U.S. investigators searching in Iraq for clues to the fate of missing Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, shot down on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, have returned to an early hypothesis: that he died at or near the site where his F-18 fighter crashed.

Some of the documents found since the fall of Baghdad indicate that Iraqi government officials were befuddled by continuing U.S. government inquiries about the possibility of Speicher being held alive. U.S. investigators deduced from this that the Iraqis had no knowledge of Speicher being held. That is consistent with Iraq’s public position from the start.