Iraq: We Searched For Pilot
Responding to U.S. reports about a missing American pilot from the Gulf War, Iraq on Sunday divulged details of a 1995 search of a crash site in its western desert carried out by the U.S. military and the Red Cross.
U.S. intelligence officials in Washington said Friday there were unconfirmed reports in recent years that Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher survived the Jan. 17, 1991, downing of his F-18 Hornet, and was detained by the Iraqis. The U.S. government sent a diplomatic communication to Baghdad on Wednesday demanding an accounting, U.S. officials said.
The Iraqis say Speicher didn't survive the downing of his plane.
Speicher was listed as a combat death until Wednesday, when the Navy took the extraordinary step of changing his status from "killed in action, body not recovered" to "missing in action." The change came after new evidence emerged following a 60 Minutes II report by Correspondent Bob Simon suggesting Speicher might have survived the crash.
The next day President Clinton told CBS Radio News that the U.S. government has information that "leads us to believe" that Speicher "might be alive."
One clue that raised American suspicions and led to that conclusion that the pilot might be alive is the fact that a flight suit found at the crash site seemed to be planted there.
"That's one of the pieces of this puzzle that just doesn't fit," Barry Hull, who flew off the Saratoga on the same mission with Speicher, said Friday on CBS News' The Early Show. "If I get shot, the moment I pull that ejection handle, I'm no longer a pilot. At that point I'm a soldier and the last thing I'm going to do, running around in the desert, is take off my flight suit and walk around in my skivvies. It just doesn't make any sense."
In 1995, U.S. crash site specialists from the Defense Department, working with the International Committee of the Red Cross, entered Iraq with President Saddam Hussein's permission.
The U.S and Red Cross team found the wreckage from Speiche's aircraft and reported there had been previous digging at the site. The team also found Speicher's flight suit near the site. A Pentagon report later said the flight suit apparently had been cut off the pilot.
In its account of the search released Sunday, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "The Americans demanded the (search) to be carried out secretly."
"The team, accompanied by Iraqi experts and (Red Cross) representatives, found the pilot's uniform, but not his remains," the Foreign Ministry said.
Parts of the plane were found at the site, along with "evidence the pilot was killed," the ministry said without elaboration.
The Iraqis said prior digging at the site had been carried out by desert-dwelling bedouins in the area. The bedouins took some parts of the plane, the Iraqis added.
Iraq's government "did not know where the site was prior to the visit. The American team supplied Iraq with the details on the location," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Iraq renewed its demand that the U.S. government pay $70,000 for Iraqi expenses incurred during the investigation.
Speicher is the only American lost in Iraqi territory during the war who has not been accounted for.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said more than one informant had reported to U.S. intelligence agencies that an American thought to be Speicher was being held prisoner in Iraq after the war ended.
Speicher, of Jacksonville, Fla., flew his F-18 Hornet off the carrier USS Saratoga on the opening night of the war in January 1991, and went down west of Baghdad. He apparently was attacked by an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter.
Another American pilot who saw the jet explode in the air reported that it was hit by an air-to-air missile and that he did not see Speicher eject. A combat search and rescue mission was planned but not executed, and the crash site was not found until 1994.
©MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. U.S. intelligence officials in Washington said Friday there were unconfirmed reports in recent years that Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher survived the Jan. 17, 1991, downing of his F-18 Hornet, and was detained by the Iraqis. The U.S. government sent a diplomatic communication to Baghdad on Wednesday demanding an accounting, U.S. officials said.
The Iraqis say Speicher didn't survive the downing of his plane.
Speicher was listed as a combat death until Wednesday, when the Navy took the extraordinary step of changing his status from "killed in action, body not recovered" to "missing in action." The change came after new evidence emerged following a 60 Minutes II report by Correspondent Bob Simon suggesting Speicher might have survived the crash.
The next day President Clinton told CBS Radio News that the U.S. government has information that "leads us to believe" that Speicher "might be alive."
One clue that raised American suspicions and led to that conclusion that the pilot might be alive is the fact that a flight suit found at the crash site seemed to be planted there.
"That's one of the pieces of this puzzle that just doesn't fit," Barry Hull, who flew off the Saratoga on the same mission with Speicher, said Friday on CBS News' The Early Show. "If I get shot, the moment I pull that ejection handle, I'm no longer a pilot. At that point I'm a soldier and the last thing I'm going to do, running around in the desert, is take off my flight suit and walk around in my skivvies. It just doesn't make any sense."
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The U.S and Red Cross team found the wreckage from Speiche's aircraft and reported there had been previous digging at the site. The team also found Speicher's flight suit near the site. A Pentagon report later said the flight suit apparently had been cut off the pilot.
In its account of the search released Sunday, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "The Americans demanded the (search) to be carried out secretly."
"The team, accompanied by Iraqi experts and (Red Cross) representatives, found the pilot's uniform, but not his remains," the Foreign Ministry said.
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The Iraqis said prior digging at the site had been carried out by desert-dwelling bedouins in the area. The bedouins took some parts of the plane, the Iraqis added.
Iraq's government "did not know where the site was prior to the visit. The American team supplied Iraq with the details on the location," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Iraq renewed its demand that the U.S. government pay $70,000 for Iraqi expenses incurred during the investigation.
Speicher is the only American lost in Iraqi territory during the war who has not been accounted for.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said more than one informant had reported to U.S. intelligence agencies that an American thought to be Speicher was being held prisoner in Iraq after the war ended.
Speicher, of Jacksonville, Fla., flew his F-18 Hornet off the carrier USS Saratoga on the opening night of the war in January 1991, and went down west of Baghdad. He apparently was attacked by an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter.
Another American pilot who saw the jet explode in the air reported that it was hit by an air-to-air missile and that he did not see Speicher eject. A combat search and rescue mission was planned but not executed, and the crash site was not found until 1994.
©MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report
