CIA Escapes Charges in Peru Plane Downing

[seafan]

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors have decided not to seek criminal charges against CIA (news - web sites) officers who were part of an antidrug operation that was involved in the downing of a missionary plane in Peru and the deaths of two Americans in 2001.



Justice Department (news - web sites) officials have until now not even acknowledged that they were investigating potential misconduct by the intelligence officers, including whether they lied to lawmakers who were looking into the incident and the interdiction program. But on Saturday, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said, "We declined a criminal prosecution earlier this week."


Among other things, prosecutors examined what CIA officials told the Senate intelligence committee in 2001, Sierra said.


A Pennsylvania-based missionary group's Cessna float plane was shot down by a Peruvian jet in April 2001 after a CIA-operated surveillance plane misidentified it as a possible drug-smuggling flight. At the last moment, the contractors tried in vain to prevent the Peruvian pilots from opening fire.


Veronica Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, Mich., and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050205/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/missionary_plane_investigation&e=2