It looks like the Muntazir al-Zeidi the Iraqi journalist responsible for the whole incident may now have recanted for his assault:
"The jailed journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon for what he described as "an ugly act," a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister said Thursday.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader. He remained in custody Thursday night.
"It is too late to reverse the big and ugly act that I perpetrated," al-Zeidi wrote in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the prime minister's spokesman.
The spokesman, Yassin Majid, told The Associated Press that al-Zeidi went on in the letter to recall an interview he conducted with the prime minister in 2005 when al-Maliki invited him into his home, saying: "Come in, it is your home too."
"So I ask for your pardon," al-Zeidi wrote, Majid said." (Source: AFP)
For more on Bush's "shoegate":
- MSNBC Video: George W. Bush Escapes A Shoe Attack
- Al-Jazeera Video:Iraqis Demonstrate Over Bush "Shoe Attacker"
