[Undertoad]

Code Pink members attended a meeting held by Iraqi Ambassador to the US, Samir Sumaida’ie, and interrupted to demonstrate for the freedom of shoe-thrower al-Zaidi. The Ambassador proceed to pwn them.

Now the ladies here, clapping, I -- let me -- allow me please to address. Thank you for attending this meeting. I see you are carrying a plaque defending Mr. al-Zaidi, who attempted to assault President Bush in Baghdad. Let me take this opportunity to make a couple of remarks, here.

It's very clear, in our culture, throwing somebody's shoes at someone is an insult, is a big insult. Two comments. One: Mr. al-Zaidi is a very, very lucky man. It was Mr. Bush and Mr. Malaki and not Mr. Saddam Hussein. Because had it been Mr Saddam Hussein, you would be carrying a different plaque right now. That's number one.

Number two, in our culture, I know people have told you that throwing shoes at someone is a big insult. But it's a bigger insult to the host, not the guest. In our culture, anybody who insults a guest, is insulting the host. To a double degree.

So even if it had been a local, tribal leader, he would not have stomached that behavior. So, in our culture, we believe that what Mr. al-Zaidi did was reprehensible.

Code Pink member shouts: What about what Mr. Bush did?

I -- let me just finish my remark. It was reprehensible. It was -- not representative of the way we behave as Iraqis. It diminished us as a nation. We are better than that. We have issues, whether it is with Mr. Bush or with other people, but we believe that we should always behave in a dignified manner and in the correct manner. And if we have differences, we express them in the right way. But as I said, and as Mr. Bush said himself, these are the fruits of freedom; everybody gets the fruits of the freedom, even those who don't know how to handle them or how to make use of them. So that's all I'm going to say on that. (applause)