cannabisnews.com: U.S. Identified Baptists' Plane as Drug Carrier





U.S. Identified Baptists' Plane as Drug Carrier
Posted by FoM on April 22, 2001 at 09:08:46 PT
By Irvin Molotsky
Source: New York Times
The airplane carrying American missionaries that was shot down on Friday in Peru had been mistakenly identified as a carrier of contraband drugs, a State Department official said tonight. The official declined to say whether the mistake was made by a United States aircraft, but there was American surveillance plane in the area that was communicating with Peruvian military aircraft.A missionary and her infant daughter were killed when the plane, a Cessna 185, was downed by fire from a Peruvian Air Force fighter jet.
The United States surveillance flights were suspended pending an investigation of the incident."An unarmed U.S. government tracking aircraft was in the area and provided location data for the subsequent intercept mission that was conducted by the Peruvian Air Force," the State Department official said.The United States and Peru have had a long-standing project in which American spotters inform Peruvian interceptors when they spot what they think are drug runners.Those killed in the downing of the American plane were Veronica Bowers, 35, a missionary with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, and her daughter, Charity, 7 months old.The Rev. E. C. Haskell, a spokesman for the association, which is based in Morgantown, Pa., said that the missionaries' pilot, Kevin Donaldson, was wounded.Ms. Bowers's husband, Jim, 37, and their son, Cory, 6, were also on the plane and were not wounded, Mr. Haskell said.The United States Customs Service flies surveillance planes into what it calls the "source zone" for drugs, but a spokesman, Dennis Murphy, said today that his agency's planes were not involved in tracking the missionaries' plane on Friday. A Customs Service radar plane based in the Caribbean was flying in Colombia on Friday, but it was far north of the path taken by the Cessna 185 and did not observe it, Mr. Murphy said.The Customs Service has a P-3, a four-engine turboprop, the same kind of plane that the Navy uses to track enemy submarines, based in the Caribbean. Normal practice for the Customs Service is that once a radar plane locates a suspicious plane in flight, it radios for a Citation, a smaller plane that can fly at low speeds, to observe the target visually. Both the radar plane and the observation plane carry a representative from the host country, said Mr. Murphy, who communicates directly with the air force of the country involved.Recently, he said, the observation plane saw a small plane land on a dirt strip, and saw bales being loaded unto mules; ground forces from the host country arrived in time to intercept the drugs, he said.The State Department official said tonight: "We are very saddened by this tragic accident and extend our sympathy and condolences to the family, their friends and relatives."The official said that the downed plane was flying in northern Peru near the Colombia border, flying from Leticia, Colombia, toward Iquitos, Peru. Colombia has long been a major source of cocaine and other drugs reaching the United States, prompting the United States surveillance flights in the region."Pending a thorough investigation and review by Peruvian and U.S. officials of how this tragic incident took place, the provision of location data by the U.S. and the conduct of intradiction flights have been suspended," the State Department official said.The official said: "For a number of years, the United States has provided assistance to Peru in detecting and monitoring suspect aircraft passing through designated airspace in an effort to stem the flow of illegal drugs. This is a United States government program in which a number of U.S. agencies are involved, including the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Drug Enforcement Administration and others."Peruvian authorities are responsible for identifying the aircraft and deciding on any action. We are working closely with Peruvian authorities to determine exactly how this tragic incident took place."Earlier today, before the State Department had issued its statement, at the gathering of Western Hemisphere nations in Quebec, President Bush said: "The United States is certainly upset by the fact that two citizens lost their lives. I will wait to see all the facts before I reach any conclusions about blame."Source: New York Times (NY) Author: Irvin MolotskyPublished: April 22, 2001Copyright: 2001 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.com Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/ Related Articles:U.S. Notified Peru Of Suspect Plane http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9448.shtmlAmericans Shot Down Over Peru 2 Killedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9439.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by Revolutionary30.06 on April 22, 2001 at 18:12:38 PT
Damn evangelists
Too bad more innocents are dead because of the drug war. But maybe it's not such a bad thing. I mean those evangelists are just as bad as the antis. They steal money from poor people who really need it and then corrupt them with their bullshit religions. I hope more of them are shot down by Peruvians acting on DEA tips.Just my opinion.
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Comment #2 posted by Brandon on April 22, 2001 at 12:28:09 PT:
Its come to this
Isn't it sad that it takes a tragic event like this to bring to our attention the extremes that our country goes, to continue this war on drugs? This 20 year old war is an escalating loss, both to our government and our people. Lives are being destroyed by this neverending war on drugs. But hey what the hell, go light up a cigarette, destroy your lungs slowly, and join the other almost half million people that die from tobacco use every year. This is not a war on drugs, its a war on some drugs. The only way you hear about someone dying from smoking a joint is if a cop sees that person and shoots them. Its time for new policy. Changetheclimate.org
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Comment #1 posted by JJM on April 22, 2001 at 12:26:58 PT
drug war - crime against humanity
war is crime, drug war is crime against humanityIt is time for the drug war to end with Charity (Charity is the reported name of the infant killed in this foolish wod action.)Someone please start the Drug War Crime Victims Fund
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