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Missionaries’ deaths in Peru caused by CIA negligence, report says
A new report by the CIA’s inspector general says the agency lied about the circumstances surrounding the shoot-down of a plane carrying American missionaries over Peru in 2001.
The Peru Air Force shot down the plane using CIA surveillance, killing missionary Veronica Bowers and her baby, and injuring the other members of the family on board. The intelligence agency worked with the Peru Air Force ostensibly to identify suspect drug trafficking planes and shoot them down.
The partially declassified report says,
In many cases, 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.
The program was suspended in 2001, but CIA officials characterized the shoot-down as a one-time mistake in an otherwise successful program. The probe says,
In fact, this was not the case.
The CIA program showed a “routine disregard of the required intercept procedures.” Besides lying to Congress, the report adds that top agency officials withheld information from National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice and would not respond her direct questions.
back to top13 Comments to “Missionaries’ deaths in Peru caused by CIA negligence, report says”
Are we surprised that career bureaucrats would do other? There has been suspicion all along, on all administrations, that careerists are more concerned with keeping themselves clean than they are of telling the truth. Additionally, there has been talk of deliberate sabotage of administration goals and objectives by those who claim to know best.
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Obviously this is Bush’s fault.
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This War on Drugs sure has done a lot of great things for our country! It’s such a shame those pesky missionaries had to get in our way.
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The CIA lie and cover it up?
Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Here’s a question. Should the missionary’s family have a right to compensation from her own government which helped to kill her? Or were they all just “collateral damage” in the “war” on drugs?
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Never mind the whole questionable morality behind the “war” on drugs.
How are we paying tax money for the CIA to be involved in this nonsense?
“American exceptionalism.” Feh. The Founders must be spinning in their graves over what we’ve done to our nation.
Not to mention our hemisphere.
And the other one.
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Wars on drugs, like wars on poverty, begin with goals that may be commendable in the abstract (”What if we could interdict the supply of drugs?” “What if we just built everyone a house?”) but ignore all kinds of messy reality, beginning with the heart conditions of those they would aid.
I’m from the government, and I’m here to help …
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Well, while I’m sorry they were killed, and I honor them for their service, I think this was more of a case of incompetence by the Peruvian air force, rather than the CIA. It’s not like the CIA can tell a difference between a missionary plane and a guerilla plane by looking at it on radar. You need a visual confirmation.
As far as covering it up? It’s not like the truth would have brought them back. It’s a covert operation after all.
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This might be an exception, but as for the fact that everyone always says, “the CIA makes all these cover-ups…the public has a right to know everything!,” that’s not true. Often, there are things that it’s neither necessary nor beneficial for the public to know, and sometimes, by broadcasting information to everyone, the enemy is aided. For instance, something on the news I saw like this: “Top secret (or was it “covert?”) military operations in Pakistan.” (anyway, it was talking about our troops conducting secret missions in a Middle Eastern country)
The terrorists probably think “thanks for the info, US news networks.” In other cases, the CIA has no desire to come out with something, because not only would it bring embarrassment, but everyone would be shocked and angry at what had happened. So it is sometimes more beneficial to have a cover-up.
We are where we are, but bemoaning the fact doesn’t help anything, so if you want change, ask Obama.
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There was a good SNL skit during Gulf War I where a reporter asked a briefing officer,
“Now, what exactly ARE our biggest weaknesses, and how might the enemy best exploit them?”.
“Well, I… I really just shouldn’t say that on the air”.
“What??? Censorship! Coverup!”
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JOHN M. (7): Well, while I’m sorry they were killed, and I honor them for their service, I think this was more of a case of incompetence by the Peruvian air force, rather than the CIA. It’s not like the CIA can tell a difference between a missionary plane and a guerilla plane by looking at it on radar. You need a visual confirmation.
As far as covering it up? It’s not like the truth would have brought them back. It’s a covert operation after all.
FRANK: The US government has no business spending millions/billions of taxpayer dollars criminalizing/fighting a “war” on what chemicals people put into their bodies in the first place. (I speak generally here. I understand that there are some kinds of drug abuse that, by the drugs’ very natures, immediately endanger those around the user.)
And even if it did, it certainly has no business doing so offshore.
If it weren’t for our gung-ho “war” on drugs, these people could very well still be alive today. They were collateral damage in a bogus “war.”
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Ivan
Taking the easy route blaming bureaucrats. Here’s what more likely happened. The mistake got reported up the chain. The political appointees in charge made the call on how to deal with the information. That is the way it usually happens.
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What was the result of the shooting? Are the same policies in place? Are planes still being shot down suspected of running drugs?
An affective way to stop this type of drug trafficking resistance is to shoot down an innocent third party. What could be more innocent than shooting down a plane with missionaries in it? It would be interesting to see what actions took place as a result of the tragedy that occured that day.
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Or were they all just “collateral damage” in the “war” on drugs?
It’s so very nice the CiA finally had to come clean about the US missionaries, but we’ll never get the report about the rest of the collateral damage. There are things the CIA doesn’t want us to know – ever.
There’s a moral challenge to Christians here. Lawful living and obedience to the rulers whom God has appointed to be “over” us don’t absolve us of the evil results of policies that depend on the consent of the governed. We’re in charge and we’re responsible.
The drug war inflicts damage to civil liberty in Mexico, Coloumbia, and other places where our money and our leverage impose treatment that we’d never tolerate in our own country. These violations of civil liberty have corrupting effect on the rule of law and inflict real damage on civic society. Innocents die in conflicts over the money that our demand generates, of course. Innocents also die in police wars and CIA operations. All that blood is on our heads.
The war on drugs is not very pro-life.
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