News-Info-Alerts

Re: Fate of Speicher Still Unknown

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: August 08, 2003

"Fate of U.S. pilot in Iraq still unknown

PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Genetic material found in a prison cell in Iraq did not match that of a pilot missing since the 1991 Gulf War, but investigators continue to search for other evidence of his fate.

Invading U.S. forces in April said they had found the initials of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher scratched into a cell in an Iraqi prison where Speicher may have been held at some point over the past decade. But preliminary tests on hair found in the cell's drain show it doesn't match Speicher's DNA, two defense officials indicated Friday.

Further testing may be done on the evidence, as well as on the initials, officials said. And the search for other clues continues.

Speicher originally was declared killed in action after his FA-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991. His flight suit was found at the crash site.

His status was changed a decade later to missing in action and then "missing-captured," to reflect unconfirmed reports he was once in Iraqi hands.

Saddam's government has said repeatedly that Speicher was killed and denied holding him prisoner.

In April, as coalition troops moved in for another war against Saddam, soldiers found the initials in the cell at Hakmiyah prison. U.S. officials said they had other evidence Speicher may have been held there, but added that Saddam's regime frequently moved prisoners of war.

Troops have been interrogating Iraqi officials captured in the war that started in March, as well as studying prison documents for any information on Speicher's fate.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in recent weeks that tracking down Speicher has become part of the job of the so-called Iraq Survey Group. The 1,400-member team is searching, so far unsuccessfully, for weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration said Saddam had, as well as for information on Iraqi leaders still at large, war crimes and other issues.

©Mercury News"