New Evidence - If you've watched the news, over the last few days, you know that new information has surfaced in the Speicher case. Senator Bill Nelson returned this past week, from a 1 day fact-finding trip to Baghdad. He is reporting "new and highly classified" information on Speicher, but stressed that he does not know if Speicher is alive or not. Although, he is optimistic that the case will be resolved.

During his July 6/7 visit to Baghdad, Senator Nelson visited the cell in Hakmiyah Prison, where the initials M S S, along with a smaller H were found. During his visit to the cell, Nelson took rubbings of those initials, and displayed them for the media. This event directly contradicts information presented by representatives of DPMO at the National Alliance of Families Forum.

First... The New Evidence - On July 10th, MSNBC and NBC News reported "The U.S. military has found a document referring to Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, the Navy pilot whose fate has remained a mystery since his fighter jet was shot down over Iraq on the first night of the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. officials told NBC News on Thursday."

"The officials said analysts were working to determine the meaning of the 90-page document, dated January 2003, which listed prisoners of war held by the government of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein."

"The document includes Speicher's name, officials said. It could not immediately be determined whether it included any dates or locations where Speicher might have been held, but in April, U.S. investigators found Speicher's initials carved into the wall of a cell in the Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad...."

"Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who has pressed the government to resolve the question of Speicher's fate, told reporters Wednesday after visiting the Hakmiyah prison that new information gave him reason to be optimistic that the mystery could be solved. He said he could not elaborate because the information was highly classified."

"U.S. officials cautioned that the document did nothing to clarify what really happened to Speicher 12 years ago or whether he was still alive. The recent date could mean Iraqi officials were hastily trying to create an accurate record of POWs or that they were falsifying a document to mislead U.S. investigators, they said."

The Nelson Visit... The Cell - On July 7th, First Coast News out of Jacksonville Florida reported "Nelson spent much of Monday seeing first hand what the public has only seen in pictures; the alleged initials of MSS scrawled upon a wall. The hope is that Michael Scott Speicher once stayed in the cell where those letters were found. Nelson says that the carvings look to have been there for a while and noted that they can tell because of the paint that is on the walls."

"DNA test results are still not back from the prison cell wall. Nelson says he has no idea what is causing the delay in the DNA test results but says he does know that samples taken are being analyzed in Washington DC. He says, "I have been pessimistic and for the first time I'm optimistic."

The Contradictory Information - On Friday June 27th, during the Question and Answer session, with DPMO, one of our members asked about the cell and the initials. Unfortunately, we don't have our video tapes of the meeting (more about the tape jinx in our next Bits.)

However, in our attempt to confirm our memory of the answer, we did find a member who had a hand held recorder and taped the question and answer. We do not have a copy of the tape, yet. However, our member was kind enough to duplicate the relevant section into a computer wav file and emailed it to us.

The questions & answers were transcribed as follows:

Question: "My question is to you, Mr. Cronauer. Where is the piece from the jail cell. Do we have this back in the United States and are we testing it...and have we tested the jail cell to find out any more information?"

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Comment: You can hear muffled discussion and one individual says "I can answer that" and Mr. Cronauer tells indicates he should do so.

*****

Answer: "Yes, the answer to the question is...Yes, we have that portion of the wall, Yes it is in the United States and Yes, it is being examined by a forensic laboratory."

Question: "And how long will that take?"

Answer: "I can't tell you that. I can tell you that it has been here for about the last three weeks."

Question: "So we will have some answers very shortly then...it won't take years, since they have that piece?"

Answer: "Well that...the...I can't give you a specific time, in terms of how long it will take them to run all of the different tests that they can run. There is a limited amount of information that we can get from that piece of wall. We can find out, perhaps, how long ago his initials were put in the wall. Unless there is a blood or some sort of DNA sample near the initials, we cannot necessarily say who put those initials in the wall. But a whole series of tests is being conducted right now and like I said, I don't have a time frame for when those....Let me just say this. That particular bit of evidence is not under the control right now of the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office. There are entities in country, in Iraq right now, who are looking...who are gathering evidence for war crimes prosecution. So other elements of the government are looking at this. If Speicher was in fact captured and was alive for a period of time after the downing, and he was killed, then this is potentially evidence to charge those involved in the former Iraq regime with. So that evidence is on that side of the house right now, not just the US Army, CILHI, the Central Identification lab....

Question: "We're kind of on a time limit here, so I wanted to know...What's being done with the rest of the jail cell. Have they made any....I mean just because they have this one piece of block, there could be something in that jail cell...and is it top priority?"

Answer: "Yes, of course......The jail cell....

Question: "But it won't take a long time if it's a top priority, on the front burner?"

Answer: " It has already been done. The jail cell has already been done. There is a considerable amount of effort, ongoing, in Iraq at this time. Every single known detention facility, jail cell......

Question: "Okay, Okay...we're on a time line....

To hear the tape, click here.

On June 27th, based on information provided by a DPMO representative, we believed the section of the jail wall bearing the initials M S S along with the smaller H was in the United Stated.

We would never have questioned this, had we not seen a July 7th photo of Senator Bill Nelson, in Baghdad, displaying rubbings of the two sets of initials take from the cell wall. Did he bring the rubbings to Baghdad or did he do them during his visit? If he did them during his visit, how and when was the section of the cell wall returned to Baghdad?

Dolores Alfond contacted Senator Nelson's office and spoke with Gretchen Hitchner. Ms. Alfond was told the only thing taken out the cell was material for DNA testing including a hair. Ms. Hitchner also said "the cell is intact."

On June 27th, DPMO says the section of the cell with the initials is in the United States and had been for three weeks.

On July 7th, Senator Bill Nelson displays rubbings of the initials taken from the wall of the cell in Baghdad. A member of his staff, says "the cell is intact."

We should note, that the DPMO representative did say "That particular bit of evidence is not under the control right now of the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office."

Perhaps DPMO was provided incorrect information, by another agency involved with the search for Speicher. This would raise very serious questions, as to why one agency involved in the search for Speicher would mislead another.

The other possibility is that at some point the section of cell wall, with the initials was moved to the U.S., tested, returned to Iraq and set back in place within the cell and that Senator Nelson's staff was unaware of this activity.

Which do you think is more likely? DPMO presented inaccurate information. DPMO was given false information and unknowingly passed it on. Senator Nelson's staff spoke in error and was unaware the section of wall has been transported back to the U.S. for testing and then returned and reinstalled in the cell in Baghdad. If we get further information on this, we will pass it on.