Peru: Tough Policy That Turned Tragic Was Making A Difference In The Andes, Former U.S. Officials Say.

Anti-drug warriors involved in a U.S.-Peruvian airborne interdiction effort that has slashed the South American nation's cocaine production had a warning for smugglers: "You fly, you die."

That warlike motto governed the zone of low-intensity conflict into which a Cessna seaplane carrying U.S. Baptist missionaries flew last week with disastrous results: A Peruvian air force jet assisted by a CIA surveillance plane mistakenly shot down the Cessna, killing a woman and her infant daughter.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman cast doubt Tuesday on the future of what he called a "very valuable" anti-drug-trafficking program in Peru that led to the downing of a plane carrying American missionaries in which a woman and her daughter were killed.

"When you lose a young woman and her child because of a lack of communication, I believe, among other things, it's just too much," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said after a secret briefing by CIA Director George Tenet.

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Some call them contractors who do important but dangerous jobs that would otherwise fall to overburdened U.S. troops in America's war against drugs.

Others say they are mercenaries who shelter the U.S. government from responsibility when things go bad, and insulate it against political repercussions from sending GIs into harm's way.

Like the crew of a CIA-contracted plane involved in the downing of an American missionary plane in Peru, they are private U.S. citizens or foreigners who work for private firms hired by the U.S. government to, among other things, man much of the front lines of America's battle against the South American drug trade.

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WASHINGTON - The Peruvian air force's attack on a small plane carrying American missionaries focused attention Monday on how U.S. intelligence and Peru's military coordinate their fight against narcotics trafficking.

U.S. authorities said Monday that the Peruvians failed to follow routine procedures, while they exonerated the CIA surveillance crew that misidentified the missionary plane as carrying suspected drug smugglers. A Baptist missionary and her 7-month-old daughter were killed Friday when a Peruvian fighter jet strafed the small aircraft.

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LIMA, Peru - The downing by Peru of a missionary aircraft from the United States has dealt a severe blow to the two countries' efforts to halt drug shipments between Peru's coca fields and the trafficking cartels in Colombia.

Peru's policy since the early 1990s of forcing down suspected trafficking planes has been praised by Washington as a principal reason why the cultivation of coca plants - the raw material from which cocaine is made - has been reduced by two-thirds in Peru since 1995.

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LIMA, Peru -- The downing by Peru of a missionary aircraft from the United States has dealt a severe blow to the two countries' efforts to halt drug shipments between Peru's coca fields and the trafficking cartels in Colombia.

Peru's policy since the early 1990s of forcing down suspected trafficking planes has been praised by Washington as a principal reason the cultivation of coca plants -- the raw material from which cocaine is made -- has been reduced by two-thirds in Peru since 1995.

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Tragedy: Friends, Kin Mourn Loss, Say Divine Hand Guided Incident. They Are Baffled By Official Accounts.

While two governments struggled over blame in the gunning down of a plane flying American evangelists over the jungles of Peru, the friends and relatives of a slain missionary already had their answer. It was God's will, they said--with the same devout assuredness that led Veronica "Roni" Bowers on her final flight.

Even the wounded pilot, whose foot was nearly severed by a machine gun blast but who managed to land the crippled hydroplane in a river, insisted Monday that the incident was guided by divine hand.

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A former CIA narcotics officer explains how the CIA operated in Peru to try to stem the flow of drugs. He believes the drug problem ultimately needs to be controlled from the demand side.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to spend a little more time now discussing that news from Peru, which is raising questions about the war on drugs and just how far authorities should go in their effort to stem the drug trade.

Joining us now from Los Angeles to discuss these issues is Kenneth Bucchi, a former CIA narcotics officer.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday walked a fine line between absolving a CIA surveillance crew of blame and pointing the finger at Peru in the fatal downing of a plane carrying U.S. missionaries.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the U.S. tracking crew of CIA contract employees had followed proper procedures in identifying the plane flying over Peru as a possible drug carrier.

But he said it was obvious that not all proper procedures had been followed in the incident. Missionary Roni Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed on Friday when a Peruvian Air Force jet mistook the small aircraft for a drug plane and opened fire.

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CIA personnel on a U.S. surveillance plane did not attempt to read the registration number on the side of a civilian aircraft before it was shot down by the Peruvian Air Force on Friday because they were afraid it would flee out of Peru if they got too close, U.S. officials said yesterday.

An American missionary, Veronica "Roni" Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter were killed when, according to American accounts, the Peruvian Air Force rushed the procedures established by both countries to distinguish drug trafficking flights from innocent aircraft.

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The Air Force Has Shot Down Traffickers, But Apparently Some Bribed Their Way To Freedom

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Peruvian air force's downing of a single-engine Cessna plane, in which an American missionary and her infant daughter were killed, is only the latest chapter in the troubled story of Peru's armed forces and their fight against drug traffickers.

The Clinton administration regarded Peru's 120,000-member armed forces as a vital partner in U.S. antidrug efforts, thanks in large measure to an aggressive shoot-down policy that has wiped out at least 30 small aircraft operated by suspected drug traffickers. Peruvian production of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, dropped sharply.

