Shoe-tossing Iraqi alleges jail torture

BAGHDAD — Hours after his release from prison, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush said Tuesday that he had been tortured while in jail.

Not long after that, family members said, he fled the country in fear for his life.

"Here I am free, and my country is still captured," said the journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, during a news conference Tuesday at the television station where he had worked.

He said that while in custody he was beaten with pipes and steel cables and received electric shocks. He added that many who would like to see him dead, including members of unidentified American intelligence agencies. Zaidi did not take questions after his brief remarks.

His brother Uday said that Zaidi flew to Greece, where he would get medical and psychological care. He fears for his life, his brother said, in part because he plans to identify the people who played a role in his mistreatment, including high-ranking security officials.

Zaidi said that after his arrest for hurling his shoes at Bush at a December news conference, he was shackled, soaked in water and kept in an unheated place in the cold night.

Ali al-Mosawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the accusations should be viewed skeptically because Zaidi had just been released. He did not address the specific charges.

In a room full of reporters and family, Zaidi described the anger and helplessness he experienced after the American invasion in 2003, the suffering of widows and orphans he witnessed, and the reason he felt compelled to wage a protest.

"I saw the chance and I seized it," he said. "If those who blamed me knew how many destroyed houses I walked over with those shoes that I threw, and how many times those shoes mixed with the blood of the innocent, and how many times those shoes went into homes where the honor of those who lived there was disgraced, then it was probably the proper response."

Zaidi, 30, was originally sentenced to three years in prison, but this spring that was reduced to a one-year jail term. He was released after nine months for good behavior, court officials said.

Mortars shake area

after Biden arrives

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joseph Biden arrived here on Tuesday for two days of talks with Iraqi leaders, and shortly after saying he was headed to bed for the night at the American Embassy four mortars landed nearby around the heavily fortified international zone.

Biden, making his second unannounced visit as vice president in little more than three months, was never in imminent danger, but the attack underscored the violence that remains a backdrop to American efforts to promote political reconciliation.

At least two Iraqis were killed and five wounded in the attacks, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Two mortar rounds landed in an apartment complex only a few hundred feet from the embassy compound, according to witnesses.

It was not clear whether the attacks — a recurring, if less frequent occurrence in the area known as the Green Zone — were aimed at Biden's entourage. But word of his arrival at Baghdad International Airport at 4:20 on a hot, dusty afternoon had been widely broadcast by international and Iraqi news media.