thedrifter
03-02-04, 02:25 PM
March 02, 2004
Gulf War pilot’s status still ‘missing-captured’
By Robert Burns
Associated Press
Nearly a year after the fall of Baghdad, the Navy has yet to find evidence to change its position that F-18 fighter pilot Michael Scott Speicher, shot down on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, was at one time in Iraqi captivity, the Navy’s top admiral said Tuesday.
Iraq has maintained all along that Speicher was killed in the crash. The Navy, which has changed its position on Speicher’s status over the years, lists him as “missing-captured.”
“We have not found out new specific intelligence revelations that have changed our fundamental conclusion,” Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operation, told a group of reporters at a breakfast interview.
In October 2002 the Navy changed Speicher’s status from missing in action to “missing-captured,” although it has never said what evidence it has that he was in captivity. He initially was listed as killed in action, with no body recovered. But in January 2001, the Navy changed his status to MIA, citing an absence of evidence that he had died.
Asked directly whether any evidence had emerged to support the Navy’s position that Speicher had been taken captive by the Iraqis after he was shot down on Jan. 17, Clark said, “I can’t answer that question.”
Later a senior Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that no information has emerged that reinforces the theory that Speicher had ever been in captivity.
In fact, other officials have said in recent months that some information from informants, claiming before the U.S. invasion last March that Speicher had been seen in a prison in Baghdad, has since been discredited.
Clark said resolving the fate of Speicher is a high priority for the Navy.
“We do not have new intelligence that adds clarity and definition to what happened to him” after he was shot down, Clark said. “If you think about what I just told you, that tells you something about the discovery or lack of discovery.”
Speicher was 33 when he was shot down. He held the rank of lieutenant commander at the time; he has since been promoted to captain. Speicher’s family lived in the Kansas City area and moved to Florida when he was a teenager.
http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2693547.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Gulf War pilot’s status still ‘missing-captured’
By Robert Burns
Associated Press
Nearly a year after the fall of Baghdad, the Navy has yet to find evidence to change its position that F-18 fighter pilot Michael Scott Speicher, shot down on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, was at one time in Iraqi captivity, the Navy’s top admiral said Tuesday.
Iraq has maintained all along that Speicher was killed in the crash. The Navy, which has changed its position on Speicher’s status over the years, lists him as “missing-captured.”
“We have not found out new specific intelligence revelations that have changed our fundamental conclusion,” Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operation, told a group of reporters at a breakfast interview.
In October 2002 the Navy changed Speicher’s status from missing in action to “missing-captured,” although it has never said what evidence it has that he was in captivity. He initially was listed as killed in action, with no body recovered. But in January 2001, the Navy changed his status to MIA, citing an absence of evidence that he had died.
Asked directly whether any evidence had emerged to support the Navy’s position that Speicher had been taken captive by the Iraqis after he was shot down on Jan. 17, Clark said, “I can’t answer that question.”
Later a senior Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that no information has emerged that reinforces the theory that Speicher had ever been in captivity.
In fact, other officials have said in recent months that some information from informants, claiming before the U.S. invasion last March that Speicher had been seen in a prison in Baghdad, has since been discredited.
Clark said resolving the fate of Speicher is a high priority for the Navy.
“We do not have new intelligence that adds clarity and definition to what happened to him” after he was shot down, Clark said. “If you think about what I just told you, that tells you something about the discovery or lack of discovery.”
Speicher was 33 when he was shot down. He held the rank of lieutenant commander at the time; he has since been promoted to captain. Speicher’s family lived in the Kansas City area and moved to Florida when he was a teenager.
http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2693547.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: