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Missing Pilot

Aired April 24, 2003 - 13:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Initials scrawled in a cell in Iraq and the search for a missing American. The letters appear to read "MSS." There's the video. They were found by a team of investigators searching for the pilot named Michael Scott Speicher, missing since the first Gulf War. You're probably familiar with the story by now.
CNN's Chris Plante is standing by at the Pentagon to try to help us understand what this might mean.

Hello, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

That's right, everybody's trying to figure out what it might mean. There are initials. The initials are Michael Scott Speicher's initials. They're in a jail cell at a prison, a prison known as Heikmia (ph) prison, in Baghdad, where some intelligence suggested Michael Scott Speicher may have been held as late as 1995.

Now The rest remains a mystery. There are a number of other sites that intelligence indicated Michael Scott Speicher may have been held after he was downed in the first night of the 1991 Gulf War. Eventually, four or five years after the fact, we see the crash site. Here are some photos of the crash site.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, along with some U.S. officials, visited this site, because this intelligence surfaced after the fact. Although Michael Scott Speicher, who was then a lieutenant commander, was deemed to have been killed by a surface-to- air missile in the opening night of the war. We see him here in some home videos.

Later intelligence developed by the U.S. suggested that he may not have been killed in that opening night, and that they needed to investigate further. A number of steps occurred between then and now, including this visit in, I believe in 1995, to the site by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by U.S. officials. There were indications at the time such as the canopy of the plane being intact, the canopy of the airplane being the glass bubble over the pilot, suggesting that he may have punched out of the plane. His uniform was also found there, apparently neatly folded near the site of the downed airplane.

These were all very curious indications. This story has become curiouser and curiouser over the course of time, and the U.S. military was certainly eager to check out a number of locations in Baghdad, and around Baghdad, where they had human intelligence, that is to say, people telling them they had sighted an American who apparently was being held prisoner there some time after the end of the 1991 war.

So certainly a priority for U.S. special operations forces, along with many other priorities, in the course of this military action, has been to get to these locations and try to make a determination as to whether, a, he was still alive, or b, whether he was alive for some period after the Gulf War and held prisoner, even though the Iraqis denied this was the case.

A number of other POWs of course held by the Iraqis during the war were returned to the United States, without great incident. This is a very curious incident. The initials on the wall of course raise a number of questions. You know, why didn't he put his call sign, why he didn't put any other information on -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Lots to consider here, Chris Plante, and we will be watching as this investigation unfolds. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 24, 2003 - 13:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Initials scrawled in a cell in Iraq and the search for a missing American. The letters appear to read "MSS." There's the video. They were found by a team of investigators searching for the pilot named Michael Scott Speicher, missing since the first Gulf War. You're probably familiar with the story by now.
CNN's Chris Plante is standing by at the Pentagon to try to help us understand what this might mean.

Hello, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

That's right, everybody's trying to figure out what it might mean. There are initials. The initials are Michael Scott Speicher's initials. They're in a jail cell at a prison, a prison known as Heikmia (ph) prison, in Baghdad, where some intelligence suggested Michael Scott Speicher may have been held as late as 1995.

Now The rest remains a mystery. There are a number of other sites that intelligence indicated Michael Scott Speicher may have been held after he was downed in the first night of the 1991 Gulf War. Eventually, four or five years after the fact, we see the crash site. Here are some photos of the crash site.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, along with some U.S. officials, visited this site, because this intelligence surfaced after the fact. Although Michael Scott Speicher, who was then a lieutenant commander, was deemed to have been killed by a surface-to- air missile in the opening night of the war. We see him here in some home videos.

Later intelligence developed by the U.S. suggested that he may not have been killed in that opening night, and that they needed to investigate further. A number of steps occurred between then and now, including this visit in, I believe in 1995, to the site by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by U.S. officials. There were indications at the time such as the canopy of the plane being intact, the canopy of the airplane being the glass bubble over the pilot, suggesting that he may have punched out of the plane. His uniform was also found there, apparently neatly folded near the site of the downed airplane.

These were all very curious indications. This story has become curiouser and curiouser over the course of time, and the U.S. military was certainly eager to check out a number of locations in Baghdad, and around Baghdad, where they had human intelligence, that is to say, people telling them they had sighted an American who apparently was being held prisoner there some time after the end of the 1991 war.

So certainly a priority for U.S. special operations forces, along with many other priorities, in the course of this military action, has been to get to these locations and try to make a determination as to whether, a, he was still alive, or b, whether he was alive for some period after the Gulf War and held prisoner, even though the Iraqis denied this was the case.

A number of other POWs of course held by the Iraqis during the war were returned to the United States, without great incident. This is a very curious incident. The initials on the wall of course raise a number of questions. You know, why didn't he put his call sign, why he didn't put any other information on -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Lots to consider here, Chris Plante, and we will be watching as this investigation unfolds. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com