The intelligence officials in the United States are preparing to go to Iraq in search of a Navy pilot, who survived the May Downing of its combat aircraft during the Gulf War 12 years ago, but was never taken into consideration, said officials of the United States. Lt. CMdR. Michael Scott Speicher, a pilot of F-18 that was killed by enemy fire, the first day of the air war in Iraq on 17 January 1991, is the only American still officially listed as missing in action this war. He was the first one was killed in action, but his body was never recovered. After receiving intelligence reports indicate that in May, has survived the collapse of its aircraft, the Navy changed his status to missing in action in 2001. Now, a team of the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, was posted in the Persian Gulf. When hostilities ended, the intelligence to go to Iraq to sift through captured documents, interrogate prisoners of war and search sites throughout the country to try to close the books on one of the most enduring mysteries of the First War Gulf. The intelligence services of the United States say they remain skeptical about the news, have not received from inside Iraq in recent years indicate that Captain Speicher is alive. Officials say they are uncertain about their status, but I think that was still running, the Iraqis have shown in public until now. Consequently, the officials refused to describe the hunt for clues about Commander Speicher as a rescue mission. If he is dead, the intelligence team wants to find his body and get answers on the business of Iraqis. ''The goal is to discover what happened to him'', said an American. ''We are convinced that the Iraqi government knows what happened to him, and our aim is to discover what they know.'' Questions about the fate of Captain Speicher persisted throughout the year between the two Gulf wars, after the army was unable to determine if it had survived his Downing. Commander Speicher, a pilot project based on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, disappeared the night before the war, when his F-18 dropped in Iraq. There is no evidence in the first place, which had expelled or the accident survived, and no rescue operation was launched. Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, announced that the next Commander Speicher was the first American killed in the conflict. But over the years, details have emerged from Iraq raising questions about their future. In 1993 a group of visitors Qatar hunting in a remote section of Iraq through the crash site of Speicher commander of the aircraft, and returned home when they reported their find in the United States and delivered to some materials from the site of the accident was Commander Speicher said the airplane. In December 1995, the United States through the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to send a team to the crash site to investigate. He does not find a place of deportation, and no sign of a body or bones. The Pentagon eventually concluded that Commander Speicher had probably ejected from his plane and in May the accident survived. But what happened to him after the conflict is still the subject of rumors and fragmentary intelligence reports, including some that were suggested to be seen by Iraqi forces. In January 2001, the Navy officially changed his status to missing. The reports and conclusions of the manner in which his case was initially treated has led to criticism of the pressure from the Pentagon and Congress on the intelligence community to reach answers. ''We will not leave anyone behind, and mistakes were made,''Senator Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, said last year. ''This is probably the best way to express myself.'' ''Our conclusion is that we do not know with certainty what happened to him, but the Iraqis can do it, and we certainly do not exclude the possibility that he is still alive and held captive in,''Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson, and then the Defense Intelligence Agency director, told Congress last year. In addition to hunting for clues about Commander Speicher, the intelligence services of the United States at the end of the plan to obtain evidence about the fate of Kuwait and Iran have been prisoners of war held by Iraq for over a decade, also officials said. Photo: Lt. CMdR. Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy pilot, was overthrown 12 years ago.
