Missing U.S. pilot dead, Iraq insists

In this story: Details divulged from 1995 crash search Clinton: No 'hard evidence that he is alive' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq said Sunday that a U.S. pilot shot down during the 1991 Gulf War is dead and accused the United States of trying to provoke a new crisis with Baghdad. "The American authorities ... have announced a new lie concerning an American pilot in order to create a new problem with Iraq," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The U.S. Navy last week changed the status of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher from "killed in action" to "missing in action" because of what it says is evidence he may have survived the crash.

Speicher is the only American lost in Iraqi territory during the war who has not been accounted for. His F-18 Hornet attack jet was apparently hit and crashed in a fireball on January 17, 1991, the first day of the air war against Iraq.

U.S. intelligence officials in Washington say there have been unconfirmed reports in recent years that Speicher survived and was detained by the Iraqis. Washington sent a diplomatic communication to Baghdad on Wednesday demanding an accounting of Speicher, U.S. officials said.

Baghdad insists Speicher didn't survive the downing of his plane. "Iraq returned all American prisoners of war in March 1991," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency. "If there was such a pilot, as claimed by the American authorities, why did they not ask for his release at the time?"

The Pentagon says there were eight Navy and Marine Corps aviators captured during the Gulf War.

Details divulged from 1995 crash search

Iraq on Sunday also divulged details of a 1995 search of its western desert where the crash occurred.

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 11-member U.S. and Red Cross team found the wreckage from Speicher'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, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry statement said that the United States demanded that it "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 desert-dwelling Bedouins had carried out prior digging at the site and took some parts of the plane.

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.

Clinton: No 'hard evidence that he is alive'

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said more than one informant has reported to U.S. intelligence agencies that an American thought to be Speicher was being held prisoner in Iraq after the war ended.

However, the United States does not have "hard evidence that he is alive," President Clinton said Friday.

Speicher, of Jacksonville, Florida, 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. An Iraqi MiG-25 fighter apparently attacked him.

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.

The Gulf War was triggered by Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait, an attack countered by a U.S.-led allied force.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Iraq denies U.S. claims missing Gulf War pilot might still be alive
January 13, 2001
Gulf War pilot no longer presumed dead
January 10, 2001

U.S. State Department
U.S. Department of Defense
Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (POW/MIA)

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.