CIA-Guided Peru Action Killed Woman And Infant, Hurt Pilot American missionaries whose small plane was mistaken by CIA contract employees for a drug-runner's and was shot down over Peru last year are seeking $35 million in compensation from the U.S. government. They say they are frustrated by the lack of a response, and, if there is no settlement soon, they will sue. The husband of Veronica Bowers, who was killed with their infant daughter, Charity, in the incident; injured mission pilot Kevin Donaldson; and the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism Inc., which owned the plane, are upset that the government has not responded to the claim they submitted in June, said their attorney, Karen Hastie Williams. [continues 912 words]
Peru Will Get More Than $150 Million In 2002; Flights May Resume LIMA, Peru - The United States will triple anti-drug funding to Peru and hopes to announce the resumption of drug surveillance flights when President Bush visits next month, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday. Ambassador John Hamilton told reporters that U.S. aid meant to curb drug production and trafficking will increase to more than $150 million in 2002, from about $50 million annually in previous years. More than $80 million will finance alternative development programs that help Peru's farmers switch from coca, the raw material of cocaine, to crops such as coffee and cacao. [continues 306 words]
The U.S. plans to triple its antinarcotics funding to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo's government this year and hopes to announce the resumption of drug-surveillance flights during President Bush's visit to Peru next month, U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton said. He told reporters in Lima that U.S. antidrug aid to Peru will increase this year from about $50 million "to more than $150 million." At least $80 million will finance alternative-development programs that help farmers switch from growing coca, the raw material of cocaine , to planting other crops. The rest of the aid will support interdiction, eradication and demand-reduction programs, including $30 million for more helicopters. Peru is the world's second-largest producer of coca leaf and coca paste. He said Washington hopes to announce "as soon as possible" the resumption of drug-surveillance flights that were suspended last April after a Peruvian jet mistakenly shot down a small plane, killing a U.S. missionary and her 7-month-old daughter. [end]
WASHINGTON - The United States hopes to complete a plan next month for resuming anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia - flights that could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers, a State Department official said yesterday. The flights have been suspended since the Peruvian military mistakenly shot down a Baptist missionary plane last year, killing an American woman and her infant daughter. Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers said the United States is determined to resume the flights with changes in procedures to prevent other accidents. [continues 337 words]
The American missionary whose wife and daughter were killed in late April when a Peruvian air force fighter mistakenly opened fire on their plane is concerned about the fighter pilots who shot them. "There is nothing for me to forgive," said Jim Bowers, who survived the incident along with his son and the plane's pilot. "They were just doing their job. They had no right to deny their orders." Now a missionary for the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Bowers will be sharing his story Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. during the 53rd annual Missionary Conference at Highland Park Baptist Church. He will speak to students at Tennessee Temple University on Thursday. [continues 525 words]
WASHINGTON - The United States hopes to complete a plan next month for resuming anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia - flights that could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers, a State Department official said Wednesday. The flights have been suspended since the Peruvian military mistakenly shot down a Baptist missionary plane last year, killing an American woman and her infant daughter. Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers said the United States is determined to resume the flights with changes in procedures to prevent other accidents. [continues 394 words]
The U.S. Halted Efforts Over Colombia And Peru After A Missionary And Her Infant Daughter Died In A Shootdown Last Year WASHINGTON -- The United States hopes to complete a plan next month for resuming anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia -- flights that could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers, a State Department official said Wednesday. The flights have been suspended since the Peruvian military mistakenly shot down a Baptist missionary plane last year, killing an American woman and her infant daughter. [continues 414 words]
WASHINGTON - The United States hopes to complete a plan next month for resuming anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia - flights that could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers, a State Department official said Wednesday. The flights have been suspended since the Peruvian military mistakenly shot down a Baptist missionary plane last year, killing an American woman and her infant daughter. Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers said the United States is determined to resume the flights with changes in procedures to prevent other accidents. [continues 393 words]
Peru's Maoist guerrilla movement, the Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path, is reinventing itself as an international drugs gang, police say. The group, dormant for almost 10 years, is regaining momentum in the rugged highlands. Last spring, Colombian drug barons, who lose acres of supplies each time US-donated helicopters spray their crops with herbicides, were quick to seize an unexpected opportunity to move into Peru. Washington had stopped using its aircraft to prevent drug flights between Colombia and Peru after a CIA blunder led to the shooting down of an American missionary's plane. Border surveillance was badly affected, and within months world attention turned to Afghanistan. [continues 534 words]
