VIDEO: CIA bungled drug operation sees missionary flight shot down

February 04, 2010 10:34am

DRAMATIC video has emerged showing a bungled CIA drug operation that led to Peruvian fighter jets shooting down a light plane carrying American missionaries.

The disturbing 2001 surveillance plane footage, aired on America's ABC News, shows the Peruvian fighters opening fire on a floatplane being shadowed by a CIA aircraft.

The fighters opened up on the missionary flight despite CIA officers having serious concerns about whether or not the plane they were following was carrying drugs.

The ABC report on a CIA cover-up of the tragedy said that the pilot of the floatplane carrying a family of US missionaries, the Bowers, had been on a different radio frequency to that being used by the Peruvian fighters and did not hear their warning.

The footage shows that when the pilot realised military jets were targeting him, he issued a desperate plea to air traffic control - but the jets opened fire anyway, despite voice recordings from the CIA plane showing those on board had serious doubts that they were following a drug flight.

The light plane crash landed in a river and two of those on board, Veronica Bowers and her daughter Charity, were dead from bullet wounds.

The pilot was wounded in both legs, ABC reported.

For more on this story, visit ABC News.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by TrainDispatcher]

That's really sad. Poor people must have been so scared. It seemed to me more of the blame should be placed with the trigger happy Peruvian pilots. I know the CIA operatives should have prevented this but they definately disagreed that the plane was a 'bandito'.

I wonder what happened to the father? Is there any recourse one can take in a situation like this?

The peruvian jet fighter was trigger happy on this one. Basing the decision of Bandito vs Amigo based on the flight plan or lack thereof. When the Bowers plane turned to the right after being engaged, it was all over. Seriously, why would the CIA even care about a drug operation in a foreign country? All it did was hype the peruvian fighters to take extreme measures based on bad intelligence. It's the equivilent of a high speed chase thru the middle of a major city.... Somebody is going to get hurt. Nobody will ever be brought to justice on this one. God Bless that family.

Wow, can't even imagine (and don't want to, to be quite frank) what that must have been like for the passnegers of a relief plane

Nice one for puting this up, it should be seen.

This is murder.

edit- Sorry TrainDispatcher, where did you get the blurb from, is there a news link for this too? (it's not in the youtube blurb) I'd like to repost this elsewhere, in a place where reputable links only will do.

edit again, it's ok, I was being lazy, I found the ABC link



[edit on 4/2/2010 by Acidtastic]

Originally posted by mapsurfer_
All it did was hype the peruvian fighters to take extreme measures based on bad intelligence.

Kind of like convincing the world to invade Iraq.

We're all little pawns in some stupid game the fed is playing.

Waco, Weaver, this family, who knows how many wars and skirmishes, all because the fed gets bored from time to time and needs to kill some of us or at a minimum make our lives unlivable.

If the CIA didnt do anything wrong what's with the cover-ups and mock disciplinary action? Giving them a pass is like giving the pass to a guy who drove his armed buddies to a bank robbery. Hey, man, I knew the plan and saw the ski masks and rifles but I didnt rob the bank. I just drove the car.

This pissed me off too much to stop. For every door that's been kicked in by cops or feds on a"hunch" and every person that's been shot down for a wrong address or a "suspicious" delivery, everytime simple refusal to play the game has resulted in a SWAT raid.

There is no reason whatsoever any person or persons should have the ability to invade, assault, kill, detain, arrest, anyone or anyone's property.

Folks rail night and day against the death penalty because some innocent guy might be killed. How is this any different? The lives of completely innocent people are destroyed everyday by government agents. Acceptable losses?

[edit on 4-2-2010 by thisguyrighthere]

Originally posted by mapsurfer_
Seriously, why would the CIA even care about a drug operation in a foreign country?

