Iraqi shoe thrower, now beaten into submission, apologizes to President Bush.

A spokesman for Iraq's prime minister says the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon.
Spokesman Yassin Majid says that in a letter sent Thursday to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the journalist described his behavior as "an ugly act" and asked to be pardoned.

Al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader.

This Muntadhar al-Zeid is a national folk hero throughout the Middle East, as well as many other parts of the world (America included), and if the authorities believe making him apologize is going to diffuse the inspiration he has provided to the world they are seriously mistaken.

Especially after he has been beaten so badly he cannot even appear in court to defend himself.