2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR IN QATAR) Ahmed Hikmat Shakir lives in Doha, Qatar, working as a civil servant in the country's Ministry of Religious Endowment. - "AL QAEDA'S MAN IN IRAQ?, " Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman with Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle, © 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR ARRESTED IN QATAR) Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, an Iraqi and employee of the Qatari Ministry of Awqaf, was arrested by the Qatar authorities and reportedly ill-treated while being interrogated. He was not charged with any offence and was released from detention. - Amnesty International
SEPTEMBER 17, 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR PICKED UP BY QATAR) Six days after September 11, Qatari authorities picked Ahmad Hikmat Shakir up for questioning – but let him go. Yet a search of Shakir's apartment in Doha, the country's capital, yielded a treasure trove, including telephone records linking him to suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Project Bojinka, a 1994 Manila plot to blow up civilian airlines over the Pacific Ocean. U.S. officials found an even more startling link, according to intelligence documents obtained by NEWSWEEK: Shakir had been present at a January 2000 Qaeda "summit" in Malaysia that was attended by two of the 9-11 hijackers. Authorities believe that the summit may have been a planning session for both the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole and 9-11. Shakir quickly left Qatar. - "AL QAEDA'S MAN IN IRAQ?, " Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman with Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle, © 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
According to a senior Arab intelligence official, the Qataris “asked the Americans, ‘Where should we send this guy?’ ” The answer was, not the United States. The man, Ahmed Shakir, was sent to Jordan instead. The Jordanians have been good about sharing intelligence with the United States. The CIA prefers not to ask how the Jordanians obtain that intelligence - "Justice Kept In the Dark " by Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff, Newsweek - MSNBC Wednesday, December 5, 2001 via Bint Jabeil bintjabail.com
OCTOBER 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR LEAVES DOHA, QATAR FOR JORDAN) In October 2001, Ahmad Hikmat Shakir hopped on a commercial flight to Amman, intending to switch planes to Baghdad. When Jordanian authorities questioned him, Shakir claimed he was going home to visit relatives. The Jordanians didn't buy it, and neither did U.S. officials. But much about the handling of the case has raised concerns. FBI agents were not permitted to directly question Shakir. Now law-enforcement officials are left to wonder how a suspected Qaeda operative went from a jail cell in Jordan to what may be safe haven in Iraq. - "AL QAEDA'S MAN IN IRAQ?, " Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman with Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle, © 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
OCTOBER 21, 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR IN JORDAN ) Ahmad Hikmat Shakir left Doha on October 21 for Iraq via Jordan. He is an Iraqi citizen aged 37 years, was arrested at Amman Airport on October 21 during a transit-stop on his way from Qatar to Iraq. It appears that his arrest may have been in connection with suspicions on the part of the Jordanian authorities relating to visits he had made to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia. Ahmad Hikmat Shakir was held in incommunicado detention for several weeks before being allowed access to a lawyer. - Amnesty International
OCTOBER 21, 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR IN JORDAN) In the weeks after the September 11 attacks, security officials around the world were on highest alert. So when a 37-year-old Iraqi national named Ahmad Hikmat Shakir stepped off a plane in Amman's Queen Alia airport on Oct. 21, Jordanian officials soon became suspicious. A quick review of his passport showed Shakir had recently traveled to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia – key stops on the terror trail. FBI agents were alerted. Within days they concluded that Shakir was no incidental traveler: he was, according to confidential U.S. intelligence reports, a suspected terrorist who had been in direct contact with some of the major operatives in the September 11 plot. - "AL QAEDA'S MAN IN IRAQ?, " Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman with Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle, © 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
OCTOBER 2001 : (IRAQI AHMAD HIKMAT SHAKIR, JORDAN) The Iraqi, Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, 37, was picked up October 2001 in Amman, and his passport showed he had recently traveled to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia, all key terror trouble spots. A search of one of his apartments turned up telephone records linking him to suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as a 1994 Philippine-based plot to blow up civilian airlines over the Pacific Ocean. - "Iraqi a Missing Link," by Aly Sujo, NY Post
OCTOBER 2001 : (IRAQI SHAKIR ARRESTED IN JORDAN) A globe-trotting Iraqi, suspected of being a terrorist with ties to both al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, was arrested in Jordan after Sept. 11 and then mysteriously released, U.S. intelligence officials said. The Iraqi, Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, 37, was picked up last October2001 in Amman, and his passport showed he had recently traveled to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia, all key terror trouble spots. "Shakir connects with both Iraq and 9/11," a U.S. official told Newsweek. A search of one of his apartments turned up telephone records linking him to suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as a 1994 Philippine-based plot to blow up civilian airlines over the Pacific Ocean. Law-enforcement officials told the magazine they could not explain why Shakir was released and allowed to travel to safe haven in Iraq. - "IRAQI A MISSING LINK," By ALY SUJO, NY POST, SEPTEMBER 30, 2002
NOVEMBER 2001 : (JORDAN, IRAQI SHAKIR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL) Amnesty International wrote to the Minister of Interior in November seeking assurances that Ahmad Hikmat Shakir was being humanely treated and not subjected to any kind of ill-treatment or torture as well as seeking information about his whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest, and whether any charges had been brought against him. By the end of January 2002 no reply had been received.
JANUARY 2002 : (IRAQI SHAKIR RELEASED, MAY BE IN IRAQ) But hopes that the FBI had nabbed a potential Qaeda source were soon dashed. Three months after he was detained, Shakir was inexplicably released by Jordanian authorities – and promptly vanished. NEWSWEEK has learned that some U.S. intelligence officials believe Shakir is now back home in Iraq. The Bush administration has made no public comments about Shakir and officials acknowledge they know little about his current activities. But Shakir's case may be the most tantalizing evidence yet to support the administration's contention that there are ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq. American intelligence officials may have traced a key Osama bin Laden operative to Saddam Hussein's home base, note Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman - "AL QAEDA'S MAN IN IRAQ?, " Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman with Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle, © 2002 Newsweek, Inc.