Pubdate: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 SENATE PANEL SEEKS END TO CIA DRUG ROLE Concluding that inadequate planning and bad judgment led to the mistaken downing of a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that the CIA should be removed from the task of spotting drug-runners along the Peru-Colombia border. Under a program begun in 1994 -- but suspended indefinitely after the April 20 fatalities -- CIA-operated surveillance aircraft tracked suspected drug flights, providing information to the Peruvian air force, which was authorized to shoot them down. A Peruvian warplane shot down the flight in which missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter were killed. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens