"....his RD is Oct 2002 got his approval in June and his plastic card came end of July...."
Well, fortune favors the brave.. I am not at all surprised that CP in the worst times is faster than AOS, although it lacks the recourse to appeal that is available to AOS applicants already in the country. Congress does not play around with the department of state as it seems to do with the INS.
Most of us around these forums have been wimpy when it came to choosing between CP and AOS. Most lawyers will advise their clients to opt for AOS on the premise that physical presence in the US endows a higher threshold of due process, in contrast to an appeal of a negative administrative decision at a consular post. One should, however, be somewhat sceptical of this advice because of the clear conflict of interest that arises here. AOS typically takes much longer, which usually means larger fees for the lawyer as there are more steps to the process with many more forms to be filled up like EAD/AP applications, renewals, address change notifications etc.
So, it seems that we have knowingly (and willingly) signed up to the costs inherent to timidity when we chose AOS over CP.