The trial of Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi for assaulting W. with a shoe will begin later this week in Baghdad. Al-Zaidi, who became a hero in much of the Muslim world, is planning a lawsuit against the Iraqi security forces for beating him while he was in custody, on the grounds that they tortured him.
The Baydan Shoe Co. in Turkey, which says it manufactured the shoes used by al-Zaidi, has been besieged by orders and has added 100 workers.
Toby Dodge warns that all the pie in the sky talk from George W. Bush and Gordon Brown about the situation in Iraq disguises a country on the brink.
The Iraqi government is planning to expel members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq guerrilla group, to whom Saddam Hussein had given a base, Camp Ashraf. Although the State Department has put the MeK on the terrorist list, the US Pentagon has likely been using the group to spy on and commit dirty tricks against Iran.
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a tug of war is going on between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Interior Minister Jawad Bulani over the officers who were arrested and then released on charges of belonging to the outlawed al-Awda Party (neo-Baathist). Bulani says his people are innocent.
The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) is worried that Turkey will successfully lobby Iraqi Kurdistan to put limits on the scope of its paramilitary actions against Turkey while it is based on Iraqi soil.
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