This is an update on Michael Scott Speicher, dated January 17, 2001

Houston Chronicle
Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Pilot's MIA status based on sources, official says Associated Press WASHINGTON -The Navy's decision to change the status of Gulf War pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher from killed in action to missing in action was based on intelligence information from several different sources, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Kenneth Bacon, spokesman for Defense Secretary William Cohen, said some of the information was received after the Navy reaffirmed in 1996 its previous determination that Speicher had been killed on an F- 18 combat mission over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991.

Last week the Navy announced without explanation that it had switched Speicher's status to missing.

At a Pentagon news briefing, Bacon was asked why the Navy had waited so long.

"This has been a process of analysis and information collection that's been cumulative over a long period of time," Bacon said. "We have information from several different sources that I can't go into. All I can tell you is that it took a while to accumulate and analyze the information that led to this decision."

He said some of the information had been developed since the 1996 decision, but he would not provide details.

U.S. officials said last week that intelligence agencies had received unconfirmed reports over a period of years that Speicher survived the shootdown of his F-18 and that an American believed to be Speicher had been seen in custody in Iraq after the war.

There is no hard evidence that Speicher is alive, although President Clinton raised that possibility in saying last week "we're going to do our best to find out if he is alive and, if he is, to get him out."

On Monday, a senior Iraqi government official said a search in 1995 of the crash site in Iraq's western desert showed the pilot was killed without ejecting from the cockpit, though his remains were never found.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz rejected suggestions by U.S. officials that Speicher might have survived and could still be alive.

Bacon, however, said U.S. officials doubt the Iraqis have told all they know about what happened to Speicher.

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