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| Iraq |
| Iraqi 'shoe-thrower' shot dead by US forces |
| 2009-09-16 |
| An Iraqi man who witnesses said shouted abuse before throwing a shoe at a US army vehicle was shot dead on Wednesday in what the American military said was a suspected grenade attack. Residents told an AFP reporter in Fallujah that Ahmed Latif, 32, whom they said was mentally disturbed, insulted the soldiers as they patrolled in the centre of the city, and then hurled a shoe at them. The US military told AFP that a convoy in Fallujah had been attacked with a suspected grenade. "Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding the attacker," the army said in a statement. "Local Iraqi police secured the scene and transported the wounded attacker to a local hospital for medical care." Dr Ali Hatam of Fallujah hospital confirmed that Latif died of gunshot wounds. The incident came a day after Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi was freed after spending nine months in jail for throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush during a visit to Baghdad. It sounds like shoe throwing copy cats might have a good reason to rethink their mode of protest. |
| Posted by:whitecollar redneck |
| #4 There should be a 3 day waiting period and background check before any shoe purchases. |
| Posted by: airandee 2009-09-16 20:30 |
| #3 Me, too. I said, out loud, "no fraking way ..." Sounds from article described, the guys was nuts. Unfortunately, being nuts in a live-fire zone can get you roasted. |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2009-09-16 18:00 |
| #2 shoe throwing copy cats Shoe-throwing is an arab cultural thing, evident with iraqi beating saddam's statue with their shoes, showing the soles of their shoes to diss people, or throwing shoes (has happened quite a bit before the GWB/Maliki incident, in demos against Us forces and such); not that this was evident to some pundits who assumed western cultural norms instead of arabo-muslim clean/unclean taboos ("he threw his shoes to show that the iraqi people was under the boot heel of the USA", this kind of silliness) or to copycats around the world who did/do/will do that again and again, just because it was shown on teevee and had some impact. As for this guy, he was killed because he was seen as a genuine threat, not because of the shoe thing, though it won't be interpreted that way, and will only add to that very tiring 'shoe' meme. Strike a blow for freedom, throw a shoe. Please, spare me. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-09-16 17:59 |
| #1 When I saw the headline I thought it was about the guy who threw his shoe at Bush. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-09-16 17:53 |