George Bush

Iraqi shoe-thrower to get hero’s welcome?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:32:29 +0200

Published on al-Zaidi's Facebook fan page.

Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who shot to fame last December when he threw his shoes at then President George W. Bush, was released from prison on Tuesday. But is he still hailed a hero for his crime? Not all of our Iraqi Observers are convinced.

It was during a press conference in Baghdad that al-Zaidi took off his size tens and hurled them at Bush, catapulting him to worldwide recognition... and also into a three-year jail sentence for "attacking a head of state on an official visit". His sentence was later reduced to one year on appeal, and then nine months for good behaviour.

The celebrated hero is set to be showered with gifts on his release from Muthanna military base in West Baghdad. The Emir of Qatar plans to hand over a horse made of gold, Libyan colonel Muammar Gaddafi wants to present him with a bravery honour, and Bahraini businessman Quresh Khan Buneeri would like to send him a limousine. As for his former employer, TV channel al-Baghdadia, they'll be handing over the keys to a new apartment, so Al-Zaidi can say goodbye to his one-bedroom flat in bustling Rachid, downtown Baghdad.

A "personal friend" of George Bush at the head of NATO

Julien — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:42:47 +0200

Image: Kevin Andersen on Flickr.

A backer of the Iraq invasion, a defender of the infamous Danish cartoons, a "personal friend" of former US president George W. Bush... and now, the secretary-general of NATO. Is Anders Fogh Rasmussen really the right man to lead the Atlantic Alliance?

Rasmussen, 56, was prime minister of Denmark for over eight years. Despite supporting George W. Bush in his destructive search for Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the economic liberal still enjoys relative popularity in his home country after his staunch defence of daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, brought him back into favour.

The cartoons were not received so favourably in the Muslim world, however, and became the main reason for NATO member Turkey's initial rejection of Rasmussen's nomination. Reluctance eventually subsided after hard lobbying from Washington and London, and the former Danish PM stepped into the role of NATO chief this Monday.

Bush in Japan: slow, stupid and dressed in a floral suit

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:41:40 +0200

An ad campaign for a tea-based drink that pokes fun of former US President George Bush, has been on the Japanese airwaves for over a month.

The ads for a flavoured tea-based drink called Herbal Clear promises to cleanse users of all "bad things". As an example of a "bad thing", the Japanese campaign presents former US President George W. Bush. Played by actor Brent Mendenhall, who on this occasion stars as the president of a company, not a country, Bush is depicted as stupid and ridiculous. A marketing strategy that doesn't seem to shock Japanese viewers...

Condoleezza Rice grilled over torture

Team Observers — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:28:52 +0200

A Stanford University student grills ex-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the Bush administration's torture policy. Who sounds more convincing: Rice or Jeremy Cohn?

Condoleezza Rice, former US President George W. Bush's security advisor and then secretary of state (2005-2009), returned to teach political science at Stanford University, where she was a professor before entering politics, in March.

The torture memos released by US President Barack Obama's administration in April revealed that highly-placed officials in the Bush administration, including Rice, legally approved the CIA's controversial torture methods. They also gave interrogators the green light to resort to techniques like waterboarding.

Rice was given a rather luke-warm reception at Stanford University on Monday, when she visited a dormitory where she was confronted by a group of students. Among them was Jeremy Cohn, a fourth-year student who did not hesitate to grill Rice. The scene was filmed by another student, who then posted it on YouTube. Rice denied personally authorising waterboarding and simply confirmed "communicating the administration's authorisation to the CIA."

Bye Bye, Bush! The blogosphere's favourite buffoon will be missed

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:53:44 +0100

While Bush gets ready to say his official goodbyes to the nation, web users are giving him a send-off of their own: compiling his countless public blunders and mispronunciations.

At 8pm Washington time tonight, Bush will say goodbye to the US, and to his eight years as commander-in-chief, in a televised speech. Many web users however, can't wait until then to bid adieu to the outgoing president, considered by some to be "the worst in the history of the United States".

The "Bye Bye Bush" movement, dedicated to counting down his departure on January 20, is worldwide, even attracting a French following on MySpace. There are, however, some diehard Bush fans, who continue with attempts to convince the blogosphere of his magnitude....

