News-Info-Alerts

Re: US Inevestigates Reports Speicher Held Alive

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 10, 2003

"U.S. investigates reports Iraq holding Gulf War pilot
By WILL DUNHAM
Reuters

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials are investigating recent tips received about a Navy pilot who was downed in the Gulf War in 1991 suggesting he remains alive and is being held captive by Iraq's government, officials said on Friday.

The U.S. Navy in October reclassified the status of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher as "missing/captured," rather than simply "missing in action," reflecting the belief that Iraqi forces seized him while alive after his F/A-18C Hornet went down on Jan. 17, 1991.

The Washington Times, quoting unnamed officials, reported on Friday that the Pentagon in November obtained new intelligence reports stating that a live U.S. pilot believed to be Speicher, a Kansas City native, was being moved among 18 different locations in Iraq and was being treated by a doctor.

"There are reports out there that we've received over the last several months that are consistent with" those details, said a U.S. official speaking on condition on anonymity.

"Over the years, we've built a very good knowledge base on things that we know, things that we think we know and, of course, things that we don't know" about the Speicher case, the official said.

"These reports on Speicher come in all the time, for various different reasons. Of course, some of them tend to be circular in nature, and in fact we've heard them before," the official added. "... But someone may have a different piece of information that we haven't heard before, or something's that's just off the wall that might challenge our knowledge base. So those things are, of course, of great interest to us, also."

'A FULL ACCOUNTING'

The Defense Intelligence Agency is the agency responsible for continuing the investigation on Speicher.

"The DIA aggressively investigates every intelligence report. That's our job. And we're going to continue to investigate reports like this until we have a full accounting," said DIA spokesman Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks, who declined to provide details on any recent reports concerning Speicher.

"But ultimately (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein knows the answer to not only Captain Speicher but the whereabouts or the full accounting of hundreds of Kuwaiti POWs (from the Gulf War). And he can solve the mystery right here and right now," Brooks said.

The United States is assembling a large military force in the Gulf region for a possible war with Iraq. President Bush has said the United States would lead a coalition of nations to disarm Iraq if Saddam fails to heed U.N. resolutions banning weapons of mass destruction.

Speicher, from Jacksonville, Florida, was 33 years old at the time his plane went down. If alive, he would be 45.

Cindy Laquidara, a lawyer for Speicher's family, told Reuters she recently spoke with an Iraqi defector who described seeing a live American pilot being held in Iraq.

"I don't want to comment too much on information that's classified," Laquidara said. "I'd just say that we have received from various sources consistent information all indicating that Scott is in captivity."

Laquidara also said this was a "critical time" to get the case resolved amid the build-up of U.S. forces for another possible war. "We need to be addressing this matter presently ... recognizing the importance of it, and act accordingly. We ask nothing less from our country," Laquidara said.

Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman, said, "We believe that it is very likely that at some point Speicher was seized by Iraqi military or paramilitary forces. And we hope that it (his status reclassification) significantly underscores that we believe the Iraqi government has a great deal of knowledge about what happened, but they continue to withhold that information.""