Although the Secret Service put everyone who attended President George W. Bush’s Baghdad news conference through several layers of security Sunday, the agency appeared to be caught off guard when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the president.
“We’ll be our own harshest critic regarding this incident” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said Monday, “and we’ll make any appropriate changes to security.”
Donovan said, however, that agents on the scene knew that everyone in attendance had been screened for weapons and that they appeared to have taken the “appropriate level of action.” No shots were fired as Bush’s Secret Service detail joined Iraqi police in taking the shoe thrower into custody.
The arrested man, Muntathar al Zaidi, a 29-year-old employee of Cairo, Egypt-based Baghdadiya Television, remained in Iraqi custody Monday. Officials in Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s office refused to comment on his condition or on whether he’d be criminally charged.
Throngs of Iraqi Shiite Muslims marched Monday in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum, hailing Zaidi as a hero and holding up shoes as they demanded his release.
The National Media Center, an arm of the Iraqi government that deals with the news media, condemned Zaidi’s behavior as barbaric and harmful to “Iraqi journalists and journalism in general,” demanding an apology from his employer.
Baghdadiya hasn’t apologized, and it pressed for Zaidi’s release.
The Iraqi Union of Journalists took a middle road, saying it was “astonished by this behavior” but urging Zaidi’s release “for humanitarian reasons.”
Video of the event at the prime minister’s palace shows a tightly packed room in which most security personnel were forced to the sides, and 20 video cameras lined the back of the room. The cluster of cameras cut the room in half,
Iraqi reporters had waited inside the prime minister’s palace for about three hours for the ceremony to start. They hadn’t been told that Bush would be in attendance, only that Maliki was giving a news conference they wouldn’t want to miss.
About an hour before the news conference, a Secret Service agent arrived and gave waiting Iraqi journalists a fourth and final search.
The room was so crowded that Iraqi journalists added an extra chair in the front row, then crammed in two extra bodies. Two rows of dignitaries, including the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Ray Odierno, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, sat in chairs to the right of President Bush. There was no room for their security details, either.
No Secret Service agent was in view on the video when Zaidi threw the first shoe at Bush’s head from about 20 feet away and shouted in Arabic: “This is a goodbye kiss, you dog.”
Bush dodged the shoe, and Maliki, who was standing to Bush’s left, tried to block Zaidi’s second attempt, which also missed its target. A Secret Service agent appeared to move to Bush’s side, but the president waved him off.
The video shows that another Iraqi journalist, not security agents, pulled Zaidi to the floor before Iraqi police and Secret Service agents piled on him and carried him from the room.
Ever since John W. Hinckley’s failed attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Secret Service began requiring journalists to undergo background checks, credentialing and screening with metal detectors.
Donovan said that everyone attending Sunday’s event “was searched for weapons and passed through several layers of security” before entering the room. He said that they also were subject to name checks, identification checks and verification that they represented their identified news employers.
“It’s obvious that (Bush) could have been hit in the head with a shoe,” he said. “Anytime there’s an incident like this, we’re going to review it. We’re always trying to improve ourselves.”
(Source: McClatchy Newspapers)
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7 Responses
I’m sure other Zaidy’s would throw shoes at the president
The big “kasha ” is why they didnt intercept the second shoe “vetzorich iyun”
Well if its anything like airport security they’ll now have reporters shoeless for press conferences . As was the case with the tipish who wanted to light up his shoes, BH he didn’t throw undergarments!
Reporters will not be allowed to walk with shoes when any U.S. President is in town
Hopefully there will not be another shoe-icide attempt on the president.
While it is well known that the secret service men are prepared to take a bullet to protect the president, I guess they weren’t prepared to take a shoe!
AynOdMilvado1 – rubbish. Watch the video of it on bbc. A man straight away ran to Bush to protect him.
And they didn’t stop the second shoe simply because it was a shock and no-one had recovered yet.
The Secret Service should have shot and killed this piece of filth on the spot – ask questions later. That would have been a relatively safe & simple way to show this nation of “pereh adams” that “you don’t mess” with the likes of the President of the United States. Missed oppotunity by the SS.
Now be prepared for many other slimy want-to-be- hero journalists who will hurl objects at US officials & dignitaries. Only they might not throw just shoes; it may be much more hurtful & hazardous items. Right after 9/11 there was a rise in the amount of attempts to crash airplanes into buildings.
We have to know that it is not feasible to be completely “politically correct” with people(?) who carry such an insane level of hatred toward everything American. You sometimes need to extract a dear enough price so that it becomes unworthwhile for them to engage in their hateful acts.
It seems these meshugaim have something about shoes. Remeber Richard Reid ym”s – the would-be “shoe-bomber”. I always wondered why in the Arab shuk I notice a disproportionate amount of people walking barefoot. I guess they had yet to recieve orders for their shoe-related acts of terror.