Portrait of a Shoe Thrower

The image of a confused President Bush ducking a sailing shoe while Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki reaches out to protect him will likely go down as one of the indelible images of Bush's waning days. So who was the thrower? Muntathar Al Zaidi is a 29-year-old Iraqi reporter for the Cairo-based Baghdadiyah Television. According to friends, Zaidi covered and was "emotionally influenced by" the American bombings of Sadr City in Baghdad earlier this year and was also kidnapped by Shiite gunmen in 2007 and held for three days. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted as he threw his shoe at Bush. He shouted "killer of Iraqis, killer of children," from the bottom of the secret-service scrum that engulfed him, and then, "my hand, my hand." Zaidi's television network demanded his immediate release.