CIA Helped Shoot Down 15 Civilian Planes
Report Points To Cover-Up Of '90s Anti-Drug Program; Criminal Charges Possible
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Authorities inspect the wreckage of a Cessna plane after it was raised from the Amazon River in Huanta, Peru, in this April 26, 2001 file photo. A Peruvian air force jet which mistook it for a drug flight gunned it down, killing American missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter. A classified CIA report on that shoot-down and the agency's "Airbridge Denial Program" as a whole suggests U.S. officials may have misled Congress and withheld information from the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
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Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, is seen in a Dec. 12, 2007 file photo. Hoekstra Thursday revealed the extent of a 1995-2001 anti-drug program in that involved shooting down civilian planes thought to be carrying drugs in Peru. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
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It was the first public disclosure of the number of planes shot down between 1995 and 2001 as part of the Airbridge Denial Program, a CIA counternarcotics effort that killed an innocent American missionary, Veronica Bowers, and her infant daughter in 2001. A State Department investigation at the time said that Peruvian fighter jets forced another 23 planes to land.
Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, told The Associated Press most of the 15 planes shot down with the help of the CIA crashed in the jungle. The wreckage has not been or could not be examined to ascertain whether narcotics were aboard the aircraft.
"The Bowers could have gone in the same category if they had crashed in the jungle," Hoekstra said, speaking of the missionary family from Hoekstra's state, Michigan.
The Bowers' plane made an emergency river landing after it was hit.
Excerpts from a CIA inspector general's report released in November raised questions about whether the missionaries' plane was the only craft mistakenly suspected of drug smuggling. The CIA report said that in most of the shootdowns, pilots fired on aircraft "without being properly identified, without being given the required warnings to land, and without being given time to respond to such warnings as were given to land."
The report said the CIA withheld the results of investigations that documented continuous and significant violations of aircraft interception procedures created to prevent the shoot-down of planes unconnected with the drug trade.
The CIA report directly contradicted the State Department's findings in 2001. The State Department at the time said the other planes were shot down only after "exhausting international procedures for interception."
CIA Director Michael Hayden is appointing a six-person board, including two current CIA officers, to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted, according to spokesman Mark Mansfield. CIA accountability boards can look at both current and former employees.
Hayden also has directed CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence to identify lessons learned that remain relevant to CIA's current operations, as was recommended by the classified IG report.
"Director Hayden is absolutely committed to a process looking at systemic issues and accountability that is as thorough and fair as possible," Mansfield said.
Hoekstra said the report identified personnel by name who misled Congress and obstructed a Justice Department investigation into whether criminal charges should have been filed in the case. The Justice Department ultimately decided in 2005 against filing charges.
The Airbridge Denial Program was shut down after the death of Bowers and her daughter.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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This kind of cr*ap is exactly why many people all around the world despise Americans and why we''''re all targets the moment we set foot on a plane or in another country.
How can you say such a thing? We all know they hate us for our freedoms!!! LOL What a dip-shi* that goofy azz Bush is. And any of you out there who supported him are just as stupid. If the recession were not so hard on the poor I
I''d be happy watching those who voted for Bush lose their stock market millions. All of this pain for some tax cuts for the rich and war profits that nobody even got to keep. Greedy morons!
Posted by lady54
lady54 - Your argument is far too rational for most posters on this board.
Wakey! Wakey!
C''''''''mon people! Read what the article SAYS! Ask yourself why this is being released NOW!!!
Wakey! Wakey!
C''''mon HATE YOUR COUNTRY SOME MORE!!!!
Posted by RowdynTex at 11:11 PM : Dec 11, 2008
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Did you even bother to read the article mr RowdynTex?
If you had you''d see that the person who ''released'' the story was Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives. Please note he is the SENIOR REBUBLICAN on the House Intelligence Committee.
WAKEY! WAKEY!
A Republican doing the right thing. How about that?
Posted by lady54
lady54 - Your argument is far too rational for most posters on this board.
Posted by rhs648
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So we should get more competent people who will make sure that in the future all aircraft will crash in the jungle so we can''t find out their not smuggling drugs?
Get real. We lost the ''drug war'' while Reagan was president. The only way to win the ''drug war'' is to help develope economies in those third world countries so they won''t grow and export the drugs! It''s the same reason we''ll never win in Afghanistan until we help them move away from poppy growing in the regions where the Taliban hold sway.
Old poet, you live in a dream world. The only way to stop the export it is to QUIT USING THE DRUGS. So instead of blaming other countries, why don''t you tell your kids to stop buying the poison. The growers will dissapear once demand is eliminated. Blame everyone but yourself. That is the users mantra. STUPID.
The CIA shot down the ones who did not pay the lady.
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Posted by republic76 at 04:30 AM : Dec 12, 2008
+ report abuse
As long as the CIA is allowed to conduct its own investigation, the outcome will be one that exonerates the CIA. When a branch of the government is allowed to investigate itself the results are predictable and the CIA knows this.
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Posted by mtee12 at 03:48 AM : Dec 12, 2008
....Bingo Me Bucks...that''s telling it like it is!
Blitzder is also living is a dream world. Telling your kids to stop buying drugs will not eliminate the demand for drugs. You''re right about the need to eliminate the demand for drugs, but you are completely wrong about how to do it.
Posted by andrew_693 at 02:37 AM : Dec 12, 2008
I think you mean, as long as America is the country that it is, we''ll have drug users to help cope with the reality that America has reached its zenith.
And continue its downward spiral to oblivion....
And continue its downward spiral to oblivion.... or to Bolivia, however which way you''d like to look at it.
the CIA Helped Luis Posada Carilles Blow up a much bigger plane wiht 73 people on board.
http://www.70news.com/2008/12/12/cia-helped-shoot-down-15-planes/
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 09:22 AM : Dec 12, 2008
Maybe, but probably not though.
So whatelse is new???
USA blaming everyone else for their drug problem
Is it no wonder the world hates the USA.
Yo, Moron, first, who says all Republicans are all so gung ho to fight the war on drugs. If you learned to read and comment on the story instead of whatever world lives in your fevered imagination, you''ll note the program ran entirely during the CLINTON Presidency, and that Bush shut it down in his first year in office.
Learn to think objectively, or at least give it a good shot.
"The Airbridge Denial Program was shut down after the death of Bowers and her daughter" but this activity did not stop in 2001 as the article states- it is simply called something else now.
This is going on Right now and only now are our forces being scaled back. I know our some our military men are driving around delivering backpacks full of taxpayer cash in "South America". I know some of these people personally.
This is a US sanctioned murder of american citizens (missionaries at that)the CIA is admitting to. "A six-person board, including two current CIA officers, to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted,"
Disiplinatry action needs to be 25 to life or a death sentence. Too bad Missionaries aren''t big on suing or revenge. If this were my family, I would never stop until these people were punished.
http:// www.madcowprod .com/
But there seems to be a mythology that some people believe that opposes military officers serving in civilian jobs. They don''t remember that Ike was the last competent Republican president we had either.
Bush haters are the true americans, Bush Has no belief in any of founding priciples of this country. I submit that anyone who truley loves Bush''s policies is as ant- american as OBL for they have no understanding of what this country is supposed to be about. Just because we have it slightly better than some other backwards counrty is no reason to give up and let a tyrant run this country too! We need to fix this country before we try to fix any others. It starts with a 180 degree turn from the last 8 years.
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