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17 January 2003

Senator Writes to Saddam Hussein on Fate of Missing Navy Pilot

(Requests Kuwait and Red Cross to seek information on Michael
Speicher) (490)
Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, has written a letter to Iraq's Saddam Hussein requesting
a meeting with the Baghdad regime's U.N. representative to learn the
fate of Navy pilot Captain Michael Speicher, who was shot down early
in the Gulf War.
In a January 6 news release, Roberts said he would welcome the
opportunity to discuss what happened to Speicher.
On January 10, Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat of Florida) said in a
news release that the two senators want Speicher's case discussed when
Iraqi and Kuwaiti officials meet for a second time on January 22 to
discuss an accounting of people missing from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait
in 1990 and the ensuing Gulf War.
"This presents us with a real opportunity to put the question of
Captain Scott Speicher's fate directly to Iraqi officials assigned to
dealing with missing persons," Nelson said.
"We should continue to pursue every possible avenue that can lend us
any information on the fate of Captain Speicher," added Roberts.
Following is the text of the January 6 news release from the office of
Senator Pat Roberts:
(begin text)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2003
Senator Roberts Requests Meeting with Iraq
on Fate of Missing Gulf War Pilot
WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Pat Roberts Monday wrote a letter to
Saddam Hussein requesting a meeting with Iraq's Permanent United
Nations Representative to determine the fate of missing Gulf War
pilot, Captain Michael Scott Speicher.
"I would welcome the opportunity to discuss the fate of Captain
Speicher with your United Nations Representative, Mohammed Aldouri,"
Senator Roberts said. "I seek your assistance in effecting
humanitarian release of our lost pilot if he remains alive, or
obtaining conclusive information regarding his fate if he does not."
Captain Speicher was shot down over Iraqi Territory on January 17,
1991. Senator Roberts has waged a tenacious fight to increase U.S.
efforts to recover the pilot and long has maintained that Pentagon
officials did not adequately investigate the incident and improperly
listed the pilot as Killed-In-Action. Even when intelligence data
began to surface, little was done to set the record straight.
In October 2002, the Navy agreed to Senator Roberts' request to list
missing Captain Speicher as Missing-Captured. Roberts said he now
believes Captain Speicher may be alive and held captive by Iraq.
Senator Roberts said "given the long interval of time that has elapsed
since Captain Speicher was shot down, and the resultant uncertainty
which his family has suffered over the years, there is once again a
compelling argument for Saddam Hussein's humanitarian intervention in
this Prisoner of War case today."
Senator Roberts, a former U.S. Marine, is a key member of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)