Iraqis take control of Baghdad’s ‘Green Zone’ today. It’s not called ‘the bubble’ for nothing. CNN’s Jill Dougherty explains the ‘Green Zone’ as the Iraqis take control.

Jill Dougherty | Bio
Foreign Affairs Correspondent

Watch Jill Doughtery report on the status of the Iraqi shoe-thrower.

Zain Verjee
CNN State Department Correspondent

QUESTION: Thank you so much, Madame Secretary.

SECRETARY RICE: Pleasure to be with you.

QUESTION: You’ve been in the Bush Administration for eight years.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: What’s been the best moment?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, there have been a lot of great moments: seeing the Afghans liberate themselves from the Taliban; seeing the Iraqis vote for the first time; going for the first time to the West Bank and being with Palestinians was a really special – a special time. And I think the thing I never expected was to actually be in Libya face-to-face with Colonel Qadhafi. So that probably stands out as one of the extraordinary moments.

QUESTION: It was a historic trip, though.

SECRETARY RICE: It was an historic trip.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Secretary of State to Libya.

SECRETARY RICE: A historic trip. And you could see that this country of Libya which has been so isolated for so long has a great deal to offer. And even though U.S.-Libyan relations have a long way to go, at least now we can talk about U.S.-Libyan relations, and I think ultimately, that will be a good thing for the region, and it will be a good thing for the people of Libya.

QUESTION: Looking back, what was your worst moment?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think one of the hardest times for me was during the Lebanon war. I’m very glad that we were able to negotiate a ceasefire in that war. And I believe Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and Lebanon, will show, it will stand as an effort that led to greater sovereignty for Lebanon, with the Lebanese forces throughout the country, with a strong government in place with Fuad Siniora. But standing next to Fuad Siniora in Rome as really, the country was being bombed to smithereens – things were very difficult – and having to say we can’t call for an immediate ceasefire that we can’t deliver, and that will ultimately lead back to the status quo ante with Hezbollah able to do this again was very difficult because I have so much respect for him.

QUESTION: If you could call a time out or a replay in foreign policy with a decision that you made and – you made a decision, you went back home and thought, gosh, you know, I wish I could do a redo of that –

SECRETARY RICE: Right.

QUESTION: — what would that be?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it’s going to take some time to go back and think about that.

QUESTION: Well, just your gut.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, my gut is that there are, frankly, things that we could have done better in the early stages in Iraq.

QUESTION: Like planning better the aftermath of the –

SECRETARY RICE: Well, no, we planned. We –

QUESTION: For the aftermath of the war –

SECRETARY RICE: We planned for the aftermath of the war and we planned –

QUESTION: Not well, though.

SECRETARY RICE: — and we planned – no, but the – some of the assumptions turned out to be, I think, erroneous. And probably the thing that I would do differently is I would go back and put less emphasis on what we would do in Baghdad and more emphasis on what we would do out in the provinces and with local governments and try to bring this from the bottom up rather than from the capital out.

And that’s why the Provincial Reconstruction Teams that put the military and the diplomats and the aid workers together out in the provinces, I think, has worked so well.

QUESTION: Staying in Iraq, the shoe-throwing incident, it was really a symbol in so many ways in the Arab world of utter contempt –

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah –

QUESTION: — for President Bush.

SECRETARY RICE: And it was one journalist among several who were sitting there respectfully, and I hope it isn’t allowed over time to obscure the fact that this was the President of the United States standing in Baghdad next to the democratically elected Shia Prime Minister of a multi-confessional Iraq that has just signed agreements of friendship and cooperation with the United States for the long term.

Keep reading

President Bush talked to Candy Crowley about the bailout, shoe tossing, Iraq and the legacy he will leave.

President Bush tells CNN’s Candy Crowley that sending troops into harm’s way was his most important decision.

CNN’s Candy Crowley asks President Bush about whether he will bail out the auto industry.

Editor’s Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington. He is the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com, a Web site focused on Islamic issues, and is former national legal director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Arsalan Iftikhar says the journalist who threw his shoes at Bush wasn't doing his job.

Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN

Not since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s famous footwear pounded into a table at an October 1960 United Nations session have we seen a shoe create such a global political firestorm.

Alas, we now have an Iraqi journalist entering into the annals of political history with his contribution to the ongoing historical saga entitled “Shoes Heard Around the World.”

Some regional TV channels in the Mideast have aired the footage from the “shoe” press conference “more than a dozen times in several hours,” according to The Associated Press. The infamous scene has now bounced around Internet networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, showing Iraqi journalist Muntadhar Al-Zaidi standing, hurling both his shoes at President George W. Bush and shouting in Arabic: “This is a farewell kiss, you dog….This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

Mr. Al-Zaidi, 29, a journalist for private Iraqi television channel Al-Baghdadia, was swiftly overpowered by Iraqi security forces after he threw the shoes at Bush in a gesture described by Agence France Presse as “the supreme mark of disrespect in the Muslim world.”

