Sixteen years ago today, an Iraqi journalist stood up in the middle of a press conference in Baghdad and shouted in Arabic, “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!” and then proceeded to hurl his shoes, one after the other, at then-President George W. Bush. The gesture by the journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, had dire effects on his own life — a risk he was well aware of beforehand — but it lives on in the public imagination worldwide as perhaps the most effective individual protest against America’s bloody and ultimately disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This act of protest changed al-Zaidi’s life forever in that moment. The Iraqi journalist was sentenced to three years in prison (spending nine months there) and describes being tortured. He claims to have been blacklisted from the media industry and today struggles to make a living as a consultant. For this story, he offered a detailed account of his thinking, his actions, and the punishment he endured as a result of his encounter with Bush. Loven and others who were at the infamous press conference also shared their memories and impressions. They were unanimous in thinking in the heat of the moment that the first airborne shoe wasn’t merely a protest but a bomb that would blow them all up — and unanimous in being unnerved by what happened to al-Zaidi afterward.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, chief correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV in 2008 and the man who threw his shoes at President Bush: Leading up to that 2008 press conference, what I had seen was my country invaded and occupied without justification. Maybe the Iraqi people were desperate to get rid of Saddam. Regardless, I didn’t want to see it done by foreign forces. My people were humiliated. The American forces killed people in the street. They scared and intimidated my people when they raided their houses in the middle of the night. So the Americans behaved in a savage way.

As a journalist, I covered many stories of rape by American soldiers. There was one child that was raped and killed and then the American soldier accused the insurgents.

On the way into the press conference, the Iraqi security was like I hadn’t seen before. We were scanned and searched. Iraqi security even took my shoes off and checked them. When they did that, I thought to myself, That’s the weapon I have, and smiled.

Right before entering the room with Bush, two American guards were randomly frisking members of the Iraqi press pool, which I took to be a great indignity. If you are in the U.S. and the Russian president comes, American journalists aren’t checked by Russian guards. One of them, after searching the journalists in front of me, slapped them on the butt, which I took as a great insult. I prayed to God that he would not search me, for fear that I would get angry and lose control before I had a chance to carry out my plan. He did not search me.

A judge at the trial said, “You attacked and insulted a guest of our country. There’s a law against that.” I said, “We are Arabs, we are known for generosity. But the law doesn’t apply with Bush because he didn’t come as a guest. He came to Iraq by force. He invaded.” Based on my argument, the judge asked the prime minister’s office if Bush had been invited. The prime minister’s office replied that he was, and I was given my sentence — three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit.

The just outcome would have been putting George Bush in prison, not me. I would ultimately spend nine months in prison, three of those months in solitary confinement. A very small cell that basically only fit my body. Each day is like a year. I was not allowed to talk to anyone. And only allowed to go to the bathroom three times a day. Sometimes I peed in a water bottle. I got through it with yoga, working out. I prayed. I’m a Muslim, but I’m against the Islamic Party. They’re medieval.

NYmag report

“The west falls down on human rights,” Al Zaidi said.