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LIMA, Peru -- The downing by Peru of a missionary aircraft from the United States has dealt a severe blow to the two countries' efforts to halt drug shipments between Peru's coca fields and the trafficking cartels in Colombia.

Peru's policy of forcing down suspected trafficking planes since the early 1990's has been praised by Washington as a principal reason why the cultivation of coca plants -- the raw material from which cocaine is made - -- has been reduced by two-thirds in Peru since 1995.

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Rep. Bob Barr sided with the Bush administration Monday by suggesting Peru's military failed to follow established rules of engagement in shooting down an American missionary plane.

Missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, died as the plane crashed in the Amazon River. Peru's air force said it could not identify the plane. A U.S. CIA plane had alerted the Peruvians about the unidentified craft before it was shot down.

Barr appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews Monday afternoon.

He said the joint U.S.- Peru anti-drug program had been very effective.

But of the incident Saturday, he said, "The area the plane operated in was known for dangerous drug trafficking."

"The Peruvians made very serious errors," he said.

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Peru Jet's Action Turns Attention To Procedures

WASHINGTON -- The Peruvian air force's deadly attack on a small plane carrying U.S. missionaries focused attention Monday on how U.S. intelligence and Peru's military coordinate their fight against narcotics trafficking.

U.S. authorities said Monday that the Peruvians failed to follow routine procedures, while they exonerated the CIA surveillance crew that misidentified the missionary plane as carrying drug smugglers.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who has led previous inquiries into U.S. antidrug policy overseas, was planning to call for a congressional investigation of the incident, aides said. Meanwhile, the United States suspended the CIA surveillance program, and Peru suspended its interdiction flights.

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Attack: The U.S. defends program in Peru, but it was aware that smugglers, evangelists fly same routes.

U.S. and Peruvian anti-drug officials knew all along that missionaries and drug smugglers fly the same routes over the Peruvian jungle, and they had worried about just such an incident as Friday's inadvertent downing of a plane carrying an American missionary family, former officials of the U.S. Embassy in Lima said Monday.

"Our worst fear was: 'What if we shoot down [some] missionaries?' " said one former embassy official involved in anti-drug efforts. "You don't know how much we talked about that at the embassy. We went through all kinds of pains to put the right sequence of protocols in place so that couldn't happen."

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Missionaries Received Permission To Land Before They Were Shot Out Of The Sky, Relatives Claim In Dispute With Peruvian Officials' Reports

WASHINGTON - A Peruvian jet shot down a plane carrying American missionaries just one hour after being notified by a CIA-operated surveillance plane that it might be a flight ferrying illegal drugs, a U.S. intelligence official said Sunday.

Meanwhile, relatives of the missionaries said the plane had received clearance to land moments before it was fired on without warning, a contention at odds with Peru's military, which said the plane failed to identify itself and was flying without a flight plan.

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WASHINGTON -- President Bush's decision to suspend U.S. help to Peru in locating drug flights after two Americans were killed could have the unintended consequence of opening a door for drug traffickers, experts said Monday.

Bush ordered U.S. surveillance flights to identify potential drug-laden aircraft temporarily halted after a single-engine Cessna 185 carrying American missionaries was shot down.

While expressing sympathy for the two Americans killed, key congressional officials worried Monday that opportunistic drug traffickers would take advantage of the news that Peru would no longer be tracking aircraft with U.S. help.

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WASHINGTON - The crew of an American surveillance plane tracking suspected drug runners in Peru objected as the Peruvian air force rushed to attack a small plane carrying American missionaries, U.S. officials said Sunday.

The attack, on Friday, killed one missionary, Veronica Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity.

The surveillance plane's crew, who were American contract employees of the CIA, raised repeated objections that the missionaries' plane had not yet been identified, the American officials said.

Despite their objections, a Peruvian officer aboard the American tracking plane called in a Peruvian intercepter jet, which moved quickly to attack the small plane.

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IQUITOS, Peru - Drug interdiction flights over Peru have been suspended, U.S. officials announced Saturday, after the Peruvian air force shot down a seaplane carrying American missionaries.

The missionaries' plane, mistaken for a drug smuggling flight, was tracked by a U.S. surveillance plane before it was downed, a Bush administration official said Saturday night.

The crew aboard the surveillance plane urged Peruvian authorities to check out the flight, said the official.

A second official said the plane was considered suspect because it was operating without a flight plan in airspace frequented by drug runners. Peru, which had the responsibility to identify the plane's intentions under a long-standing agreement, mistakenly decided that it was carrying drugs, the official said.

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Accident: U.S. Says Crew On Surveillance Aircraft Tried To Rein In Military Action That Killed 2 Americans

WASHINGTON--A CIA crew flying a narcotics surveillance mission over the Amazon misidentified a small aircraft carrying a family of U.S. missionaries as a possible drug smuggling operation, prompting the Peruvian air force to shoot down the plane, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Sunday.

But the official insisted that the CIA-hired pilot, co-pilot and systems analyst repeatedly tried to convince a Peruvian air force officer aboard their jet that he was acting too quickly in ordering an attack on the single-engine floatplane.

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