Panel Calls For Continuing Probe Of Lost Pilot

The Associated Press

By BEN EVANS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy review board says the Pentagon should continue investigating what happened to a fighter pilot who was the first American lost in the Persian Gulf War almost 20 years ago, saying it's not yet time to close the case.

The board made the recommendation Thursday after four days of hearings, according to Buddy Harris, who has represented the family of missing Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher. It now goes to the Navy secretary, who has the final decision.

"They feel that the body of evidence suggests as much that he's alive" as that he was killed, said Harris, a former Navy commander and close friend of Speicher's who has since married Speicher's ex-wife.

Speicher, from outside Jacksonville, Fla., has been missing since 1991, when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Gulf War.

The Pentagon initially declared him killed. Dick Cheney, then the defense secretary, went on television and announced the U.S. had suffered its first casualty of the war.

But Speicher's remains were never found, leading some to believe the Pentagon gave up too quickly and he was captured by Iraqi forces.

The Navy later changed his status to missing in action, and finally to "missing/captured," although it has never cited any evidence that he was in captivity.

Speicher's family has pressed to continue searching and feared the Pentagon was preparing to close the case by declaring him killed. Harris said the family — including two college-age children who were toddlers when Speicher disappeared — believes more evidence will surface as Iraq becomes more stable.

"There are people that know," Harris said. "It's just a matter of getting to them."

Navy Secretary Donald Winter ordered the latest review after requesting and receiving an update from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The intelligence memo, in essence, said investigators had exhausted all current leads on who to talk to and where to look, said one official briefed on the document. Another official said Friday that it contained no new intelligence on the case. They both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss intelligence on the record.

Winter — or his successor — could overrule the recommendation of the board, which was made up of three officers. But he would face strong resistance, including from Capitol Hill, where Speicher's family has won support from lawmakers such as Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

"The fact is, the U.S. government walked away from a downed pilot — mistakenly the secretary of Defense declared him dead," Nelson said earlier this week. "It is our obligation to keep looking."

In a visit to Iraq, Nelson personally saw what he said were the initials "MSS" scratched into the wall of a prison shortly after the 2003 invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein — one of a number of clues the government has found.

The search also led investigators to excavate a potential grave site in Baghdad in 2005, track down Iraqis said to have information about Speicher and make numerous other inquiries in what officials say has been an exhaustive search.

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.