News-Info-Alerts

Re: US Says No Offer, Yet

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 28, 2002

"U.S. Says No Word From Iraq on Pilot Offer
March 28, 2002 05:04 PM ET
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it has still not received formal notice from Iraq of an offer to let a U.S. delegation investigate the fate of missing U.S. pilot Michael Speicher.

Iraq said on Wednesday that its foreign ministry had officially notified the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of its offer on Lt. Cmdr. Speicher, who was shot down over Iraq at the start of 1991 Gulf War.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that any Iraqi offer would have to come through official channels -- either through the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, which represents U.S. interests, through the ICRC or through one of the regular meetings attended by Iraq and the United States in Geneva.

"We haven't received anything through any of those channels that are available to Iraq," he said.

"If they ... have something to say about Commander Speicher, we look very much to them to come forward and to respond to the many attempts we've made to get information. At this point, regrettably, they have not done so," he added.

A U.S. military team searched for the pilot's remains in 1995 but their mission apparently ended inconclusively.

The Washington Times newspaper said earlier this month U.S. intelligence had new information indicating Speicher was in captivity in Iraq. U.S. officials have not confirmed that.

Washington listed the pilot as the war's first casualty but took the unusual step in January last year of reclassifying him as "missing in action" after evidence emerged he might have survived the crash. Iraq said then that he was dead. "