CIA program murdered suspected drug smugglers
The lede of this story is that the CIA helped down the wrong plane in 2001 and lied about it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112002011.html?nav=rss_nation An internal CIA probe has concluded that agency officials deliberately misled Congress, the White House and federal prosecutors about key details of the 2001 downing of an airplane carrying U.S. missionaries in Peru, according to a senior lawmaker who called yesterday for a new criminal inquiry into the case.
The agency's inspector general said CIA officers repeatedly ignored rules of engagement in a joint U.S.-Peruvian campaign to halt airborne drug smugglers, resulting in the downing of at least 10 other aircraft without proper warnings. Afterward, CIA managers concealed the problems from lawmakers and the Justice Department, the agency watchdog said.
That's bad enough. Far more outrageous is the revelation that
the CIA was systematically engaged in a program to shoot down planes on the mere suspicion that they were carrying drugs.Even if they guess correctly, that's
cold blooded murder. The controversial anti-drug program operated from 1995 to 2001 to assist Peru in stopping drug traffickers from ferrying narcotics through the country's airspace. CIA officers in small planes would track flights by suspected drug runners before alerting Peruvian fighter pilots, who would swoop in for the kill. WAPO
more at:
http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/11/cia-program-mur.html