Posted on 12/16/2008 5:28:06 AM PST by Schnucki
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.
Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.
Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him "a dog".
The BBC tried to contact Iraq's top security official but he was not available for comment.
Meanwhile, offers to buy the shoes are being made around the Arab world, reports say.
Mass rallies in support of Mr Zaidi have also been held across Iraq, calling for his release.
Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had now been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital.
Hero figure
Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to any since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.
The Iraqi authorities have said the 28-year-old will be prosecuted under Iraqi law, although it is not yet clear what the charges might be.
Iraqi lawyers have speculated that he could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki, who was standing next to President Bush during the incident. The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Our correspondent says that the previously little-known journalist from the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV has become a hero to many, not just in Iraq but across the Arab world, for what many saw as a fitting send-off for a deeply unpopular US president.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
If this guy had thrown a shoe at Saddam he would have been beaten to a pulp, then revived and had his eyelids cut off so he could watch his family raped and murdered in front of him, just before they started feeding him feet first to a wood chipper. Any bruises this joker has are from the initial beat down.
They were probably ordered to stay in the back room so as not to insult Iraqi security forces, who in the interest of international harmony we are required to presume can handle any threat to the President.
His whole village would be gone
That will be happening to conservatives under Obamma. Just wait and see.
The MSM is more interested in this guys treatment than they were in how Saddam, Iran and other ROP thugs treat people.
It's gotten to where the media just makes things up, cites vague "reports" and "unnamed sources" and hope enough people are stupid enough to take what they spew at face value.
if he lives, he gets to be governor of Illinois.
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