YOU SAY "AZZAWI," I SAY "AHMAD." A couple of Media Log readers pointed me to this excellent post by Juan Cole on the matter of that top official for Saddam Hussein who's been linked to Al Qaeda.

As I noted earlier, even promoters of this link, such as the Weekly Standard's William Kristol and Stephen Hayes, have conceded there was a possibility that they were talking about two different people with the same name.

Well, Cole shows that they don't have the same name. Never mind! He writes:

The al-Qaeda employee in Malaysia is named Ahmad Hikmat Shakir Azzawi.

The Iraqi intelligence agent is named Lt. Col. Hikmat Shakir Ahmad.

...

Do you notice how they are not the same?

Cole adds, "Isn't it a shame that we have these key people doing important things who are either incompetent ignoramuses or dumb as posts?" Well, uh, yes. More than a shame.