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Re: WW II Fliers Ring Returned After 60 Years

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 08, 2003

"Sen. Nelson in Iraq searching for information on Speicher

By RON WORD
Associated Press Writer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The search for information on missing Navy pilot Scott Speicher is continuing in Iraq, though there is no new evidence that the aviator shot down in 1991 is alive, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday.

Nelson, D-Florida, visited senior government and military officials Monday in a one-day trip to Baghdad to talk about search for Speicher and a $1 million reward offered for his return.

In a Monday conference call from Kuwait City, Nelson said there was new, highly classified evidence on the search for Speicher, who has been missing since the 1991 Gulf War.

"Does that mean he is alive?" Nelson said. "I don't have any proof of that."
Nelson said he believes learning Speicher's fate is a priority of military commanders.

"Almost every higher ranking military person in the Gulf region knows who Scott Speicher is," Nelson said. "Scott Speicher has become a cause for them.

The senator also visited the Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad, where investigators found the initials "MSS" scratched into the wall of a cell. Those are the same initials as Michael Scott Speicher, but officials are awaiting the results of DNA tests to determine if he was housed in that cell.

Investigators are searching through documents found at the prison and other locations where Speicher might have been held, Nelson said.

"For the first time, I am optimistic they are making progress by the new evidence and clues," Nelson said.

The Pentagon declared Speicher killed in action when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991. A decade later it changed his status to prisoner of war after an Iraqi defector and others reported that an American was being held in Saddam Hussein's prison system. Speicher is the only military pilot still unaccounted for from the 1991 Gulf War.

Cindy Laquidara, a spokeswoman for Speicher's family, said she spoke with Nelson's staff Monday.

"I'm optimistic that we have a system in place that should get us an answer," she said.

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