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Look, Peach... I'd be happy to believe it (I'm almost inclined to) if I could find back up beyond Hayes. However SINCE the writting in the book you quote, there have been multiple rebuttals on the grounds that these were two different Shakirs. If it is not the same person, then you can't connect them.

The 9/11 report stated: "Reports that he was a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Fedayeen have turned out to be incorrect. They were based on a confusion of Shakir's identity with that of an Iraqi Fedayeen colonel with a similar name, who was later (in September 2001) in Iraq at the same time Shakir was in police custody in Qatar.)"

This article

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=47381&d=26&m=6&y=2004

: "The person in Malaysia was named Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi and the man in the Iraqi Fedayeen was named Hikmat Shakir Ahmad." (I assume this is a left leaning author, but the fact remains that there is a rebuttal that has not been addresed.)

All I'm saying is that this evidence has been called into question officially... and SINCE THEN, I have not heard any quality defense of the original claims.

...the best you have provided above is: "The name was not spelled exactly as Carney had seen it before, but such discrepancies are common." (It seems to be more then just spelling)

I consider myself a faif and honest person... and an honest person will need more than that.

What I did not ping you to is that there is no doubt, even in the 9/11 Commission's mind, that he is an Iraqi national. The Commission did not have more information than this, but thought that Stephen Haynes fleshed out his identity quite well.

(NOTICE: The 9/11 Commission Report released July 22 contradicts the speculation about Shakir's identity. Buried in Footnote 49 of Ch. 6:

Commission Report: Mihdhar was met at the Kuala Lumpur airport by Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, an Iraqi national. Reports that he was a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Fedayeen have turned out to be incorrect. They were based on a confusion of Shakir's identity with that of an Iraqi Fedayeen colonel with a similar name, who was later (in September 2001) in Iraq at the same time Shakir was in police custody in Qatar.)