A Casualty of Terrorism You Haven't Heard Much About When the Bush administration tires of patting itself on the back for the successful war in Afghanistan it might consider the war it is losing -- the one on drugs. Following the terrorism of Sept. 11, Washington's attention -- and much of our military and other assets -- were shifted to address the threat posed by terrorism. More than half the Coast Guard's anti-drug efforts were redirected to guard harbors and oil refineries. While this improved our defenses against new acts of terrorism, it lowered them when it comes to drugs. [continues 1120 words]
With the confirmation of John Walters as the new drug czar, the US is committing itself to a punishment-based War on Drugs -- even as most of its allies are declaring cease-fires. In America's cities, punishment remains the rule in the War on Drugs. Last December 5th marked the 68th anniversary of the effective end of Prohibition, drawing to close this nation's "noble experiment" with criminalizing alcohol. So it seems ironic that it was also the day on which the United States Senate confirmed John P. Walters as the new director of the Office of National Drug Policy -- the nation's drug czar. [continues 1574 words]
The Sept. 11 terrorist strikes against the United States may have claimed an unexpected victim: the war on drugs. Officials and experts fear narcotics are pouring through holes in U.S. security created when surveillance planes and drug agents were diverted to the war on terrorism. Although Bush administration officials say they will not have hard numbers until January, they say the early signs of trouble already exist. "We are going to see an avalanche of drugs in 2002," says Bruce Bagley, a drug trafficking expert with the University of Miami. "There will be less U.S. attention paid to drug trafficking, and at the same time Latin American economies will be moving into deeper recession." [continues 998 words]
A program for halting suspected drug-running planes in Peru has been indefinitely grounded by a recently released Senate report. The evidence demands this and more. The deaths of Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter last April revealed tragic flaws in the joint U.S.-Peru interdiction effort. This latest information adds to the argument for ending the program for good. The report from the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence offers new and even more disturbing evidence about the death of Mrs. Bowers and her daughter, Charity. Mrs. Bowers, her husband, Jim, and their two children worked for the Pennsylvania-based Association of Baptists for World Evangelism and drew much of their support from Calvary Church in Fruitport. Mrs. Bowers and Charity were killed when Peruvian and American officials mistook their association-owned plane for one of the area's drug-running flights. [continues 376 words]
Accident: Committee Says Lack Of Judgment Led To Two Deaths In Peru. WASHINGTON -- Concluding that inadequate planning and bad judgment led to the mistaken shoot-down of a light plane carrying American missionaries in Peru, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that the CIA should be removed from the business of spotting possible drug-runners along Peru's border. "The lack of judgment displayed by key individuals involved was the primary factor leading to this disaster," said Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), the panel chairman. "Safety procedures, however, had degraded over time to the point where this kind of tragedy was almost inevitable. This program needs a dramatic overhaul before we should consider restarting it." [continues 218 words]
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. [end]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 -- The Bush administration should not resume its policy of helping shoot down planes suspected of carrying drugs over Peru until safety procedures are radically improved, the Senate Intelligence Committee said today. The committee's conclusion has the practical effect of indefinitely sidelining a seven-year-old program run by the Peruvian Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency to halt drug flights over Peru. The program was suspended in April after a Peruvian jet fighter shot down an American missionary flight, killing two. [continues 455 words]
WINSTON-SALEM -- Jim Bowers described his recent return to Peru, where he and his wife built a ministry and where his wife and young daughter were killed in April. He talked about returning to the boat that housed their Amazon River ministry, and how strange it was not to have his wife, Roni, meet him at the back door. "Here we were, everything was like before and Roni wasn't there," Bowers said. He talked about other thoughts that ran through his head, including "realizing that Chapter One had come to a close for me, and the Lord has lots in store for me, but not for Roni." [continues 327 words]
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- On his first official visit to South America, Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Peru to help push through a pact he said would help nations learn how to behave like democracies. Peru is the first stop on a trip that takes Powell to Colombia on Tuesday and Wednesday to show support for President Andres Pastrana. Leading up to the visit, the Bush administration on Monday blacklisted a right-wing Colombian group as a terrorist organization and banned financial support for it. The administration says the group is responsible for hundreds of massacres in its war against leftist rebels. [continues 450 words]
A Baptist missionary said he blames the Peruvian air force and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for the attack by a Peruvian military jet that killed his wife and daughter. Jim Bowers, who survived the attack along with his 6-year-old son, said he has no hostility toward the pilots and thinks they were just following orders. "If they were told to fire, they had no choice," Bowers said Sunday. "What good would there be to holding something against them? What would it gain?" [continues 112 words]
