News-Info-Alerts

Re: Speicher - 'We Need To Fnd Out What Happened'

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: April 19, 2002

"Nelson asking Mideast countries to help find missing Navy pilot
By RON WORD, Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is asking American allies in the Middle East to use their influence with Iraq to help determine the fate of Jacksonville Navy pilot Scott Speicher, missing since the Gulf War.

Nelson, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said he told Speicher's family in Orange Park on Monday that he plans to enlist the help of officials in Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, to use their influence to see if anything can be learned about Speicher's fate.

Speicher's FA-18 Hornet, flying off the USS Saratoga, was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, on the opening night of the Gulf War.

The 33-year-old pilot was first listed as killed in action. Last year, the Pentagon changed his status to missing in action based on intelligence reports that he might still be alive and held captive in Baghdad. A Central Intelligence Agency report concluded he probably survived the crash and was captured.

Nelson, D-Fla., there were reports from a man who claimed he took Speicher to a hospital after he ejected. Nelson said, according to the report, Speicher was not seriously injured. There are also reports that Speicher was taken to a prison near Baghdad.

"If that's the case, we need to know," Nelson said.

Iraq President Saddam Hussein has insisted Speicher died but has invited a U.S. delegation to come investigate.

The Pentagon is mulling how to respond.

Nelson said he is meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday and will make a case on the importance of finding out about Speicher's fate.

"The family is very pleased he has taken on this as a mission," said Cindy Laquidara, an attorney representing Speicher's family.

Nelson, a member of the armed services and foreign relations committees, met with Syria's president during a trip to Damascus earlier this month and got him to agree to help.

Laquidara said the timing is right to keep pressure on Iraq to tell what it knows because Kuwait also is working with Syria on getting its Gulf War prisoners of war returned from Iraq. Baghdad still holds about 600 Kuwaiti POWs.

The Kuwait News Agency reported Saturday that Syria is pressuring Iraq to release the POWs on humanitarian grounds. A Kuwaiti delegation is touring Arab states to rally support for the POWs' cause.

Laquidara also said the family intends to keep pressing its case through the Pentagon.

"The family needs to know. His children need to know," Nelson said. "We need to find out what happened." "