Keep Reading…

Octavia Nasr
CNN Arab Affairs Editor

It all began with a shoe, the ultimate insult in the Arab world. What followed was a reaction of major proportions, reported on Arab media, discussed on Arab streets, and in chat rooms and message boards across the internet.

The internet is buzzing with several shoe-throwing games and comments in Arabic cheering on the shoe thrower. Special websites have been set up, asking people to show their support for the man “who dared” — as one website describes the Iraqi reporter who threw his pair of shoes at the US president. And a FaceBook group in solidarity — not with the reporter — but his shoe, is drawing thousands of supporters.

But not everyone is cheering for the shoe-thrower. While most callers to Al-Baghdadiya, the shoe-thrower’s employer, hailed him as a national hero, critical voices made it to air as well.

A caller by the name of Nasseem Mansour told the Baghdadiya anchor, “This man abused his role as a reporter and insulted the entire journalism profession. His meaningless act was carried out at the expense of the Iraqi people. Only Iraq loses as a result.”

Media in Iraq and the rest of the Arab world are covering the story from all angles, with guests, anchors and reporters, not sure what to make of this unusual news story. Perhaps political cartoons explain the sentiment best:

In Saudi Arabia’s Al-Wattan newspaper, a political cartoon shows Bush entering the history books with the heavy burden of a shoe while US tanks burn in the distance.

From Qatar, Al-Wattan’s political cartoon has a sign asking reporters to leave their shoes outside the briefing room.

From Lebanon’s Annahar, two simple words, printed on the sole of a pair of worn shoes. summarize the end of Mr. Bush’s era.

Philippe Naughton
Times Online

It looks like she’s been in the wars. In fact, she just joined President Bush on his weekend trip to Baghdad and came back with what she calls a “shoe-venir”.

Dana Perino, the White House Press Secretary, was sporting a clearly visible black eye as she returned to work in Washington today, briefing reporters on subjects including car industry bailouts and Middle East peace.

Ms Perino was in the room when an Iraqi reporter, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, pulled off his shoes and flung them at Mr Bush on Sunday in a gesture of contempt that has seen him hailed as a hero in the Arab world.

Mr Bush, who was giving a joint press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, ducked sharply as the size 10 loafers whizzed past his head. His spokeswoman, sitting to his right, was hit in the face by a microphone boom sent flying by a presidential bodyguard.

Read More…

Vice President Dick Cheney brushes aside ex-colleagues' assertions he has morphed into a unrecognizable figure.

In his first TV interview since the presidential election, Vice President Dick Cheney once again staunchly defended the Bush administration’s record in the war on terror and, more specifically, the decision to go to war in Iraq.

While admitting that he shared “frustration” over faulty intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Cheney asserted to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Monday that “the world is better off with Saddam [Hussein] gone.”

“I think we made the right decision in spite of the fact that the original [intelligence estimate] was off in some of its major judgments,” Cheney said.

“Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology [and] he had the people. … [He] had every intention of resuming production once the international sanctions were lifted. This was a bad actor.”

Keep Reading…

U.S. President George W. Bush speaks to U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Monday.

Michael Yon
National Review Online

Michael Yon, an independent reporter and author of Moment of Truth in Iraq, has just returned to the United States from Afghanistan. National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez checked in with him about the president’s trip there this weekend and his own findings (more of which he will be writing about on his website).

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: You just got back from Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Gates and I know you have a lot of writing to do. But to give us a preview: What were you most struck by there?

MICHAEL YON: Yes, there is much writing to do, but there is always time for NRO. What struck me about the trip was the straight talk from Secretary Gates — in a bit of a contrast with the administration’s typical cautiousness in discussing the situation there. On this trip, I found his assessments on Iraq entirely consistent with my observations — and I have been saying and writing for months that the Iraq war is over. Neither Secretary Gates nor Generals Petraeus or Odierno have put it so flatly, of course — and one can understand that they have good reasons for speaking conservatively. But the war is over nevertheless. At Manama, in Bahrain, I spoke for a couple hours with Fred Kagan, whose observations on Iraq I greatly respect. I don’t want to put words into Mr. Kagan’s mouth, but I suspect he would likely agree that the war in Iraq is over.

Iraq is now an ally of the United States. (Proof positive: Prime Minister Maliki tried to block that second shoe that was thrown at President Bush at their joint press conference over the weekend.) In Manama, Secretary Gates was advocating for lender countries to dismiss Saddam-era debt. The days are gone when Iraq and the United States shoot missiles at each other. The days of cooperation have already begun. I am very optimistic about our current relationship with Iraq.

On Afghanistan, I found Secretary Gates to be just as forthcoming and honest, as I am working hard to firm up my understanding of that war. But at this point, I am less optimistic about our prospects there. I’ll likely spend most of 2009 in that region, and will be watching closely.

