Lt. Cmdr. Scott Speicher
The Jacksonville family of the only American still listed as missing in action from the Persian Gulf War believes they finally might be able to determine whether Navy Lt. Cmdr. Scott Speicher is dead or alive.
A meeting with an unidentified Iraqi official who family representatives believe is in a position to know Speicher's fate is a good possibility, said Cindy Laquidara, a Jacksonville lawyer representing the family.
"Given their history of actually meeting people on humanitarian issues, I would think it's pretty high," Laquidara said Thursday. She would not identify the official.
Laquidara said she has been working on a meeting for some time but only recently sent a letter requesting it. The time and participants are subject to negotiation, she said.
Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, and administration officials are pressing hard for military action against Iraq, but Laquidara said the timing of the letter is coincidental.
"It was time to have the personal plea," she said.
President Bush cited Speicher's case in his speech last week to the United Nations to argue for action against Iraq.
Speicher's F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet was shot down Jan. 17, 1991, the opening night of the war. Initial reports were that it exploded in the air.
Speicher, a native of Jacksonville, was listed as missing in action while the war continued. After the prisoners held in Iraq returned, Speicher's status was changed on May 22, 1991, to killed in action, body not recovered.
In 1995, the wreckage of Speicher's plane was found. A team from the International Committee for the Red Cross some months later found evidence that Speicher "likely ejected from the stricken aircraft prior to the crash," according to an unclassified intelligence summary.
In 1999 an Iraqi defector claimed to have found Speicher alive in the desert and driven him to Baghdad. He has passed a lie-detector test, Laquidara said.
Based on a growing body of evidence that Speicher survived the crash, and spurred by the aviator's family and members of Congress, the Navy changed his status back to MIA in January 2001.
Speicher's wife, who has since remarried, has been instrumental in pushing for an accounting for him, Laquidara said. She has declined all interview requests since his disappearance.
JoAnne Shirley of Dalton, who heads the board of the National League of Families of POW/MIA, said the family needs to be careful they are not used as pawns in a larger game of diplomacy by the Iraqis.
"I would proceed cautiously, but I think I would do it," said Shirley, whose brother has been missing in Vietnam for nearly 30 years. "I think it will impress on Iraq the importance of the issue."
© 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
