News-Info-Alerts

Re: US - Waiting For An Invitation

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 25, 2002

"Bush administration awaits direct invitation from Iraq on missing American pilot

  Monday, March 25, 2002

(03-25) 14:00 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Iraq has not invited a U.S. delegation to discuss the fate of an American pilot shot down over Iraq during the Gulf War, Bush administration officials said Monday.

"We're not aware of any offer by the Iraqi government," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, referring to media reports about an invitation. "To my knowledge, it is only a fact that it's been printed. Whether it's actually happened, I'm not aware of it."

On Sunday, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said his country was "ready to receive any American team, accompanied by U.S. media, in order to discuss and document this issue under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross."

Rumsfeld expressed skepticism about the report, however.

"I don't believe very much that the regime of Saddam Hussein puts out. They're masters of propaganda," he said.

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher was lost when his Navy F/A-18 Hornet jet was shot down on Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of the war.

Speicher, 33, had been listed as the first casualty of the Gulf War. Last year the Pentagon changed his status from killed in action to missing in action after persistent reports he survived and was being held captive.

The United States has sent numerous requests to Iraq for specific information about Speicher and his downed aircraft, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Iraq also has failed to participate for the last three years in a formal, international process established for resolving humanitarian issues.

"The United States is deeply committed to resolving the fate of all Gulf War missing, including Commander Speicher," Boucher said. "And we call upon Iraq to cooperate fully with this humanitarian obligation, by providing answers to questions posed to it for several years, rather than attempting to pass whatever public relations they want to through the press."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration did not have enough information to evaluate a possible Iraqi invitation.

But, he said, "The government is always interested in information concerning those who are missing in action." "