Posted on 06/26/2002 10:12:57 AM PDT by Slam
WASHINGTON - A new book about Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, the former Kansas Citian and naval pilot reported killed in the early hours of the Persian Gulf War, contends that he is alive and being held prisoner in Iraq.
And U.S. officials have known it, according to the book's author, Amy Waters Yarsinske, a former naval intelligence officer who spent eight years researching the Speicher story.
She also alleges that Speicher was brought down not by an Iraqi MiG-25 or a surface-to-air missile, but by friendly fire. She said that fear of embarrassment spawned a series of denials and "obfuscation" by military officials about the pilot's actual fate.
"If you stood away from it and looked to see what all these machinations were about, you realized that it was not about a dead guy," she said in a recent interview. "It was about somebody who was very much alive."
Her book, No One Left Behind: The Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story, will be published next month. She contends that the military discounted satellite evidence in 1994 that indicated that Speicher possibly used a variation of a pre-arranged code to signal that he was alive.
Yarsinske says that Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, in a closed Capitol Hill appearance in March, asked the nation's two top intelligence chiefs: "Given all the information that is in your possession, is Scott Speicher alive today?"
"Yes, he is," she quotes George Tenet, director of the CIA, and Vice Adm. Tom Wilson, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as saying.
Yarsinske would not reveal the source for that exchange.
Spokesmen for Tenet and Wilson said they could not comment on what might have been said at a closed hearing. Roberts' spokeswoman, Sarah Ross, said he would not comment until the book was published.
The book could boost Roberts' effort to get Speicher's status reclassified to prisoner of war. Speicher, who was 33 with a wife and two children in 1991, originally was declared killed in action. Then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced his death -- the Persian Gulf War's first U.S. casualty -- within 24 hours of his disappearance.
But the Pentagon reclassified him as "missing in action" 18 months ago based upon new evidence.
Defense and military intelligence officials said they had not yet seen the book and could not comment. Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a Navy spokeswoman, said the investigation remained active.
"Since the loss of Commander Speicher in 1991, the Navy and U.S. government have consistently sought new information and continue to analyze all available information to resolve his fate," she said.
Yarsinske said she thought Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had kept Speicher as a "trophy," possibly as "rainy day insurance" against the United States. The Bush administration has engaged in a very public debate about an invasion of Iraq.
Stephen Pelletiere, an expert on Iraq and former professor at the U.S. Army War College, said it was possible that Speicher was still alive. But he said Yarsinske "has got to come up with a good theory for why. What are they going to do? Ransom the guy? Since it has never been put on the table as a bargaining chip, it's hard to figure what's going on."
Bill Speicher, the pilot's cousin, said: "I would agree that he probably survived. I don't know that I agree with the conclusion that he was still alive."
Questions have been swirling around Speicher ever since his F/A-18 Hornet lost contact with his squadron before dawn on Jan. 17, 1991, in the initial attack run over Iraq. The discovery of the crash site in 1995 led to a CIA conclusion that he probably had survived.
Reports surfaced this year that British intelligence had information about an American pilot being held prisoner in Iraq. A photograph existed as proof, according to the report.
"There's always been a question in my mind about what happened to Scott," said Bob Stumpf, a pilot in a sister squadron flying that night. "It was very apparent to those of us who were watching his situation that there was something amiss."
Drawing upon more than 500 interviews, government documents, intelligence case files, correspondence and other materials, Yarsinske describes an investigation allegedly plagued by mistakes and purposeful neglect.
Among her points:
• The possibility that Speicher ejected from his plane was not passed on to search-and-rescue operations.
• His name was never placed on a list with the Red Cross' International Committee requesting repatriation of Gulf War prisoners from the Iraqis, so the Iraqis -- if they did have him -- weren't obligated to give him up.
• Remains turned over to the United States from Iraq that were reported to be Speicher's failed DNA testing.
To reach David Goldstein, Washington correspondent, call 1-(202) 383-6105 or send e-mail to dgoldstein@krwashington.com.
If you can't get that fundamental, basic concept right...everything else is noise...all other news is noise.
What is going on with this one brave American?
Truly a 'point of light' if there ever was one.
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