WASHINGTON — With the help of CIA spotters, the Peruvian air force shot down 15 small civilian aircraft suspected of carrying drugs, in many cases without warning and within two to three minutes of being sighted, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.
It is 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 into the incident at the time said the Peruvian fighter jets forced another 23 planes to land.
Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra 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 or could not be examined to ascertain whether narcotics were onboard the aircraft.
Shoot first, ask questions later – it’s a drug war tactic as old as Prohibition. Let’s suppose that the fourteen other planes that weren’t carrying a missionary and her baby were really carrying large amounts of drugs. Does that justify the execution of the pilot and passengers with no proof or trial? We don’t even have the death penalty for drug dealers and traffickers until they’re tried and convicted for amounts in the 60 metric tons and $20 million range, and even then it is only for the kingpin of a continuing criminal enterprise.
