cannabisnews.com: Peru Counters U.S. Allegations Peru Counters U.S. Allegations Posted by FoM on April 23, 2001 at 21:36:20 PT By Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service Source: Washington Post Countering U.S. suggestions of blame, a Peruvian official declared today that a Peruvian pilot and his control officers followed agreed procedure "to the letter" in shooting down a private plane carrying American missionaries.The contention, from an officer with access to the air force command, represented the beginning of a defense against suggestions by U.S. officials that Peruvians acted hastily and without proper notification Friday morning in shooting down the plane, killing a woman and her 7-month-old daughter. "There were definitely passes made, more than one," the air force officer said, referring to attempts the Peruvian A-37 warplane made to contact the missionaries' smaller Cessna 185 visually. "The flight crew followed all international rules to the letter, but there are still various issues that must be investigated to determine what happened."The officer's comments followed pointed words today from the Bush administration on what went wrong in the process of engagement, which began with notification from a CIA-run surveillance plane and ended in the downing of the missionary aircraft on the Amazon River more than 600 miles northeast of Lima.While acknowledging that the CIA-run aircraft pointed out the missionary plane as a possible drug-trafficking flight, the U.S. government has acted quickly to place the blame on the Peruvian military, saying the pilot and his control officers skipped intermediary steps that might have properly identified the aircraft.The pontoon plane was carrying five Americans, including two children, when it was intercepted over the Amazon on a clear morning. According to survivor accounts, the Peruvian jet fired on the plane without warning the pilot by radio or making its presence known visually. Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, and her baby, Charity, were killed by gunfire from the Peruvian jet.Since the incident, U.S. officials have suspended surveillance flights over the busy drug-smuggling corridor, which for years have provided information to Peruvian interceptors. The exchange today suggested that a debate over the future of such intelligence assistance may be in the offing.Peruvian officials did not present any evidence to refute U.S. allegations that the pilot skipped intermediate steps before firing on the plane. Nor did they offer evidence to refute the U.S. assertion that the surveillance plane crew issued warnings to delay any attack pending identification of the missionaries' aircraft.The air force official here said military investigators are trying to determine why the A-37 and the floatplane were unable to communicate in the moments proceeding the shooting. The missionary pilot, Kevin Donaldson, has a decade of experience flying over Peru's eastern jungles and has told investigators he followed all procedures.He said he filed a flight plan and made radio contact with the two towers in the area -- in Iquitos, his destination, and in Leticia, Colombia -- before and during his flight. The missionaries' sponsor, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, posted on its Web site a copy of what it described as the flight plan.But the Peruvian air force official said "perhaps he [Donaldson] did not understand" what the Peruvian jet pilot was trying to tell him with passes by his plane. Jim Bowers, whose wife and daughter were killed in the shooting, has told investigators that no passes were made before the jet began firing.The air force official also said that investigators are trying to determine what frequency Donaldson had the plane's radio tuned to. The pilot has said he heard nothing on the radio."What happened? Did the pilot have it on the wrong frequency?" the officer said.The Peruvian air force maintained that Donaldson tried to evade the A-37. Donaldson, who underwent surgery on both legs today in his native Pennsylvania, has told his family that he steered the plane toward the Amazon River to land it as quickly as possible after it was hit. Note: Official Says Fighter Pilot Followed Procedure 'to the Letter'Source: Washington Post (DC) Author: Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2001; Page A15Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com/Related Articles:CIA Failed to Identify Plane Downed in Peru http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9473.shtmlAdministration Suggests Peru Cut Cornershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9471.shtmlWe're Being Shot At! http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9464.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by lookinside on April 24, 2001 at 20:37:05 PT: sanity? our government has become an "ongoing criminal enterprise",with many thousands of conspirators...as a side note, has anyone looked into the bush familyfortunes since gas prices have gone through the roof?($2.00per gallon here in california) maybe an extremely thoroughaudit of the various bush enterprises is in order...withLOTS of publicity! might be as good as the OJ trial... [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by dddd on April 24, 2001 at 05:59:41 PT Thanx Dan I appreciate the clarification.I knew you were hep towhat I was saying,,,I just over-rambled on it...Peace............dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Dan B on April 24, 2001 at 04:12:05 PT: Of course you're right, dddd What I meant by my post was that they have had, so far, only one other official "mistake" (which means that there was only one other time that news leaked out about the real nature of "shoot first, ask questions later" policy). The intention of my second paragraph was to indicate that I don't believe these are the only incidents in which the Peruvian military (or the American military, for that matter) has shot down a plane without following "proper" precedure. They've just been lucky in the past that the planes they have shot down in cold blood were, in fact, carrying some amount of "drugs." Otherwise, they would have encountered more scrutiny of these incidents.My point, at any rate, is that it is not okay to shoot planes out of the sky simply because someone thinks they might be carrying drugs. There are far safer methods of handling these situations, and shooting people out of the sky for suspicion of carrying drugs is, in the simplest of terms, murder. By the way, the fact that these missions are not allowed to proceed outside Peruvian air space indicates to me that the surrounding countries are not in agreement with American-imposed drug war policies. I find this amusing since the American government would have its citizens believe otherwise.Hope this clarifies what I was saying. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by dddd on April 24, 2001 at 02:18:49 PT Beware... You sound quite confident that there was only one other "mistake",indowning planes in the past.In my opinion,the number could be much higher.I have zero confidence in the credibility of "news",and,"facts",from thegovernment,or the media.If these missionaries would have exploded inthe air,and were burned to a crisp,it would have barely made the news,and the story would have blamed it on the FARC,mistaking it for a planethat was raining Roundup........No one really knows what the f*ck is goingon down there,and the best liars money can buy,are in charge of mediacontrol for the US government.,,,,They will spin their way out of this oneand the public will be led to end up placing the blame on,"drugs",,not thenoble and innocent Drug war natzis,,,nope,,the valiant drug warriors aresimply trying to save the children from drugs...........................ddddisillusioned despondent disgusted disgruntled [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Dan B on April 24, 2001 at 01:52:43 PT: The Reason This Incident Happened This incident is a direct result of America allowing pilots to shoot down planes suspected of drug trafficking. So far, they have been "lucky." They have only made "a mistake" on one other occasion, and that plane turned out to have had "drugs" on board, so it was okay to kill the people on board in cold blood.That fact is that America has let Peruvian pilots get away with shooting down planes in this way in the past because those planes had drugs on board. If the Peruvian military was cutting corners, you can bet that they had a long pattern of cut corners prior to this incident. They just happened to get caught on this one, and the result is that two people, a young woman and the baby she was carrying on her lap, are dead, and a young man won't walk for at least another year.This is absolutely disgraceful. It is time for the American government to take some responsibility for its own actions. The American government is killing people, and instead of accepting responsibility and changing their ways, they are looking to place blame elsewhere.Dan B [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: