News-Info-Alerts

Re: Speicher Case Plan Hinted

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: December 09, 2002

"Speicher case plan hinted

White House not talking

By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
The White House is forming new plans to resolve the fate of a Jacksonville Navy pilot missing in Iraq since the Persian Gulf War, but two key senators said yesterday they have had no luck getting the administration to elaborate about that or a recent communique to Baghdad.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., told reporters at his Jacksonville office that he and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., are urging the administration to act quickly because war will complicate efforts to find answers about what happened to Capt. Scott Speicher, who was shot down over Iraq in 1991. Nelson said the plans involve the Navy, Central Intelligence Agency and State Department.

"We're told there has been some communication from the administration to the Iraqi government about Capt. Speicher, but that information has not been shared with us," Nelson said.

Nelson, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, and Roberts, incoming chairman of the Intelligence Committee, offered to lead a U.S. delegation to meet with Iraqi officials in Baghdad, the United States or a neutral country. Both have asked the administration to send missing persons experts to Baghdad, with Roberts reiterating the request in a meeting Thursday with top Pentagon officials.

Speicher, a Cecil Field flier whose family lives in Orange Park, was initially declared dead, but his status was changed to missing in action last year and to missing-captured this year based on defense and intelligence information that he survived the crash and probably was captured. Those reports were based on analysis of the wreckage of his FA-18 Hornet jet and reports from Iraqi defectors about a U.S. pilot imprisoned in Baghdad.

Nelson said time is crucial as the Bush administration prepares for another war with Iraq.

"The clock is ticking," he said. "Once the balloon goes up in a hot war, it's going to be a lot more difficult to get information. For the Defense Department to keep dragging their feet, as they have in the past, that time is over."

In a Nov. 25 letter to the senators, a White House staffer wrote that details on "policy recommendations" regarding Speicher would be provided "in the near future."

"We're going to expect that the administration produces a plan for resolving Speicher's fate that is detailed, resourced and executable," Nelson said.

Staff writer Paul Pinkham can be reached at (904) 359-4107 or ppinkhamjacksonville.com.
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