I have some problems with this 'Honor Role 600 List'

[Barney Gumble]

Instapundit, also known as corporate shill Glenn Harlan Reynolds, inserts himself into a rather odd Iraq story this week.

In this post he passes on that a judge he knows was shown some evidence linking OBL and Sadam Hussein. Glenn adds that the judge is A) a Democrat and B) has unimpeachable integrity, therefore...anyone? Is he C) telling the...

Judge Merritt writes an article for the Tennessean about a list with the 600 people closest to Saddam Hussein. On this list is "Abid Al-Karim Muhamed Aswod, intelligence officer responsible for the coordination of activities with the Osama bin Laden group at the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan.''

1. According to the story, the list was printed in a Baghdad newspaper. The next morning, the secret police came around and tried to get all the copies back. This week, "One of the lawyers with whom I have been working for the past five weeks had come to me and asked me whether a list of the 600 people closest to Saddam Hussein would be of any value now to the Americans. (emphasis mine)
Do some desperate Iraqi's with spare time and a printing press have a money making scam in mind?

2 The English name of this newspaper, the Babylon Daily Political Newspaper, doesn't Google. According to the Weekly Standard, it's called Babil. Why the confusion?

3. This was November 2002. Remember the pre-election war hype? There was no mention of this at the time, even though Baghdad had a lot of foreign press in town. "Samir bought his paper at a newsstand at around 8 a.m. "Within two hours, the Iraqi intelligence officers were going by every newsstand in Baghdad and confiscating the papers. A lot of newspapers get sold between 8 and 10 AM. How could so few of these papers be around? No reporters heard about it? (emphasis mine)

4. Judge Merritt feels the need to editorialize and 'assist' Bush: "That is the story of the ''Honor Roll of 600,'' and why I believe that President Bush was right when he alleged that Saddam was in cahoots with Osama and was coordinating activities with him." (emphasis mine)

Also, "Up until this time, I have been skeptical about these claims. Now I have changed my mind." Is he trying a little too hard to convince us of his impartiality?

5. The story appeard in the May 12 edition of the Weekly Standard, and it sank like a stone. Why did it sink like a stone? Did real reporters check it out and found it had no merit? (no pun intended)

6. Supposedly, the list had an odd preface: ''This is a list of the henchmen of the regime. Our hands will reach them sooner or later. Woe unto them.'' What does this mean? Why did this Hussein controlled newspaper call the hussein's a 'regime'?

7. The alleged spy was assigned to the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan. Why wasn't he reeled in?

8. Why wasn't the Bush administration all over this holy grail of intel--the OBL/Saddam link--like a bum on a ham sandwich back when the story was fresh?

[Maple]

1. Anybody can

make up a list.

What worries me is that a supposed judge fell for it.

[lcordero]

2. The Weekly Standard is dubious at best

The Weekly Standard was started by William Kristol. This is the same person that is a member(chairman maybe?) of PNAC.

[papau]

3. That is key - this is a plant in the Weekly Standard -zero credibility

It is just a better done Drudge - and like Drudge, sets at the table when Rove and Grover give out media orders.

[starroute]

4. Abid Al-Karim Muhamed Aswod doesn't come up in Google

Except in quotes from this one article.

Sounds as apocryphal as Terrance J. Wilkinson.