Gaza conflict: "a reflection of how much has changed in the Middle East during the Bush era"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:39:09 +0100

One of our Israeli Observers, Joel Schalit, takes a look at the Gaza crisis from a wider perspective, paying particular attention to Iranian influences over Palestinian movements.

Despite the fact that for well over a year now, Israel has engaged in continuous peace talks with two of its most important neighbours - the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and, most recently, the government of Syria - it was ultimately inevitable that it would have gone to war again and risked igniting a larger regional conflict. 'They practically wrote it in the sky,' Egypt's Foreign Minister, Aboul Gheit told Haaretz on Thursday, explaining that in recent months, Israel had been sending out repeated messages that it intended to strike Hamas if it did not halt all rocket attacks on the country. 'Unfortunately, they [Hamas] served Israel the opportunity on a golden platter to hit Gaza.'

As easy as it is to blame Hamas' provocations for helping to ignite the present exchange, it would be equally wise to view Israel's campaign in greater context. Israel is not just striking Hamas. As many Israeli officials, and countless news reports have repeatedly indicated, in a manner very similar to its campaign in Lebanon two years ago, Israel is also striking back at Iran, perhaps even more so than it is attempting to degrade the Islamic organisation's missile launching capability. Though Hamas most certainly represents Palestinian national aspirations, it does so with the financial and military support of Tehran, because of Hamas' usefulness in serving as a proxy front with Israel.

While Hamas is a decidedly different organisation than Hezbollah, both religiously, and of course nationally, its utility for advancing Iranian interests has increased in recent years, in direct correlation with tensions between the United States and Iran over Iraq. In many of the same ways that Iran has used Hezbollah to pressure Israel, as an extension of its conflict with the Americans, Hamas has served a similar purpose. When Hamas took control of Gaza in 2006, its victory was viewed by many military analysts as part of a larger plan to encircle Israel by forces allied with Iran: Lebanon and Syria in the north, now ‘Hamastan', as Gaza was dubbed by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, to the south.

"'Israel surrounded" has a certain

ideological appeal to it"

There is no denying that such visions of an "Israel surrounded" has a certain ideological appeal to it, particularly to Israeli conservatives who believe that the only thing that stops Israel's neighbours from annihilating the Jewish state is Israel's overwhelming military superiority. Unfortunately, the US intervention in the region (under the aegis of the Bush administration), has guaranteed some validity to that vision, at least insofar as the Iranians are concerned. While Israel has developed warmer, if not official, relations with a number of influential Arab and Muslim states, this intimacy has been countered by a further deterioration of Israel's relations with Iran as a consequence of recent US policy in the region.

That Iran would find natural affinity with the Palestinians, particularly Islamist Hamas, as an old fashioned nationalist-religious liberation movement, is patently obvious. This sympathy existed well before 9/11, and the subsequent American occupations of Iranian neighbours Iraq and Afghanistan. However, it was only after the election of Ahmadinejad in 2005 that Israel came to occupy the overwhelmingly exaggerated space that it does in contemporary Iranian foreign policy, far beyond any emphasis that it had under Ayatollah Khomeini, despite his support for Lebanon's Hezbollah. In fact, prior to Ahmadinejad taking power, only in 2003, Iran was even rumoured to have been considering some kind of agreement with Israel, and sending out signals to that effect.

Hence the ferocity of Israel's present campaign against Hamas. It's a reflection of how much has changed in the Middle East during the Bush era. With a new American government coming into office in three weeks, one which has repeatedly indicated, to much Israeli chagrin, that it would prefer to engage in dialogue with Iran, despite the country's ongoing nuclear weapons development programme, this was the last possible opportunity to act without restraint. Prevented from attacking Iran directly as of late - even by the Bush administration - which had, on numerous occasions, also considered encouraging such an Israeli operation, attacking Gaza was the best possible last minute compromise. It is no surprise that the outgoing US government ended up approving it.

"Palestinian forces have humiliated

successive Israeli governments"

That Israel's ongoing conflict with Hamas offered the possibility of exploiting such opportunities on behalf of much larger strategic concerns is without question. Committed to a policy of territorial closure, Israel has never succeeded in preventing Palestinian militants from launching attacks on Israeli territory in response. Though Israeli casualty numbers have remained relatively low, Palestinian forces have succeeded in striking an effective balance of fear amongst Israelis who live in the south, and have humiliated successive Israeli governments, and the Israeli military, who, for nearly a decade, have failed to eliminate the threat. In the same way that it is impossible to separate the intensity of the present campaign in Gaza from Israel's conflict with Iran, it is equally difficult to disconnect it from the sense of shame that Israeli authorities have been made to feel by this situation.

