Navy Changes Status of Gulf War Pilot

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 11, 2001 -- In an unusual move, the Navy has changed the status of a pilot shot down in an F/A-18 fighter on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, from killed in action to missing in action.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker today said the United States suspects the Iraqi government holds additional information on what happened to the pilot and Wednesday sent demarches, or official requests, asking Iraq to provide that information.

"They're obligated to do this under international law andunder the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, so we're awaitinga response," he said.

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig notified the family of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher of the redesignation on Wednesday. Speicher, of Jacksonville, Fla., then 33, was shot down over Iraq, north of Baghdad, on Jan. 17, 1991 during an air battle with an Iraqi fighter. He was the first American lost in the war and the last still unaccounted for.

The Pentagon said today it was changing its determination based upon fairly new, highly classified intelligence information that it will not release to the public. Officials say they still suspect Speicher is dead, but in the words of one senior military official, "on the small chance he is alive you don't want to provide information publicly that would then get him killed."

Underscoring the unusualness of the case, the decision to reclassify Speicher was made at the White House, the official said. Usually the Pentagon would make such moves.

A Navy official tells ABCNEWS.com the MIA determination will entitle Speicher's wife, now remarried, to approximately $300,000 in backpay since 1996 and $7,000 a month for the pilot's pay until he is returned or evidence is obtained which proves his death.

Evidence of Ejection

In 1995 Navy investigators, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, visited the crash site, also north of Baghdad (the exact location remains classified by the United States), and uncovered evidence that they believed confirmed he was dead. Based upon that evidence, the Navy made a second determination of Speicher's death in 1996.

But the investigators also gained evidence suggesting Speicher had ejected from the aircraft. A flight suit was found with faded areas where the pilot's patches would be and the canopy, blown from the aircraft, was found, suggesting an ejection. But no ejection seat was found.

"We have reason to think he survived the ejection," a Defense Department official told ABCNEWS this week.

Investigators also found evidence suggesting the Iraqis had combed the site. They said they found the site had been excavated.

"Over the years since the determination [of death, in 1996] was made, the Navy and the U.S. government have consistently sought new information and continued to analyze all available information to resolve Speicher's fate," the Pentagon said in a press release today.

"This additional information and analysis, when added to the information considered in 1996, underscored the need for a new review."

There is possibly another important detail: in May 1994 — more than three years after Speicher was reported missing — Pentagon officials indicated in a secret memorandum that a U.S. spy satellite had photographed a “man-made symbol” at the crash site earlier that year. Some military officers said they interpreted the symbol as a sign that the Navy pilot might have survived the crash.

Congressional Pressure

Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., had long challenged the Pentagon’sofficial “finding of death” for Speicher.

In September 1998, after efforts by Smith and Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., to learn more about what U.S. intelligence agencies knew of Speicher’s fate, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was given a classified chronology of the agencies’ activities on the matter.

In March 1999, Smith and Grams wrote Danzig asking him to change Speicher’s status to missing in action, reflecting evidence about whether he survived the crash.

“We strongly believe that the information contained thereinsupports the request we are making of you with this letter,” they wrote. They did not cite any specific evidence, which is classified secret.

Smith met with Danzig again Dec. 20 on the matter, officials said.

In a letter dated Dec. 18, Sandy Berger, President Clinton’snational security adviser, told Smith a recent intelligenceassessment “has stimulated a high-level review of this case —several new actions are under way and additional steps are underintense review.”

Berger’s letter did not specify what actions were contemplated.

Family Compensation

The Pentagon today released a statement from Speicher's wife, Joanne SpeicherHarris, now remarried, thanking the government for the change of status:

"We … have supported, and are encouraged by, the change in status to MIA for Scott. We are also heartened by the formal demand to Iraq," it said. "We appreciate the efforts of the Federal Government on Scott's behalf."

After Speicher was initially determined killed on May 22, 1991, his wife received approximately $150,000 from his life insurance, a Navy official said.

Following the subsequent investigation and redetermination of his death in 1996, Harris received her husband's back pay from 1991 until 1996, possibly as much as $300,000 according to the official.

The MIA determination announced today entitles Mrs. Harris to $300,000 in back pay from 1996 until the present and to $7,000 a month in pay until he is returned alive or evidence of his death is received, the official said. The Navy is not demanding she return the insurance money.

Doubt Speicher is Alive

Navy officials say privately they're doubtful Speicher is alive.

Former Air Force Intelligence Officer Rick Francona, an expert on the Iraqi military, also believes it is unlikely Speicher would still be alive, even if he had survived the crash.

"I am assuming that changing the pilot's status to missing was required to make the demarche to the Iraqis," he says. "There is no advantage to them in holding him. … If he does turn up alive, the American people will demand retribution against Iraq."

An intelligence source notes the United States, if it believed Speicher were alive, never would have made this public move because it certainly would have led the Iraqis to then kill him if he was.

Francona says the Iraqis were generally forthcoming with POW information during the war, including providing accurate grave registration data on the crew of a C-130 aircraft shot down in Kuwait. He says it's possible the pilot fell into the hands of people other than the Iraqi government.

"There's a lot of people running around the desert that don't tell the Iraqi government what they're doing," he said.

Speicher was the only American believed killed on Iraqi territory whoseremains were not recovered.

A plan was devised in 1994 to conduct a covert operation intoIraq to search the crash site for clues to Speicher’s fate, but itwas scrapped in December 1994 by Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, thenthe chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The general ruled therisk of casualties was too high to justify the secret mission.

ABCNEWS' Barbara Starr, ABCNEWS.com's David Ruppe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.