Washington magazine Insight reports that Senators Bill Nelson and Pat Roberts continue to believe that U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, missing in Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, could very well be alive as a POW. This despite an apparent effort by the Defense Intelligence Agency to debunk the idea. The odds seem long, but we can only hope for the matter to be resolved very soon -- one way or another.
Nelson believes there still is a secret underground prison system being run by Saddamist holdouts that may contain not only Speicher but also hundreds of missing Kuwaiti prisoners. In late August about a dozen Kuwaiti prisoners were freed, but no one seems to know what happened to the 600 others reportedly still being held, Nelson says.Posted by Alan at September 6, 2003 10:41 PMRoberts, however, thinks Speicher may be being moved about as Saddam's trophy prisoner. Asked if he saw any evidence on his recent trip to Iraq suggesting that Speicher still is alive, Nelson replied, "No. But I didn't see any evidence that he was not alive."
In fact, one piece of evidence that has raised hopes is a 90-page Iraqi document found in a prison in July. The report, dated January 2003, lists prisoners of war (POWs) being held, and Speicher is among those named. While it remains unclear whether the names of those so listed include the subsequently deceased, the Pentagon still is analyzing these records along with thousands of other POW-related files.
via Insight