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Re: Speicher - Hannity & Colmes Transcript

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 09, 2002

A special thanks to Rolling Thunder for sending this.

"Is Iraq Holding an American Pilot Prisoner?
Friday, July 05, 2002

This partial transcript from Hannity & Colmes, July 4, 2002 was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. FOXNews.com - We Report. You Decide. <http://fn.emediamillworks.com/fox/>

ALAN COLMES: We're back on HANNITY & COLMES. I'm Alan Colmes.
And coming up tonight, a court ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance has many politicians up in arms. Thankfully, Senator D'Amato's no longer a politician. We'll see how he feels about it. We're...

D'AMATO: I'd be up in arms also.

COLMES: Oh, would you be? Oh, well, we'll discuss that a little later on in the program.
And how do you make coffee politically correct? We'll tell you about one California man that's trying to do just that.
First, on the nation's birthday, is one of our own being held captive by Saddam Hussein?

On January 17th, 1991, Commander Scott Speicher's F-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq. Speicher's body was never recovered, and numerous intelligence reports suggesting that the Iraqis may be holding an American pilot captive, and have they given members of the Speicher family some hope that Scott may still be alive.
Joining us to talk about it, Richard Adams, Scott Speicher's nephew.

Richard, our thoughts and prayers with you and your family on this Fourth of July. What...

RICHARD ADAMS, NEPHEW OF MISSING PILOT: Thank you, Alan.

COLMES: What evidence is there, and I understand he was just promoted to captain last week because he is...

ADAMS: That is correct.

COLMES: ... listed as missing in action. Indeed, the only person to ever have his status changed from killed in action to missing in action. Tell us what happened...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: ... that he is still with us.

ADAMS: Well, we have more evidence to suggest that Scott's alive than he is dead. And we have always felt until we have a body that every avenue should be pursued to bring Scott home as an American soldiers or any other American soldier in his same fate. Over the last...

COLMES: What do you think the Iraqis are doing here? What kind of game are they playing, and why do you think they're not being forthcoming about this?

ADAMS: Well, I think just from past prisoners that Saddam Hussein has held, you know, here's a guy who's dropped chemical weapons on his own people, by the way.
You know, personally, I think that, if Scott is alive, he's being held as a trophy and he's saving him until he really needs him at the worst possible moment.

COLMES: Because Saddam Hussein has not yet said the Iraqis have not acknowledged his existence. Why wouldn't they yet be using his existence to try to wave it in the face of the United States, if, indeed, he is alive?

ADAMS: Well, I would like to think, hopefully, we haven't put enough pressure on him yet to do that, and if there's one person who could have survived 11 years in an Iraqi prison, as bad as it sounds, I can tell you right now it would have been Scott Speicher.

COLMES: Do you feel our government is doing enough to try to get to him?

ADAMS: Well, it's kind of hard to say in these times what enough is. I know that people's hopes are high. I know that the president is very aware of this situation. I know that the military is behind us. And, hopefully, it's just a matter of time before we have a resolution to this.

COLMES: Let me show you what the Senate Intelligence Committee has said.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says, "We assess that Iraq can account for LCDR Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate. Speicher probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis."
So there you have the Senate Intelligence Committee pretty much acknowledging they believe that he is still alive.

ADAMS: Exactly. Exactly. And I think the whole point now is somebody in Iraq knows where he is. You know, somebody found him. We recovered Scott's flight suit when we found his plane, and, obviously, it was laying in the desert.
Somebody found Scott in that flight suit, whether he was dead or alive. Somebody in Iraq knows where he is, and I want to see that person, and I want that person to tell me where he is.

COLMES: During the Gulf War, Vice President Cheney, secretary of defense at the time -- his role is supposedly sensitive because during the first press conference after the first strike in 1991, then Secretary Cheney pronounced Speicher dead. Do you think that this plays any role in whether or the administration wants to be proactive in terms of realizing that he may not be?

ADAMS: I don't have knowledge of that one way or the other. We would like to think that Vice President Cheney is with us on this, as he would be for any other American held overseas, if the possibility exists, and we would like to hear the vice president's opinion on this on this one way or another. We have not.

COLMES: "60 Minutes" reported in 2001 reported that an Iraqi defector reported that drove an American pilot from the desert to Baghdad, was alive and alert, wearing a flight suit. He pointed Speicher out in a photo lineup and passed two lie-detector tests. Is this one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that...

