Iraq and the missed American pilot
Iraq-USA, Politics, 3/25/2002

An official Iraqi source said on Sunday that his country is ready to receive an American delegation in order to investigate the fate of the American pilot who was lost during the Gulf war in 1991.

Other news reports from Baghdad said that a spokesman for the Iraqi foreign ministry on Sunday announced that his country is ready to receive an American delegation with the participation of Scott Ritter, in order to investigate in the fate of the American pilot Michael Spiker who was missed after his plane was downed during the Gulf war in 1991.

The spokesman added that Iraq stresses that the safe way to settle such merely technical issue passes through specialized legal channels.

Worthy mentioning that Ritter presided over UNSCOM (weapons) inspectors team no 24 and found the place where the American plane was downed in 1991.

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on March 15 "Rumsfeld: This is a very well-known case. It is a pilot that was shot down during the Gulf War. In that general time frame, he was declared killed in action. At some later point, in more recent years, he was declared moved from 'killed in action' to 'missing in action.'"

Rumsfeld added "There has been a very serious effort on the part of the United States government over a sustained period to try to gather as much information as possible. And some of it is information that is from sources that require it to be classified. Some of it isn't. Some of it's speculation. Some of it -- most of it is unauthoritative. That is to say, it is coming from people who heard from somebody about something, or believe there might be a situation that could be characterized as encouraging from our standpoint. "

Previous Stories:
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  Iraq says US threats against international law   (3/21/2002)
  On the US plan to strike Iraq   (3/20/2002)
  Former senior UN officials denounce Iraq sanctions at congressional briefing   (5/5/2000)

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