q as a velar fricative?

[hstahlke at ATT.NET]

In his 11/4 column, William Safire says that the <q> of
Al Qaida "represents a fricative kh sound."  He compares
it to the <kh> in Khomeini, and adds
that "correspondents who have worked in Arabic-speaking
countries use the palate-clearing sound of kh."  Does he
know something my Arab students and speakers like Edward
Said don't know, or does he not know about voiceless
uvular stops?

Herb Stahlke
Ball State University