Saddam suddenly 'cares?'

topic by
barb
3/25/2002 (1:55)

Hmmm... Saddam now cares about one -- ONE American pilot killed???
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Iraq Invites U.S. to Discuss Pilot

By SAMEER N. YACOUB
.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (March 24) - Iraq said on Sunday it was ready to receive a U.S. delegation to discuss the fate of an American pilot shot down over Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

``Iraq is ready to receive any American team, accompanied by U.S. media, in order to discuss and document this issue under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross,'' a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

In Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said on CBS' ``Face the Nation'' that he was unaware of the Iraqi offer, and would want to ``see whether or not this is a serious proposition or whether Saddam Hussein is simply trying to change the subject.''

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher was lost when his Navy F/A-18 Hornet jet was shot down on Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of the war.

Speicher, 33, had been listed as the first casualty of the Gulf War. Last year the Pentagon changed his status from killed in action to missing in action after persistent reports he survived and was being held captive. His tombstone is over an empty grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

In a search of the crash site in December 1995, investigators found the canopy, which ejects with the pilot, spent flares and a survival kit. They also found a tattered flight suit. But no trace of Speicher was found.

When the U.S. Navy changed his status to missing, the State Department asked Iraq, through the International Red Cross and other channels, for information about the flier.

Iraq says Speicher was killed without ejecting from the cockpit, though his remains were never found.

The Iraqi spokesman, who was not identified, said the best way to solve ``such mere technical matters'' was through specialized legal channels. He did not elaborate.

The United States has warned Iraq it may become the next target in the war on terror unless it allows U.N. weapons inspectors back in the country to investigate Western claims the country is building weapons of mass destruction. Iraq insists it has destroyed all such weapons, and has barred inspectors since they left in December 1998.

AP-NY-03-24-02 1246EST

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.

reply by
TheAZCowboy
3/25/2002 (9:49)

reply top

RE: Iraq sez come here mutha's and see if you can find your MIA war criminal!

Hum, I know that this post will bring a lot of 'flak' (excuse the pun) regarding the MIA USAF pilot, Mike Speicher that was shot down during the Gulf War a decade ago and is believed to still be alive as a POW somewhere in Iraq.

I mean, it doesn't matter that these 'nice' fellows bombed civlian's ( you remember the 500 civilian's massacred at that bomb shelter that was supposed to be a Command & Control Center according to the Pentagon, and do you remember 'the road to death' in Kuwait where thousands of retreating Iraqi conscript kids, having descarded their arms and running north to escape the war were systematically massacred by the thousands by USAF A-10's as they retreated towards Basra, remember? ).

Then there was the baby milk processing factory that was supposed to be a biological weapons plant. The one, UN inspectors finally decided indeed was indeed a powdered milk producing factory based on the milk processing equipment and milk residue found at ground zero.

So like in Vietnam where the UASF/USA massacred 3,000,000 (that's millions) civilian's and then forced the Vietnamese government to run 1/2 of the country through screens after the war in search of MIA bones and remains to satisfy the US' whims, here we go again.

They murder, maim, wound and leave you homeless--and then you have to help them find all their missing marbles.

On the other hand little has been said about the 700,000+ civilian deaths that have ocured since the war because of the US embargo on medicine's and hospital equipment and supplies to Iraq.

They haven't shown any concern for the 15,000% increase in cancer the Iraqi people have been dealing with as a result of the US' use of depleated uranium against the Iraqi population.

Today, the UN states that cancer among children (in area's targeted by the US in Iraq) under the age of 10 is 9 out of every 15 kids. A percentage unprecidented anywhere on the planet.

Likewise, today, in Vietnam toxins from the Agent Orange poured on the hapless population in the 1970's still flows from mothers milk. Cancer, deformed fetuses, chronic asthma, spina diffida and other 'dreaded' deseases persist some 30+ years after the war, all attributed to Agent Orange by a group of Canadian scientists that have been assessing and researching this tragedy since the mid 1980's.

Yes, it almost sounds unpatriotic to recount the US' contribution to 'crimes against humanity' as reported by the UN and Amnesty Int'l, huh?

On the other hand, they say that the 'truth will set you free, huh?'

Oh well,