ADAMS: That is the most compelling information that has come forward publicly. However, I can say, over the last two years, the evidence that is classified. My aunt and her present husband do have their attorney have classified status. But the vocabulary used now, instead of investigating Scott's fate, is his repatriation back to this country.

D'AMATO: Yeah. Let me ask you this, Richard. It seems to me that there is evidence, very damning evidence against what the Iraqis are claiming. That is, and you alluded, they produced a flight suit but no remains.

ADAMS: Right. Exactly.

D'AMATO: Now how do they explain it? I don't know if you want to tell the viewers, but it is the most incredible story I've ever heard, and when people say, "Well, where are the remains?" they then claim what?

ADAMS: They...

D'AMATO: Let me tell you what they claimed. I was on the Intelligence Committee.

ADAMS: Go ahead.

D'AMATO: Let me tell you what they claimed. They claimed that animals...

ADAMS: Yes, sir. Go ahead.

D'AMATO: ... animals came and ate the remains. Now it is preposterous.

ADAMS: Yeah. Can you believe that?

D'AMATO: No. There's a flight suit...

ADAMS: Were we born yesterday?'

D'AMATO: They found the flight suit. Somehow, they found this flight suit, no animal marks, but they have some cuts that indicate that he...

ADAMS: There was no blood and no signs that Scott died in that flight suit either.

D'AMATO: Yeah. I mean, so just absolutely ridiculous, another Saddam Hussein -- I have to say to tell you -- another reason to say, "Mr. Saddam Hussein, we're not going to allow you to hold American prisoners, to build weapons of mass destruction. We're on to you in your game." And here, what a living tragedy, to have a young man who's been in captivity for 10 years.
Now, as it relates to the administration, the fact of the matter is it was the secretary of the Navy in 2001 of this administration who finally came forward. I think they've developed enough credible information to say, "Guess what? This is now someone who's missing in action. We're taking him off the list of saying that he was killed." So I...

ADAMS: That is correct.

D'AMATO: Now you have some help in Congress, too, I understand.

ADAMS: Yes, sir.

D'AMATO: You might want...

ADAMS: Senator...

D'AMATO: ... to tell the people...

ADAMS: Right. Senator Bob Smith has actually started out this...

D'AMATO: Good piece of legislation.

ADAMS: ... started the raising of this issue.

D'AMATO: Yeah.

ADAMS: I can't really remember that, but then Senator Roberts has been voicing this opinion over the last two years, really voicing the opinion for Scott, and now our own senator from Florida -- Scott's senator from Florida, Senator Bill Nelson, just lobbied for an amendment to the current bill from the Defense Department that will have to update Congress every 90 days on Scott's status.

D'AMATO: And offer a very substantial award for anyone...

ADAMS: Yes, sir.

D'AMATO: ... come...

ADAMS: Yes, sir.

D'AMATO: ... who is able to help in his repatriation plus American citizenship for any family or any people in Iraq who might step forward or help us.

ADAMS: Right, right. But, you know, what I would like to see, it's the Fourth of July, and those other senators stand up, and what I would like to see is a hundred percent of our elected officials show an attitude, and the attitude that I've always had like I have personally is, you know, "You're not going to do this to my family member."

But the attitude that I want to see voiced from a hundred percent of our congressmen and senators is, "You're not going to do this to an American soldier, and we're not going to stand for it as a country, and
we're going to resolve this issue.

D'AMATO: Right on.

COLMES: Listen, Richard, we hope we have a happy resolution about this. What's your prediction, and what's the timeframe that you think we might perhaps have some closure?

ADAMS: You know, when we first got into this five years ago, we really had no idea. We would like this resolved, if not in the next coming months, by the end of the year, and we're pursuing, you know, every option possible to find a way to find a resolution for Scott's status.

COLMES: We thank you for coming here and keeping it before the American public, Richard. Thanks for much on this Fourth of July. Thank you for being with us.

ADAMS: Thank you for your help.

D'AMATO: You're doing a great job, Richard. Keep it up.

COLMES: Coming up, does the Pledge of Allegiance belong in our nation's schools. And should Congress stay out of it? We'll debate that.
And later, are some kinds of coffee just not good enough for Berkeley, California? If you're a coffee lover, you might be losing your favorite kind of coffee. Stay with us. We will explain it all coming up on HANNITY & COLMES. Don't forget, log on to foxnews.com. You can become a Fox fan."