You Say Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi, I Say Hikmat Shakir Ahmad — Let’s Invade Anyway:
So it turns out — and this is kind of hilarious — that whole Iraq/al Qaeda thing? A bit of a mix-up there. When the administration said an al Qaeda operative was also a member of Saddam’s Fedayeen, they may have confused Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi, the official al Qaeda “airport greeter” (so polite, the jihadists), with Lt. Col. Hikmat Shakir Ahmad, the Iraq militia man. An administration official has suggested that this mistake was a bit boneheaded, noting that it seems odd that a lieutenant colonel in one army would collect people’s bags in another organization: “By most reckoning that would be someone else.” But come on now: There’s only, what, six letters and an entire word transposition difference in their names! Anyone could get it wrong.
And it’s not like it’s never happened before: Who can forget the madcap sit-comish hijinks that ensued when the U.S. supported Ira-q rather than Ira-n back in the 80s? Yikes! But you know how they all look alike.
UPDATE: more here:
The connection supposedly was unearthed earlier this year by a poly sci professor moonlighting as a Pentagon intelligence analyst (do you think I could make something like that up?) It consists of a name – Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, or, variously, Hikmat Shakir Ahmad – that the professor, one Christopher Carney, found on a list of officers in the Saddam Fedayeen – the Iraqi dictator’s personal militia, whose members were blown away in vast numbers by the U.S. Army during last year’s invasion.
UPDATE (with minor edits): War and Piece: :
Here’s a handy guide:
* Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, a.k.a. Hikmat Shakir Ahmad == Iraqi Fedayeen Ltn. Col.
* Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi == al Qaeda greeter/fixer in Malaysia
* Ahmad Hikmat Shakir != Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi