Well USCIS does change it's policies ... as there was a reports that USCIS not only assigned the visa numbers to guys stuck in extended review at namecheck, but also approved some of the cases. Many attorneys went mad at this and started to punch the USCIS.
USCIS went into defense mode as attoney's cited nation security reasons. USCIS then removed the visa numbers attached to the "stuck in name check" cases and I guess returned it back to the state department.
I guess now .. to get a visa number Ur application should be documentary approve able in every aspect and U are within the cut-off date .
Sad to see that U are waiting since 2001.