ALL BRANCHES OF THE MILITARY

--- The remains of the last MIA - Army Sgt. Edward J. Anguiano, Brownsville, TX - age 24 - have been identified and his family notified of his death on April 27, 2003.
All other Gulf War II - Iraqi Freedom - POW/MIA's are reported either Returned, Rescued, or Bodies Recovered

Gulf War I - Desert Storm

Prisoner of War/Missing In Action

POW - Capt. (Cmdr. at time of loss) Michael Scott Speicher, USN, Jacksonville, FL - age 33 - FA-18 pilot. Capt. "Spike" Speicher was the first American shot down during the Persian Gulf War on 17 January 1991. Intelligence reports reveal Speicher is alive and captured. President Bush authorized Speicher's status to MIA/Captured.

Progress Reported in Search for Speicher
By Bill Gertz; April 25, 2003
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency officials said they are making progress in finding a missing Navy pilot and have dismissed months of faulty intelligence reports.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded this week that they were fed false information on Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, who has been missing since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, as the result of the searches of three sites in Iraq, one intelligence official said yesterday.
The searches by an Army team of three sites in Iraq where Capt. Speicher was reported by Iraqis to be held came up empty.
"As a result, we are now eliminating some sources [of intelligence] whose veracity is questionable," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"All the rash of reports we had from late last year to early this year on Speicher were found to be intentionally false," the official said. "It appears the Iraqis were really good at putting out misleading information."
A special team of intelligence officers recently arrived in Iraq to begin searching for Capt. Speicher and were led to a prison earlier this week where the initials "MSS" were found on a prison wall.
The initials found at the Kahmiyah prison may have been written by Capt. Speicher, officials said.
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the MSS initials were found at an Iraqi prison known as the "judgment center," where interrogations of prisoners were carried out.
"Obviously finding the initials is encouraging," said Mr. Roberts, who for years has been pressing the Pentagon to resolve the Speicher case. "It's another piece of the puzzle. Scott left his own record," he said.
U.S. investigators in Iraq are looking for Iraqi records on the case and are trying to locate Iraqi officials who may know about Capt. Speicher's fate and whereabouts, he said.
"We know the Iraqis kept very detailed records, so we're hopeful more information will be forthcoming soon," Mr. Roberts said in an interview.
Capt. Speicher initially was classified as killed in action during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. But his status was changed in 2001 and again earlier this year to "missing-captured" based on intelligence reports.
An Iraqi informant led the U.S. intelligence team to the prison, where other English-language words were found scrawled on walls, the official said.
U.S. officials have said one problem with investigating the case of Capt. Speicher is legislation signed into law in October by President Bush. The law, known as the Persian Gulf War POW/MIA Accountability Act, gives the U.S. government the power to grant refugee status to any Iraqi or Middle Eastern national who helps the United States rescue a living American Persian Gulf war prisoner.
The increase in bogus intelligence reports on Capt. Speicher followed passage of the law.
The recent searches helped prove that the source of the bad intelligence on Capt. Speicher cannot be trusted, the intelligence official said.

Other Gulf War I - Desert Storm - POW/MIA cases under investigation.

A Special Forces Team is said to be unaccounted for; crewmen from a C-130 Spector Gunship may have survived the shootdown of their aircraft Major Paul Weaver and Paul Buege are two unaccounted for crew members. Two other Navy pilots, Barry Cook and Robert Dwyer, may also have survived their shoot down. Check back for updates on these cases.

The War in afghanistan

Al-Jazeera News had reported in October 2001 that al-Queda had captured 5 American POWs - two Special Forces Soldiers and three American's of Afghan decent in Afghanistan. Later reports put the number higher. The Department of Defense has dismissed the Al-Jazeera POW reports from al-Queda. No names have been released or correlated with the captured POWs. Following is Russian "Pravda" reported information:

ALIVE, BUT DEAD
Dmitry Chirkin
19:06 2002-08-01
PRAVDA.Ru

Over 100 American soldiers missing in Afghanistan. US Department of State still ignores the fact US authorities treat American soldiers at war in Afghanistan the same way they treat prisoners in Guantanamo: both can't rely upon protection guaranteed by the US Constitution.

The situation regarding the imprisoned Taliban is perfectly clear; it is of no use to hope that the US Justice will be well-disposed toward them. However, the situation should be quite different when citizens of your own country are left to the mercy of fate.

The losses of US servicemen in Afghanistan make up about 100 people, who are considered missing. Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets informs that US authorities do not conceal information about the number of missing people; on the contrary, they don't even help them.

Member of the RF Presidential Commission for Internees and Missing Persons Leonid Biryukov returned from his business trip in Kabul a week ago. In an initerview, he stated that over 100 Americans are missing in Afghanistan and have given up every hope that the US authorities would pay attention to their problem. Leonid Biryukov says, "I held negotiations with the Afghanistan Ministers for Internal Affairs and Defense, who constantly repeated that number of Americans missing in Afghanistan was considerable."

At that, the Afghani ministers are surprised not only purposeful suppression of information by the US authorities, but with no interest from the US Department of State concerning the fate of the American soldiers. In Biryukov's words, the incumbent Afghanistan government has not yet received a single official or unofficial inquiry concerning the 100 American soldiers missing after military operations in Kabul and Kandahar. The ministers also say that no attempts have been made to obtain information using special services as well.

Translated by Maria Gousseva
Read the original in Russian:
http://pravda.ru/main/2002/08/01/45035.html

DON'T LET THEM DOWN

UNTIL THEY ALL COME HOME