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JOHN
ROBERTS: President Bush says he saw the man's soul...
Iraqi government officials say the journalist who
threw his shoes at the president is now in the
custody of Iraq's military command. We're learning
more now about why he did it. And now he's become
something of a folk hero in Iraq and other parts of
the Muslim world as a result.
CNN's Michael Ware is live in Baghdad for us this
morning. What do we know about this young man's
story, Michael?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah,
good day, John.
Look, he's a 28-year-old Shia who works for this
Iraqi network that runs of Cairo in Egypt. Now, he's
been living and working in Sadr City, the sprawling
slum of more than two million Shia, mostly loyal to
rebel anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Now we know that last year he was kidnapped for three
days by insurgents or militia. This year he was
detained for a day by U.S. forces but then released.
And we know that he's been covering, in the words of
his family, lots of stories about orphans and widows
and generally the carnage from this war. And they say
it's deeply affected him.
And we do know that in a few of his reports, he's
signed off with his name and the location of
"occupied Iraq." So this guy obviously had become
pretty disenchanted. That, unfortunately, is not
uncommon here in Iraq -- John.
ROBERTS: What's the reaction been to him there on the
ground in Baghdad, Michael? And also, we have been
hearing some reports coming from his brother and
others that he may have been beaten while in Iraqi
custody and it did seem when he was taken down there
during the press conference that the Iraqi
authorities were pretty harsh with him.
WARE: Yeah, surprise, surprise. Iraqi police, you
know, giving someone a touch up. That would be a
first.
He actually -- if they don't give you a flogging
that's the grounds for complaint over here. But, you
know, what happened in the press conference was, you
know, I would imagine perfectly legitimate. What's
happened after we don't know.
A Sadrist politician and his brother claimed that
he's got a broken arm or a few other injuries. We
don't know until he's handed over to the court
system.
Now in terms of reaction, obviously, he's become a
folk hero across the Middle East with outpourings of
support. And just here today and it's only just past
lunchtime, we've had a demonstration by high school
students in Fallujah calling for his release,
supporting him. More high school students in northern
Baghdad demonstrating for him. Journalism students at
Baghdad University protesting for him. Students at
Diyala University protesting for him.
People are texting each other on their phones like
crazy with jokes and poems and words of support for
him. And he's even got a Facebook fan site, where
hundreds are already signing up, John. So he's become
a rock star in some ways.
ROBERTS: Yes. The Maliki government officially not
very happy with him, though. We'll see how this goes
and continue watching. Fascinating story.
Michael Ware for us this morning from Baghdad.
Michael, thanks so much.