Secretary Gates talked with me privately, and over the course of that conversation, my confidence grew that we have the right leadership team in place — leaders who will make the wise and often difficult decisions that are based on facts on the ground, rather than political realities back at home. I am confident in Secretary Gates and his top generals.

LOPEZ: In his press conference there, George Bush made reference to the potential for a flourishing democracy in Afghanistan. Is that remotely possible?

YON: Well . . . I’ve found President Bush’s recent comments on Iraq to be accurate. But I remain uneasy about Afghanistan, and my visit did not make me feel any better about the place, though it’s clear that our soldiers think they are making progress. I think this issue is one of framing: I see Afghanistan as a century-long effort, because Pakistan and the region as a whole need to be brought forward. On the military side, we’ve got the right general in charge — General Petraeus. I heard him speak last week in Manama and had a chance to ask a couple of questions, and he demonstrated a nuanced understanding of our problems there. His team is working on solutions. In the short term, I think the fighting will greatly increase during 2009, at a minimum. One thing is certain: NATO is proving largely worthless.

LOPEZ: What’s your best assessment of “Bush’s legacy” vis-à-vis Afghanistan?

YON: That Afghanistan is more akin to Jurassic Park than a modern country is not the fault of President Bush. I sounded the alarm from Afghanistan in 2006 that we were starting to lose the war, but at the time, Iraq was going so poorly that we did not seem to have the assets or attention span for the growing problems in Afghanistan. I would have blamed President Bush if we failed in Iraq, but we are succeeding. Afghanistan will be up to our new president — which is fitting enough, since Obama has expressed his opinion that that war is the one we should be fighting. Obama will have the troops at his disposal, and he’s already made a wise decision by asking Secretary Gates to stay on. So we’ll see. But Afghanistan will be Obama’s baby.

LOPEZ: What ought to be Barack Obama’s first priority there?

YON: Firstly, listen very closely to his military advisers, including Generals McKiernan and Petraeus. They don’t put lipstick on the pig, as it were. I see General McKiernan as a realistic commander and a truth-teller. Secretary Gates will tell you that we need more trainers to train the Afghan army and police, and our commanders on the ground will say the same. We need more money for infrastructure and development. We need roads, roads, roads. And more roads. We need to more vigorously address the poppy economy and find alternative livelihoods for the Afghan people. We need to work to not alienate the Afghan people because if we lose the wide approval that we still have, we likely will lose the war.

LOPEZ: Can you give us any insight into what Secretary Gates is thinking as he moves from serving President Bush to President Obama?

YON: Secretary Gates gets widespread approval from our military, and this is helpful in whatever he does. But I can say that he is definitely concerned about Iran. He is concerned about solidifying our progress in Iraq, and making a turnaround in Afghanistan. Piracy is a relatively farcical threat. Secretary Gates is concerned about getting more ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] assets in the field — and we need those badly. He did not seem concerned that budget cuts would undermine the fabric of the military, but leaders will have to make some tough decisions on big new weapon systems while we ramp up our efforts in Afghanistan while our economy continues to struggle.

It’s clear that Secretary Gates is working hard to make a smooth transition, so that there is no period when we let down our guard during the interregnum; and it’s also clear that if someone decides to test President Obama, Secretary Gates is prepared to make them wish they had not.

Read More…

TV reporter Muntadhar al-Zaidi, in a file photo, was jailed after throwing his shoes at President Bush.

Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times

A Saudi reportedly has offered $10 million for just one of the shoes thrown at President Bush in Iraq. That got me thinking. The journalist who threw the shoes no longer possesses them, of course, but hopefully some member of the White House staff picked them up and will do a deal with the Saudi buyer. The second one could be put on Ebay to defray the White House travel costs.

But that got me thinking. The Times article about the Saudi offer says that the shoe-thrower is a hero around Iraq, and indeed in much of the Arab world. That suggests that the resale market for shoes thrown at Mr. Bush is fairly deep. And in this difficult economic environment, can we as a nation overlook any way of raising money?

Couldn’t we trot out Mr. Bush before a series of, er, unfriendly audiences, with a White house aide then designated to collect the shoes and auction them off? (To protect Mr. Bush, we could insist that attendees wear only slippers, but in any case he seems to have excellent reflexes and is a pretty good sport.) My own research suggests that a three-week presidential tour of the Islamic world, Latin America and Western Europe would generate a considerable number of flying shoes. Even if there are diminishing returns and we can sell them for an average of only $3 million each, that could bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Treasury. If a Saudi will pay $10 million for a single shoe that missed the president, consider the income-earning potential of a pair of slippers that actually grazed a presidential ear, perhaps autographed by him as well? Given that a lame-duck president doesn’t have much else to do, Mr. Bush might as well spend his final weeks raising money to pay for a fiscal stimulus, and the United States might capitalize on his global unpopularity.

Any thoughts for how we could refine the business model?

Read More…