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.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens