[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S5045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PRISONERS OF WAR RESOLUTION

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, it is my understanding that 
the sponsors of the resolution on the POWs are on their way to the 
Chamber. I just left Senator Warner in a briefing with the Secretary of 
Defense. I wish to speak before the sponsors arrive on the subject of 
the POW resolution.
  There are two POWs from Florida. Those whom we suspect are POWs are 
the ones who were interviewed on Al-Jazeera television, who were 
captured at about the time that PFC Jessica Lynch was captured. Of 
course, that was such a wonderfully successful mission of finding and 
retrieving her. The entire world has rejoiced at her return. From my 
State, one of the unaccounted whom we think is a POW is Private 
Williams from Orlando, FL.
  Naturally, I will lend my support to this resolution which is most 
important not only to express our concern, but to express and demand 
that these prisoners of war be treated according to the Geneva 
Convention, which means that under the rules of war we treat prisoners 
of war humanely.
  The conviction that arises in my voice comes from another POW in Iraq 
of 12 years from Jacksonville, FL, CAPT Scott Speicher. Our Defense 
Department made a mistake and initially declared him dead. On the first 
night of the gulf war 12 years ago, his F-18 was shot down, and we left 
a downed pilot. There were a series of mistakes. He was declared dead 
when there was not the evidence that he was dead.
  When we repatriated the POWs in a POW exchange with Iraq, we did not 
even ask for him because at the time, through mistakes, they did not 
think he was a POW. They sent back surveillance assets to look at the 
crash site. They gave them the wrong coordinates, so they did not see 
the wreckage. It was not until some 5 years later that a Qatar hunting 
party found the wreckage of his jet.

  Once that happened, we started making more inquiries. The American 
press got into it. Lo and behold, years later, the Defense Department 
finally admitted some of its mistakes and changed his status from 
killed in action to missing in action. Then just last fall, thanks to 
the Secretary of the Navy, they changed his status from missing in 
action to missing captured, which is the status for a POW.
  The Defense Department says they do not know that he is alive. Madam 
President, I can tell you that Senator Roberts, who has been joined at 
the hip with me on this matter because the Speicher family was 
originally from Kansas and now lives in Florida, and I believe, through 
the information we have received, that he is alive.
  It has been published that we have a special team that is now going 
into Iraq to look for him. What a great day it will be for America if 
we bring home this American pilot who we walked away from and who has 
been gone for 12 years.
  Of course, we can imagine what has happened to his family, his minor 
children first being told their father was dead, and now having hope 
that he might be alive. It is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions. It 
is a tragedy that is borne out of the fog of war. It is a tragedy of 
bureaucratic ineptness and bureaucratic footdragging, but we can make 
that right by finding him.
  Of course, the possibility is that in the ensuing melee, he might be 
used. It is our hope that we will resolve the fate of CAPT Scott 
Speicher, and it is my prayer, and the prayer of Americans all over 
this country, that he can be brought home and that he will be alive.
  Madam President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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