Throughout the current Israeli operation against Hamas, everyone has been asking when Hezbollah is finally going to get involved. After all, it was Israel's last campaign in Gaza, in June 2006, that led to Hezbollah ambushing an Israeli army patrol on the Lebanese border, which in turn sparked the Second Lebanon War. The fact that no such incident has taken place yet is no reassurance that it will not happen. Yet, if for some reason Hezbollah feels that it is not in a position to exert pressure, it is no guarantee that Iran won't eventually find itself the only party with the capacity to intervene on Hamas' behalf. A failure to do so, by the only other militarily capable power in the region, will have repercussions that will be felt for years to come. Though Israel may never fully triumph over Hamas, it will at least have found a way to deter, using Gaza as its example, Iran."

Web abuzz with Bush shoe-hurling incident

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:25:25 +0100

Posted on Flickr by Andrea Fistetto.

Throwing your shoes at George W. Bush is all the rage in the Arab blogosphere. Our Observer in Baghdad tells us that the journalist behind the brogue hurling incident has become something of an icon in Iraq.

Journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi stood up at a farewell conference on Sunday and hurled one, and then the other, of his shoes at the outgoing president (see video below). "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is a farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!" he shouted. Showing the soles of your shoes (especially in a rapid hurling motion...) is considered a grave insult in the Arab world. But Bush didn't seem phased: "If you want the facts, it's a size ten shoe that he threw", he said in response. An immediate hit all over the world, the incident has become something of a phenomenon on the Arabic net, with various versions of the footage quickly appearing online, including mock video games, caricatures and music video clips. A Facebook group entitled Muntazer al-Zaidi, Hero Journalist has already attracted over 5,000 members in 24 hours and Arabic news sites and forums, Al-Jazeera for example, have been inundated with excited comments from Web users. And yet, Bush still hasn't got the message. His thoughts on the event: "The guy wanted to get on TV and he did. I don't know what his beef is...".

Bush - from "alcoholic bum" to world president

Ségolène Team Observers — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:48:22 +0200

Oliver Stone has dedicated his latest film to the rise of the Bush family ugly duckling, George W. Three months before the film comes out, the trailer for "W" has already received over 400,000 hits in less than 48 hours. Stone is planning to release the film on 17 October, just three weeks before the American presidential election. Controversial?

Stone never made a point of hiding his dislike for the Bush administration, especially when it came to politics. He insists however that he'll tackle the subject in the same manner as the biographies he's done until now, and denies trying to influence November's election. He told the press that he just wanted to find out "how did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"

Arriving in the midst of the presidential campaign, the film has attracted plenty of criticism for its supposed intentions, on both sides of political America. While some worry that the film will create sympathy for the president, others say that its sole purpose is to bring down the Republican Party in time for 4 November.

He didn’t bother with Athens, but Bush will go to the games in Beijing

Ségolène Team Observers — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:42:28 +0200

Posted on Flickr by ack-online.de

During a visit to Japan on Sunday, George Bush announced that he plans to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, deeming a boycott of the event "an affront to the Chinese people". One of our Observers for the US reminds us that in contrast, Bush didn't bother going to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown have said that they will not be going. Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country has just taken over the rotating EU presidency, has said that he'll announce his decision at the G8 summit, which opened on the Japanese island of Hokkaido today. According to sources close to the French president he is planning to go. He will also pay a visit to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, before the trip.

Bloggers react to Bush’s speech on Iraq

Julien — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:10:42 +0100

To mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, George Bush made a speech to the Pentagon today, in which he insisted that the controversial offensive had opened a "major strategic victory" in the broader war on terror. Two American bloggers criticise their president's speech, but for very different reasons.

Bush reaffirmed in the speech that removing Saddam Hussein from power was the "right decision", and that this is a fight "America can and must win". He then went on to reiterate the somewhat worn out argument for continuing the war; that the Americans must combat al Qaeda in Iraq in order not to face them on their own soil; and to leave too quickly would cause chaos and strengthen terrorists in neighbouring Iran.