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HEIDI
COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The president expected back in
Washington after a whirlwind unannounced visit to
Iraq and Afghanistan. But his surprise visits were
not without incident, including a farewell kiss of
some kind from an Iraqi journalist. Kathleen Koch now
live at the White House with more on that.
Kathleen, good morning to you.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning,
Heidi.
Certainly a memorable trip for President Bush. And
some are calling it actually a victory lap without
the victory.
COLLINS: The president as you know by now, coming
under unfriendly fire at that press conference during
a surprise visit to Iraq. His attacker's weapon of
choice: shoes. CNN's Michael Ware is live in Iraq now
with a wrap of the president's Iraq trip.
Michael, when I look at that, I also remember way
back at the start of the war when we listened to the
Iraqi journalists in a press conference similar to
that when they stood up and they were yelling, "death
to Saddam, death to Saddam." And now all these years
later we see something like this happening.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right,
Heidi.
I mean, in Iraqi culture and in much of this region,
throwing a shoe or showing someone the soles of your
shoe is perhaps the greatest insult that you can
give, equivalent to a westerner raising the middle
finger or swearing at someone. This really does show
a level of emotional distress or anger that goes
beyond the pale.
Now why this fellow did this, he said that, "this is
your farewell." He's a journalist from Sadr City, an
impoverished slum. And we wonder now what's becoming
of him as he's in Iraqi custody. But as you say,
we've seen the shoe used in Iraq only at these most
egregious moments. And perhaps one of the most famous
is just at the end of the invasion when Saddam's
statue was pulled down and Iraqis leapt upon it,
slapping Saddam's stony face with their shoes.
Another time we've seen it just recently is perhaps
somewhat prophetic. It was just a few weeks ago
during an anti-American demonstration where people
were throwing their shoes at guess what? An effigy of
President Bush -- Heidi.
COLLINS: President Bush is there, though, also to
sign a controversial security agreement, that one
that sets the deadline for U.S. troops to leave Iraq
in three years.
What is the overall feelings from Iraqis about that?
WARE: Well, I think in many ways the Iraqis are very,
very glad that at least the process has been
finished. There is an agreement. By and large, most
Iraqis do not favor American presence here, but at
the same time, almost contradicting themselves, they
don't want the Americans to leave just yet. No one
likes a foreign occupier, but then again they know
that that occupier is the only one holding warring
factions apart. So it's quite a problematic mix of
feelings for Iraqis.
And yet we see as a result of this shoe throwing, you
know, his local television network is virtually
celebrating him as a national hero. Though as many
people who support him also feel that his behavior
was not appropriate. It was bad form to do this in
front of the Iraqi Prime Minister. However, everyone
does agree with the sentiment that he was expressing.
Others took it further with thousands taking to the
street today in an anti-American protest where
American flags were burned -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Everyone agrees. Wow. All right. Well, CNN's
Michael Ware coming to us live from Baghdad this
morning. Thank you, Michael.
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BETTY
NGUYEN: Yes, take one more look because it is the
shoe-throwing incident seen around the world. Now the
most-Googled video of the day. Iraqi police have the
journalist in custody, the man who hurled his
footwear at President Bush. In the Middle East,
though, that gesture is a well-recognized insult.
CNN's Michael Ware joins us now from Baghdad.
All right, Michael. What's been the Iraqi reaction to
this shoe-throwing incident?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is
extraordinary, isn't it, Betty? And the incident
happened here overnight, local time. So this morning,
people woke up and we started to hear what they were
thinking.
Now, opinion appears to be largely divided down the
middle. There are those people who condemn what the
journalist did, and there are obviously those who
support it.
However, those who condemn it do so on the grounds of
etiquette. They say that it was impolite to throw the
shoe while the Iraqi prime minister was there.
Plus, of course, President Bush was a guest of the
prime minister. So it invokes that kind of guest
obligation, host obligation in Arab culture.
Now, those who support it, and there's plenty of
them, say President Bush deserved this. Now where,
again, there seems to be universal support is that
the journalist, whether you think he was impolite or
not, should not be punished by law. And mostly people
agree that he should be released. And indeed, his own
channel has spent much of the day just running
nationalist music videos with the journalist's
picture kept in frame and a ticker that lists local
politicians who want him freed, and an endless stream
of text messages from viewers calling him a national
hero and wanting him let out of jail -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yeah, Michael, but here's what's really
interesting about that. And I'm reading reports here
that the Iraqi judiciary is deciding whether the
journalist is going to face charges of, what,
assaulting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. That's
talking about the Iraqi prime minister. It says
nothing about the fact that the shoes were directed
at President Bush.
WARE: Exactly. And that is a poignant point that
proves this case. Even the law sees that the heart of
this affront involves the Iraqi prime minister. Now,
maybe that's just dancing around the Iraqi provisions
of its legal statutes, but by and large, that's also
a political reflection of local feeling. I mean, I
have to tell you, yeah, Iraqis like the American
troops here 'cause it's keeping warring factions
apart and no one wants to see it just deteriorate.
But you know what? Almost every Iraqi, to a man or
woman, is yearning for the end of a foreign
occupation. So everyone sympathized with this guy's
sentiment --
NGUYEN: Really?
WARE: They're just divided on his method -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Michael Ware joining us live
from Baghdad.
Thank you, Michael.