Pubdate: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 Source: Grand Rapids Press (MI) Copyright: 2008 Grand Rapids Press Contact: http://www.mlive.com/grpress/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/171 Author: Ted Roelofs, The Grand Rapids Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting) PROBE FINDS CIA VIOLATED PROCEDURES, COVERED UP FAILINGS AFTER DOWNING PLANE CARRYING WEST MICHIGAN MISSIONARIES IN PERU A new probe of the 2001 downing of a plane carrying West Michigan missionaries in Peru concludes the CIA routinely violated intercept procedures and covered up evidence of its failings. U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra said he will press for renewed criminal investigation into the incident and demand a hearing before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. "We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress. This is a shootdown that should not have occurred if we had an agency that was working appropriately," said Hoekstra, R-Holland. Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, when their plane was misidentified as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian air force jet. A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby. Bowers' husband, Jim, then 37, son, Cory, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting. The shoot-down was part of a CIA-managed drug interdiction scheme begun in 1990s that resulted in numerous other aircraft being shot down by armed Peruvian planes. But according to the report by the Office of Inspector General, that program routinely violated intercept procedures. Hoekstra said about 10 planes were shot down before the Bowers' aircraft, in consistent violation of safety procedures that would have averted the incident. "The result was that ... suspect aircraft were shot down within two to three minutes of being sighted by the Peruvian fighter -- without being properly identified, without being given the required warnings to land and without being given time to respond to such warnings as were being given," the report stated. The report said the CIA "did not fulfill its legal obligations" in keeping Congress and the National Security Council informed of its activities. It further stated that "in seeking to avoid criminal charges" and civil liability, CIA legal advisers "advised agency managers to avoid written products lest they be subject to legal scrutiny." Veronica Bowers' mother, Florida resident Gloria Luttig, 70, said the report only deepens the family's determination to find the truth. "There has been nobody held accountable," Luttig said. "My child was murdered. My granddaughter was murdered. To have nobody held accountable is wrong. It's just been a nightmare the last seven years. "I'm a Christian but I think somebody has to pay for this. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," Luttig said. In 2002, Congress approved an $8 million payment to settle survivors' claims stemming from the incident. Previous investigations have failed to convince family members they were being told the entire story. "Some of the members of the CIA have been promoted since then," Luttig said. "I want it out in the open, and I want it out in the open now. It's just been one farce after another." In 2005, after a three-year investigation, federal prosecutors ended a criminal inquiry into whether at least four Central Intelligence Agency officers lied to lawmakers and their agency superiors in the clandestine antidrug operation. The conduct under scrutiny was part of a CIA operation that was authorized by President Bill Clinton beginning in 1994 to help the Peruvian air force prevent drug flights over the country. Officials said that investigation had not been directly related to the act of shooting down the plane, which was misidentified as a potential drug smuggling aircraft by a CIA surveillance plane operated by a contract crew. A U.S. and Peruvian inquiry in 2001 found the shooting was the result of language problems, poor communications and shortcuts in following procedures.