News-Info-Alerts

Re: House Passes 'Speicher Bill'

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: October 19, 2002

"House passes 'Speicher Bill'

By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
The House on Tuesday passed the so-called "Speicher Bill," which would grant asylum to Middle Easterners who return any living U.S. prisoner of war from Desert Storm.

The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.

Jacksonville Navy Capt. Scott Speicher is the only U.S. serviceman unaccounted for after the Persian Gulf War. His FA-18 Hornet jet was shot down over Iraq in 1991. Though initially presumed dead, intelligence investigators determined he survived the crash and probably was captured, leading the Navy last week to reclassify Speicher as missing-captured.

The Speicher bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., amends a similar act relating to Vietnam and Korea POWs. It also would apply to POWs from any future conflict with Iraq.

Foreign nationals who are criminals, terrorists or considered threats to U.S. security are exempt.

© The Florida Times-Union "