Qaddafi, Kadafi, Gadhafi, Qatafi, or is it Gaddafi?

The Strait Times ^ | JULY 2, 2002 TUE

[Tai_Chung]

WASHINGTON - There are at least 60 ways of spelling the name of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

And you thought you had problems? US intelligence agencies have found 60 different spellings for the name of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. -- REUTERS

The variations of an enemy's name are creating a headache for United States intelligence and law-enforcement agencies trying to prevent terrorist attacks.

Computers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Immigration and Naturalisation Service and other agencies are full of lists of suspected terrorists.

Some names identify actual terrorists. Others are aliases, misspellings, alternative spellings or misidentifications - and without extensive fieldwork, there is no way to tell them apart.

The confusion over names poses an obstacle for a law- enforcement and intelligence community trying to track obscure operatives in scores of countries and thwart another attack on the US.

There are several problems cited publicly by the FBI and privately by CIA and INS officials.

These include conflicting methods used by agencies to translate and spell the same name; antiquated computer software that will not allow searches for approximate spellings of names, and the prevalence of common names such as Muhammed, Sheik, Atef, Atta, al-Haji and al-Ghamdi.

'I can't tell you how many Mohamed Attas we've run across,' said one intelligence official referring to the name of the lead hijacker in the Sept 11 attacks.

In the weeks after Sept 11, Justice and Treasury officials compiled a list of two dozen alleged Al-Qaeda operatives and financiers.

They asked that the list be passed on to Saudi Arabia with a request that the bank accounts of the individuals be frozen.

When the State Department passed on the list, the Saudis greeted the request with laughter and said the 'names' were of no help in finding terrorist bank accounts.

A State Department official later acknowledged the list had comprised nothing more than nicknames.

There were also several Mohammed al-Hajis - not a family name but a term to indicate a person had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Days after the attack, Mr Waleed al-Shehri, a pilot and son of a Saudi diplomat, threatened to sue a US network for televising his picture as a suspect.

The FBI had said that a man with the same name was on one of the hijacked planes.

[Shermy]

bump.

[knak]

How do you spell "al-qaeda"? I've seen loads of them too.
al-quada, al-quida. tomato, tom-a-to!