This true story is about how terrorism, coupled with an odd coincidence has affected my life. I was born in Pakistan, and spent my life there till two years after my graduation as computer engineer. That’s when I was interviewed by Microsoft in Dubai, and consequently offered a job in Redmond, which I accepted and moved to USA in November 2000. Soon afterwards, first episode of this story started.

As required by law, I went to office of the Washington Department of Licensing to get Washington State driver’s license. At the counter, the officer took my vision test, and then after checking some data, he sarcastically asked me, “What kind of place is North Dakota?” Puzzled, I didn’t know what to tell him because I had never been to North Dakota, and didn’t expect this kind of question for driving license. With a confused expression, I told him that I didn’t know. His next question was, “Have you ever been to North Dakota?” When I told him that I had never been there, he asked, “Do you mean you don’t remember going there?” By that time, it was getting irritating, so I told him that I clearly remembered not having gone there. At this, he asked me to wait and went away. He returned after a while and told me that according to his records, someone with same name and date of birth as me had his driver’s license revoked by the state of North Dakota, and so I couldn’t get a driver’s license unless I got that cleared.

Highly disappointed, I returned home. Next day, I went to work and called North Dakota Department of Licensing. They said that all they could tell me was that “my” driving license was revoked due to some unpaid ticket (I wasn’t even in USA at the time of that offence). I told them that it was a problem of mistaken identity, and that I wanted to get that cleared. They asked me to contact another office to sort it out. I called that person, but his secretary told me that they couldn’t do anything either. At this I was quite upset, and didn’t know what to do. So I went to my manager and told him the situation. He called them up again and explained to them the whole situation. Eventually, they checked everything, and found out that the other guy spelled his first name as Ahmed (as opposed to Ahmad), and eventually sent me a letter saying that my driving privileges were not suspended in North Dakota.

Relieved, I went back to the Washington Department of Licensing office, and showed them the letter. They made me wait for a long time, faxing the letter back to North Dakota, and taking a written oath from me regarding authenticity of the letter. Finally, I was allowed to take the written test, which I cleared. Next, I called the number they gave me, to schedule an appointment for driving test. Again, I was told that my driving license was revoked. So I went back to Washington Department of Licensing office, and asked them to put a comment related to this mistaken identity in my records. Thankfully, they did that, and I managed to get Washington State driver’s license.

I thought I had solved the problem, but I was mistaken. Days passed by, including the tragic day of 11th September. And then we heard that Pakistanis were added to the list of countries whose nationals had to go through special registration with INS. As a law-abiding tax-payer, I also scheduled an appointment with INS, which had given special time slots to Microsoft employees. That’s when the second episode of this story started.
I reached INS, told them that I had an appointment through Microsoft, and got in to meet the attorney assigned to me who asked me to wait for a few minutes. Everything seemed to be normal, till the attorney came to me and told me that there was some problem of mistaken identity, and I should be prepared for some questions. That got me worried, but the feeling of having done nothing wrong and having all the documents, including the letter from North Dakota comforted me.

Next, the attorney guided me to a separate room, where two special agents from the INS Joint Terrorist Task Force were waiting for me. One of the officers introduced himself as an anti-terrorism expert, and told me that they needed to ask some questions. He told me that someone with same name and date of birth as me was in INS custody, and that was the reason why I was being interviewed by them. I told them about the North Dakota episode, and showed them the letter from North Dakota too. They seemed convinced that I was a different person, but still they asked some questions, like:

Do you have any middle name or any other names?
Have you been to any country where terrorist camps are?
Do you know anyone who might have terrorist links?
Do you remember anyone jumping with joy on 11th September?
Would you inform FBI if you found out about any terrorists?
Have you been anywhere in the Middle East?
Have you been to Oregon? (At that time this one didn’t make any sense)

It took them around 20 minutes before they concluded their interview and cleared me for special registration. The actual process of special registration didn’t take more than 10 minutes, and the officers were all quite courteous. They told me that they had put a comment in my record indicating this mistaken identity, but warned me that it may not always help me from staying out of trouble regarding this. The attorney told me that it was the first time that he had come across such a coincidence where two people had same name and same date of birth and one of them was facing problems due to the other one. So, I came back to work, but this thing remained on my mind all day.

Later in the evening, I thought about doing a Google search regarding the person I was being confused with, to find out what he had done, and soon I came across this link:

U.S. v. Jeffrey Battle, Patrice Ford, Ahmed Bilal, Muhammad Bilal, Habis Al Saoub, October Lewis: Case involves the arrest of 4 individuals alleged to have received terrorist training. Oct. 3, 2002.

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usbattle100302ind.pdf


I remembered something similar that I had heard in the news and related this to the officer’s question about Oregon. The details of this case made me realize the grave nature of charges against that guy. I thought how lucky I was that he was in INS custody already. And I wondered how two people with same name and same date of birth can be so different, yet one affecting life of the other. Here I am, an introvert computer engineer working at Microsoft, absorbed in my own world of computers and guitars, paying my taxes and living a free, prosperous life. And contrary to me, there is someone who shares my name and date of birth, and yet he is in INS custody, charged with planning the most hideous of crimes against innocent people. I wondered how different circumstances and influences can lead people to totally opposite tracks in life. And one thing I am still wondering … is there going to be another episode of this false alarm?

Ahmad Bilal
Redmond, WA
Wednesday, January 22, 2003