WASHINGTON

The Washington Post newspaper has recently published information about the fate of a military pilot of the US Air Force who went missing in Iraq during Gulf War. According to information from the CIA, which the newspaper referred to in the article, Lieutenant Commander Michael Speicher was shot down in an F-18 Hornet fighter over Iraq in 1991 and he is still in the Iraqi captivity. The CIA notified the US Congress about of this information on February 4th. The American special services earlier thought that Speicher had died, but the British special services gave this new information to the CIA (which they obtained from their sources in Iraq), which said that the American pilot was alive and that he was kept in one of Baghdad's jails.

As the newspaper wrote, the location of the American pilot was so secret that only two people in Iraq have the right to see the captive American pilot: the chief of the intelligence service and the elder son of the Iraqi leader, Uday Hussein.

The break between the publication of the material and the reaction of the American government was not long. NTV.Ru informed that the American authorities had officially acknowledged that pilot Michael Speicher was not dead, but was missing, and they finally evinced interest in his fate.

The Pentagon was one of the last institutions that accepted such a possibility, although the military officials still doubt if the missing pilot is in Iraq. Nevertheless, the press secretary of the military department informed that there had been an official inquiry sent to the Pentagon, and Speicher's fate was being determined.

It is well known that America has always been proud of never leaving its citizens in trouble. This is true, and it would be stupid to deny it. However, there is another thing here: an attack on Iraq is looking more and more like reality. The whole world is wondering when the USA will begin its war against this country, and, all of the sudden, here comes such a good reason: the missing American pilot.