CIA Program To Assist In Shootdowns of Possible Drug Traffickers Ends In Death of Mother & Child

ABC World News With Diane Sawyer (February 3rd, 2010)

The CIA assisted the Peruvian military in the murder of a mother and child over the suspicion of drug trafficking. Something lost in the story is the fact that it is not even questioned whether or not it's acceptable to shoot drug traffickers out of the sky, let alone helping foreign countries in doing so.

original report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOU6MtTblA

Alternate: https://archive.org/details/WMAR_20100203_233000_ABC_World_News_With_Diane_Sawyer/start/540/end/600

"The footage, taken from a CIA surveillance aircraft and shown on America's ABC News, shows Peruvian fighter jets opening fire on a missionaries' seaplane as its pilot screamed for help...The aircraft was carrying Jim and Veronica Bowers and their children Cory, six, and adopted baby Charity, who were returning from a trip to Brazil on 20 April 2001. Mrs Bowers and Charity were killed."
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/cia-video-shows-mother-and-babys-plane-shot-down-6771971.html

"A U.S. anti-drug surveillance plane alerted Peru's military that the Cessna 185 the Bowers were aboard was operating without a flight plan and in airspace frequented by narcotics traffickers - two allegations that are disputed...Excerpts of a Central Intelligence Agency internal investigation released Thursday said the agency tried to hide negligence in the case. The report said agency officials lied to Congress and withheld information from federal investigators - including senior Bush administration officials - looking to see whether a crime had been committed by intelligence agents."
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20081122-2008-11-22-0811210165-story.html

"In a footnote to a tragic mistake, the CIA revealed Monday that 16 retired and current officers were given administrative punishments for their role in Peru’s 2001 shootdown of a plane that killed two innocent Americans from Muskegon...Bowers’ plane was one of 15 small civilian aircraft shot down between 1995 and 2001 as part of the CIA’s Airbridge Denial Program, a counternarcotics program 'designed to interrupt the transport of coca paste by civil aircraft from Peru to Colombia,' according to the now-unclassified 2008 CIA inspector general report."
https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2010/11/cia_punished_16_officers_in_20.html

"The video footage was taken by a CIA surveillance plane over the Peruvian jungle in 2001. It shows Peruvian fighter jets opening fire on the light Cessna...The skies over the Peruvian jungle are a hotspot for drug traffickers. Since 1995 the CIA and Peru's air force have been operating a joint program to intercept traffickers - shooting them down if necessary...The emergence of the video has led to fresh accusations that the CIA covered up its role in the deaths...The agency held a nine-year investigation into the incident and said 16 of its employees had to be disciplined, including the woman who was in charge of counter-narcotics at the time."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248521/Theyre-killing-The-dramatic-video-showing-fighter-jets-shooting-U-S-familys-plane-bungled-CIA-operation.html

"The CIA obstructed inquiries into its role in the shooting down of an aircraft carrying a family of U.S. missionaries in Peru in 2001, the agency’s inspector general has concluded...The inspector-general’s report said a CIA-backed program in Peru targeting drug runners was so poorly run that many suspect aircraft were shot down by Peruvian air force jets without proper checks being made first...The inspector-general’s report said that in the aftermath of the 2001 incident the CIA sought to characterize it as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program...'In fact this was not the case. The routine disregard of the required intercept procedures ... led to the rapid shooting down of target aircraft without adequate safeguards to protect against the loss of innocent life,' the report said...Peruvians and Americans involved in the program told investigators that following the proper identification procedures could have given suspect aircraft time to escape. It was also sometimes simply easier to shoot down the aircraft than to force it down, they said...The CIA’s general counsel advised agency managers not to write anything down in an effort to avoid criminal charges being brought against CIA officers."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cia-report/cia-faulted-in-shooting-down-of-missionary-plane-idUSTRE4AJ9AX20081120

Statement from the CIA on the 2001 Peru Shootdown - ABC News (February 3rd, 2010):
https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-statement-2001-peru-shootdown/story?id=9738624

ABC World News With Diane Sawyer Archive: https://archive.org/details/TVPROGRAM-ABC_World_News_With_Diane_Sawyer