Dave Shutter
Registered User
Clinton on a "Speicher" crusade? In his last days?
from CNN.COM...
quote:WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton says there is some evidence that a U.S. flier shot down on the first night of the Gulf War may be alive.
Clinton's statement Thursday went further than a Navy announcement that it has changed the status of the F-18 pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher from killed in action to missing.
"We have some information that leads us to believe that he might be alive and we hope and pray he is," Clinton said in an interview with CBS. "But we have already begun working to try to determine whether, in fact, he's alive; if he is, where he is and how we can get him out and we're going to do everything we can to get him out."
Speicher was shot down while flying a mission from the carrier USS Saratoga on the opening night of the 1991 war.
"Since he was a uniform service person, he's clearly entitled to be released, and we're going to do everything we can to get him out," Clinton said. The president cautioned, however, that he did not want the change in Speicher's status to "raise false hopes."
Iraq has never accounted for Speicher.
Barry Hull, who flew off the Saratoga on the same mission with Speicher, said Friday he is puzzled by the fact Speicher's uniform was found in the Iraqi desert.
"That's one of the pieces of the puzzle that just doesn't fit," Hull said on CBS' "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."
Hull said "my gut tells me that he is probably dead, but there is no evidence that he's dead."
The Navy statement did not mention the possibility that Speicher could be alive. One day after it notified Speicher's family of the decision to change his status to MIA, the Navy said Thursday that "additional information and analysis" led Navy Secretary Richard Danzig to reverse earlier determinations that Speicher had died.
The Navy did not explain what new information it had obtained. As recently as 1996 it had reaffirmed a 1991 "finding of death."
Pentagon officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Danzig acted because of substantial evidence that Speicher may not have died in the crash.
One official said the State Department sent a new diplomatic note to Baghdad demanding that the Iraqi government tell all it knows about Speicher's fate.
"We don't have a response from Baghdad," Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman, said Thursday.
He said similar U.S. notes would be sent Iraqi representatives at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva.
"We do believe that the Iraqis hold additional information that could help resolve the case of Commander Speicher, and they are obligated to provide that information to us," Reeker said.
In March 1999, Republican Sens. Bob Smith of New Hampshire and Rod Grams of Minnesota asked Danzig to change Speicher's status to missing in action, reflecting evidence of doubt about whether he survived the crash. Smith met with Danzig again Dec. 20 on the matter, officials said.
In a letter dated Dec. 18, Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, told Smith a recent intelligence assessment "has stimulated a high-level review of this case _ several new actions are under way and additional steps are under intense review."
Berger's letter, provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday, did not specify what actions were contemplated.
Speicher, of Jacksonville, Fla., went missing when his Navy F-18 Hornet was shot down on Jan. 16, 1991, in an air-to-air battle with an Iraqi fighter. He was the first American lost in the war and the last still unaccounted for.
Reports, rumors and theories about Scott Speicher still being alive have been floating around for years, but now Clinton decides to jump on the wagon with it? Personally I'm thrilled that the subject finally has the CIC's interest, maybe now we'll all find out for sure what happened to Speicher that night, but at this point in Clinton's term (especially with all the talk about him trying to forge some kind of legacy other than Monica L.) I'm not so sure about the purity of his motives. People have been screaming about this story for years and he waits until now to give it his full attention?
60 minutes did a piece on this story earlier last year and it basically contained all the evidence that supports him still being alive, and evidence that commanders may have dropped the ball. I quoted the transcript for it, followed by a huge discussion. John, would you be so kind as to put up one of your spiffy links to that...
D
Edited by - Dave Shutter on 01/13/2001 11:58:45
from CNN.COM...
quote:WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton says there is some evidence that a U.S. flier shot down on the first night of the Gulf War may be alive.
Clinton's statement Thursday went further than a Navy announcement that it has changed the status of the F-18 pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher from killed in action to missing.
"We have some information that leads us to believe that he might be alive and we hope and pray he is," Clinton said in an interview with CBS. "But we have already begun working to try to determine whether, in fact, he's alive; if he is, where he is and how we can get him out and we're going to do everything we can to get him out."
Speicher was shot down while flying a mission from the carrier USS Saratoga on the opening night of the 1991 war.
"Since he was a uniform service person, he's clearly entitled to be released, and we're going to do everything we can to get him out," Clinton said. The president cautioned, however, that he did not want the change in Speicher's status to "raise false hopes."
Iraq has never accounted for Speicher.
Barry Hull, who flew off the Saratoga on the same mission with Speicher, said Friday he is puzzled by the fact Speicher's uniform was found in the Iraqi desert.
"That's one of the pieces of the puzzle that just doesn't fit," Hull said on CBS' "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."
Hull said "my gut tells me that he is probably dead, but there is no evidence that he's dead."
The Navy statement did not mention the possibility that Speicher could be alive. One day after it notified Speicher's family of the decision to change his status to MIA, the Navy said Thursday that "additional information and analysis" led Navy Secretary Richard Danzig to reverse earlier determinations that Speicher had died.
The Navy did not explain what new information it had obtained. As recently as 1996 it had reaffirmed a 1991 "finding of death."
Pentagon officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Danzig acted because of substantial evidence that Speicher may not have died in the crash.
One official said the State Department sent a new diplomatic note to Baghdad demanding that the Iraqi government tell all it knows about Speicher's fate.
"We don't have a response from Baghdad," Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman, said Thursday.
He said similar U.S. notes would be sent Iraqi representatives at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva.
"We do believe that the Iraqis hold additional information that could help resolve the case of Commander Speicher, and they are obligated to provide that information to us," Reeker said.
In March 1999, Republican Sens. Bob Smith of New Hampshire and Rod Grams of Minnesota asked Danzig to change Speicher's status to missing in action, reflecting evidence of doubt about whether he survived the crash. Smith met with Danzig again Dec. 20 on the matter, officials said.
In a letter dated Dec. 18, Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, told Smith a recent intelligence assessment "has stimulated a high-level review of this case _ several new actions are under way and additional steps are under intense review."
Berger's letter, provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday, did not specify what actions were contemplated.
Speicher, of Jacksonville, Fla., went missing when his Navy F-18 Hornet was shot down on Jan. 16, 1991, in an air-to-air battle with an Iraqi fighter. He was the first American lost in the war and the last still unaccounted for.
Reports, rumors and theories about Scott Speicher still being alive have been floating around for years, but now Clinton decides to jump on the wagon with it? Personally I'm thrilled that the subject finally has the CIC's interest, maybe now we'll all find out for sure what happened to Speicher that night, but at this point in Clinton's term (especially with all the talk about him trying to forge some kind of legacy other than Monica L.) I'm not so sure about the purity of his motives. People have been screaming about this story for years and he waits until now to give it his full attention?
60 minutes did a piece on this story earlier last year and it basically contained all the evidence that supports him still being alive, and evidence that commanders may have dropped the ball. I quoted the transcript for it, followed by a huge discussion. John, would you be so kind as to put up one of your spiffy links to that...
D
Edited by - Dave Shutter on 01/13/2001 11:58:45
