Pubdate: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company Contact: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491 Author: Peter Slevin ANTI-DRUG FLIGHTS MAY RESUME THIS YEAR CIA Role Limited; Rules Tightened The Bush administration expects to resume drug interdiction flights in Peru and Colombia this year, roughly 18 months after the mistaken downing of a civilian aircraft and its American missionary passengers, U.S. officials announced yesterday. Strict procedures are being drafted to prevent a repeat of the fatal April 2001 incident, a senior administration official said, and a State Department employee will be aboard each flight to monitor the safety checklist and participate in high-risk decisions. CIA contract pilots no longer will fly the surveillance aircraft, and the CIA itself will have no role in the interdiction operation beyond intelligence-gathering. Peruvian and Colombian government pilots will take the controls of nine refurbished Cessna Citations that the United States will provide under State Department supervision. The final decision to attack an aircraft will lie with the Peruvian and Colombian military. High-level officers will be designated for the job, said the official, who reported that training of participants in future missions will begin soon. Congress and the Bush administration alike have blamed inattention, loose procedures and poor communications for a Peruvian fighter pilot's decision to fire on the civilian single-engine Cessna above the Amazon River. Bullets killed Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter and triggered the suspension of a narcotics interdiction program that began in 1994. The administration expected to release a report on the incident within weeks but spent a year reviewing the situation and planning for a resumption of operations, a timetable the official ascribed to "due deliberation." Further negotiations will take place with the Peruvian and Colombian governments over the details of the new policy and the precise roles of each participant. Flights will not resume until President Bush approves. "People wanted to make sure at every level that we got this right," said the U.S. official, who talked on condition of anonymity. "The last thing this administration wants to do is to reinitiate the program and have a recurrence of the tragedy of last April." The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence called for a radical improvement of safety measures in October, with committee chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.) saying procedures had slipped so far that "this kind of tragedy was almost inevitable." He said the interdiction program needed a "dramatic overhaul" before it could be restarted. A precise series of rules existed when the program began in Peru in 1994. Pilots followed a set sequence to identify, contact and warn a potential drug-smuggling aircraft before firing shots. But investigators discovered that, as the years went by, participants took short-cuts and the procedures "became less detailed and explicit," according to a report released by the State Department. The CIA operated the air surveillance program in Peru, while the U.S. Customs Service ran the operation in Colombia. Studies of the Peruvian situation showed that training of the American and Peruvian participants was insufficient and the oversight by central governments was limited. Although their decisions could mean life or death, the participants often did not speak one another's language fluently. In the 2001 downing, the Peruvian pursuer followed the Cessna for nearly 45 minutes without making its presence or intentions clear. The fighter pilot did not fly ahead and waggle its wings, an international aviation signal to land. A warning broadcast from the CIA surveillance plane to missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson went unanswered because Donaldson was using a separate high-frequency radio at the time. The Peruvian military pilot fired warning shots, but Donaldson could not see them. No one checked the registration number of Donaldson's plane. When the fighter then opened fire, Donaldson was wounded in both legs but managed to land the aircraft. Bowers's husband, Jim, and their 7-year-old son, Cory, were unhurt. The administration recently announced it would settle their claim for damages. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex