute of limitations for war crimes.

Go read The Senate’s bipartisan report [.PDF] (H/T Andrew Sullivan)

Bush will go down as:

The Architect Of Abu Ghraib

Last week, we reached some closure on a burning and controversial question that has occupied many for many years now. That is the simple question of who was responsible for the abuse, torture, rape and murder of prisoners in American custody in the war on terror, most indelibly captured by the photographic images of Abu Ghraib. The Senate’s bipartisan report, issued with no dissents, reiterates and adds factual context to what we already know. And there is no equivocation in the report.

The person who authorized all the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib, the man who gave the green light to the abuses in that prison, is the president of the United States, George W. Bush.

Again: there is no longer any reasonable factual debate about this (hence to near total silence of the Republican right), and the Senate report finally holds the president responsible in bipartisan fashion:

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.

Those ghastly pctures of naked, hooded prisoners? Bush approved nudity and hooding of prisoners. Hypothermia? Sleep deprivation? Bush signed a memo removing the most baseline protections for all human beings under the Geneva Conventions. Waterboarding? Bush knew full well. As did Rice and Tenet and Powell and that poseur in defense of human rights, Paul Wolfowitz. But even before the memo, before any prisoners were captured, the Bush administration was working on how to torture them:

In December 2001, more than a month before the President signed his memorandum, the Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel’s Office had already solicited information on detainee “exploitation” from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), an agency whose expertise was in training American personnel to withstand interrogation techniques considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

[.]

The report itself is not that long and I highly recommend reading it all closely. It is the most sobering indictment of high government officials in the U.S. since Watergate. And, in the gravity of crimes, it is a far more profound violation of the law and the constitution and the security of the United States than Watergate ever was. Bush’s crimes are far greater than Nixon’s – because war crimes are far graver than burglaries. And there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.

(emphasis mine)

And so Bush, like many criminals, there’s a burning desire to return to the scene of the crime.

Oui on December 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm

The 50,000 Signatures Campaign for Muntather al-Zaidi

Thousands demand release of TV journalist as footage dominates presidential swansong tour

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Iraq to demand the release of Muntadar al-Zeidi, who is being held at the headquarters of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

≈ Cross-posted from gottlieb’s diary — Naked Emperors and Shoeless Heroes ≈

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Salunga on December 14, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Heres your WMD. The guy has a good arm. Two nice throws.
dada on December 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm

ya gotta love the look on malarki’s face…it’s like… wtf’s this bozo doin’ here?…l got enough problems already.
Salunga on December 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm

I wonder about the story of the man that threw the shoe? Was he Iraqi? Had he found a way to keep his family intact and alive before the great “liberation”? Has he watched family members die? Has he lost his home? Did these things happen because George Bush wanted to be a “wartime president” and act out his childlike war fantasies? Did his family and country suffer because of Bush’s inferiority complex?

I want to know, I want his story. He threw that shoe for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. He threw that shoe for me. That I know. I wish him much luck in the future.
idredit on December 15, 2008 at 10:11 am

Be confident, there’s no statute of limitations for war crimes.

Go read The Senate’s bipartisan report [.PDF] (H/T Andrew Sullivan)

Bush will go down as:

The Architect Of Abu Ghraib

Last week, we reached some closure on a burning and controversial question that has occupied many for many years now. That is the simple question of who was responsible for the abuse, torture, rape and murder of prisoners in American custody in the war on terror, most indelibly captured by the photographic images of Abu Ghraib. The Senate’s bipartisan report, issued with no dissents, reiterates and adds factual context to what we already know. And there is no equivocation in the report.

The person who authorized all the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib, the man who gave the green light to the abuses in that prison, is the president of the United States, George W. Bush.

Again: there is no longer any reasonable factual debate about this (hence to near total silence of the Republican right), and the Senate report finally holds the president responsible in bipartisan fashion:

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.

Those ghastly pctures of naked, hooded prisoners? Bush approved nudity and hooding of prisoners. Hypothermia? Sleep deprivation? Bush signed a memo removing the most baseline protections for all human beings under the Geneva Conventions. Waterboarding? Bush knew full well. As did Rice and Tenet and Powell and that poseur in defense of human rights, Paul Wolfowitz. But even before the memo, before any prisoners were captured, the Bush administration was working on how to torture them:

In December 2001, more than a month before the President signed his memorandum, the Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel’s Office had already solicited information on detainee “exploitation” from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), an agency whose expertise was in training American personnel to withstand interrogation techniques considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

[.]

The report itself is not that long and I highly recommend reading it all closely. It is the most sobering indictment of high government officials in the U.S. since Watergate. And, in the gravity of crimes, it is a far more profound violation of the law and the constitution and the security of the United States than Watergate ever was. Bush’s crimes are far greater than Nixon’s – because war crimes are far graver than burglaries. And there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.

(emphasis mine)

And so Bush, like many criminals, there’s a burning desire to return to the scene of the crime.
Oui on December 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm

.

The 50,000 Signatures Campaign for Muntather al-Zaidi
Thousands demand release of TV journalist as footage dominates presidential swansong tour

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Iraq to demand the release of Muntadar al-Zeidi, who is being held at the headquarters of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

≈ Cross-posted from gottlieb’s diary — Naked Emperors and Shoeless Heroes ≈

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Bush’s Legacy

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Oui

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