U.S. Decries Iraq Over Lost Pilot

ap ^ | Aug 21, 2002 | GERALD NADLER

[Ranger]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States accused Iraq on Wednesday of not cooperating in determining the fate of missing Gulf War ( news - web sites) pilot Scott Speicher despite numerous requests for information.

 

Speicher, a U.S. Navy ( news - web sites) F-18 pilot, was shot down over Iraq on the opening night of the Gulf War in January 1991, and was initially listed as killed in action, with no body recovered.

But in January 2001, the Navy changed his status to missing in action because of a lack of evidence that he died in the crash. Iraq has said Speicher died in the crash and that it has no new information on the case.

The United States has worked through the United Nations ( news - web sites) and the International Committee of the Red Cross to try to find out Speicher's fate, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told a Security Council meeting on some 600 missing Kuwaitis and other nationals from the Gulf War.

"Despite our extensive efforts in this regard, Iraq has continued to assert that they will provide no new information," Negroponte said. "We consider the treatment of this case a perfect example of their noncooperation on the prisoner of war and missing persons issue."

Although there is no known physical evidence that Speicher was captured, U.S. intelligence agencies believe it a possibility. The Navy believes Iraq knows more about Speicher's fate than it has acknowledged.

Last year, U.S. intelligence agencies told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a letter that Speicher probably ejected from his plane and survived the shootdown.

At the United Nations, a tripartite commission of Britain, France and the United States is working on the missing persons issue, but Iraq has boycotted meetings of that body.

Negroponte said Iraq has failed in its promise at the Arab League Summit in Beirut, Lebanon to help resolve the cases of the Gulf War's missing persons — including Kuwaiti prisoners of war, four Iranians, four Syrians and an Indian national.

"Iraq has yet to match its words on the fate of the missing persons with tangible deeds and cooperation," Negroponte said.

The United Nations wants Iraq to repatriate the Kuwaiti POWs and missing foreign nationals, or return their remains if they have died.

Iraq claims that it has repatriated all prisoners and property taken during the invasion, but the United Nations has maintained that there are some 600 Kuwaiti families still awaiting word of loved ones who have not been heard from since the war.

[Ranger]

I pray we didn't leave him behind all these years. Surely if we did, Saddam has had him killed to cover his tracks has he evidently has with Abu Nidal.

[DentsRun]

The United States has worked through the United Nations ( news - web sites) and the International Committee of the Red Cross to try to find out Speicher's fate, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told a Security Council meeting on some 600 missing Kuwaitis and other nationals from the Gulf War.

"Despite our extensive efforts in this regard, Iraq has continued to assert that they will provide no new information," Negroponte said. "We consider the treatment of this case a perfect example of their noncooperation on the prisoner of war and missing persons issue."

This kind of stuff makes me nervous. It seems as if the U.S. is throwing everything it has against the wall to see what sticks. If we're going to attack Iraq, we should do it because (1) he's a threat to us or (2) he was behind 9-11, not because of almost certainly untrue charges that he kept an American pilot prisoner for the last 11 years.