So there "product" gets to the us safely and any planes from other cartels get shot down

Idiots! The controllers couldn't even speak Spanish that was the main reason for the miscommunication, negligent idiots: if your going to have people in target aquisition that don't even speak the same language theres going to be trouble. I was a victim of freindly fire in Vietnam so this vid really ticked me off and brought back allot of anger. If everybody at least spoke the same tongue this might not have happened. Really tragic. They ought to call the CIA an Idiot Agency and not an Intellegence Agency. Man..........I wonder sometimes. My thoughts and heart go out to the family. Peace

Tragic story.

Since when does any military or agency have a right to shoot down small planes in third world countries?

Couldn't they check it out when they land or am I just being naive here?

When people are de-humanized as happens in a war,these things happen.Another product of prohibition.The language issue has disaster writ large.It's not a war on drugs,it's a war on people.

The fault is OURS!! the USA pours money into the hands of the rulers and then gets to pressure the locals, kill at will, and get away with it. The CIA is a renegade outfit, was never supposed to get a powerful as it is, and now runs the system and uses vast sums to do bad things worldwide.

The Peruvians would never have shot that plane down if WE had not been down there insisting on stopping the CIA's competitors from seeling their coke...the CIA wants all the money.

Originally posted by ablue07
Idiots! The controllers couldn't even speak Spanish that was the main reason for the miscommunication, negligent idiots: if your going to have people in target aquisition that don't even speak the same language theres going to be trouble. I was a victim of freindly fire in Vietnam so this vid really ticked me off and brought back allot of anger. If everybody at least spoke the same tongue this might not have happened. Really tragic. They ought to call the CIA an Idiot Agency and not an Intellegence Agency. Man..........I wonder sometimes. My thoughts and heart go out to the family. Peace

I thought that the international language for all air traffic and control towers was english. Otherwise an airline pilot would need to learn multiple languages. It is not like they need to be fluent as all the radio calls and directions are pretty standard. I can understand the fighter pilots initial warning call being in their native lamguage, BUT it should have also been repeated in english. Considering the pilot obviously spoke their language since his calls were not in english , I do not think we can blame this on not speaking english. This one is on the CIA in my opinion for providing false intel to the Peruvian military. Perhaps the CIA budget could be spent on more important tasks such as rebuilding the USA. I wonder how much the CIA and other black operations are budgeted each year?

Just legalize drugs and the cartels along with all the violence dissapear.

Originally posted by TinFoilBat

Originally posted by mapsurfer_
Seriously, why would the CIA even care about a drug operation in a foreign country?

So there "product" gets to the us safely and any planes from other cartels get shot down

As hard as it is,we, the "enlightened members of ATS" have a responsibility to inform our walking dead friends, neighbors and families that the CIA of our government is in the business of peddling dope.

The international drug war is a cover for the CIA cartel. Afghanistan is all about Heroin. Our soldiers are dying, innocent civillians are dying and addiction and incarceration levels have not gone down.

As a matter of fact, heroin keeps getting stronger and cheaper. More college kids are strung out than ever. One of my best friend's kid just got booted from Duke U. He says plenty of kids are shooting dope on campus.

His life is ruined due to his record. All this so a few scumbags can get rich.

I say legalize everything.

I have no time to write a detailed post of what i just saw however i just want to say those people sounded way too inexpeirenced for that kind of job.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by jonnyc55]

Daniel Hopsicker has got the skinny on the CIA drug flight bungles

www.madcowprod.com...

HA! If the CIA had never been down there sniffin around like always acting like theyre untouchable then this would never have happened. Its a shame for the "missionaries" in plane in front of them but thats the CIA for you, ALWAYS using innocent ppl as bait.

And considering im half peruvian, this brought a HUGE smile on my face today. Que Viva Peru CARAJO!! Thanks OP!!!

Wow I had assumed that the missionaries WERE the CIA drug dealers. The CIA has a long documented history of using missionaries -- hiring missionaries -- to fly their planes. Makes a great cover and missionaries are notoriously patriotic.

reply to post by Zeta Reticuli

reply to post by TrainDispatcher

S&F! What the CIA doesn't have better communication equiptment after all the money they get from tax payers? please! You know they have access to the best devices around. I'm sick of these stupid excuses by our government.

Idiot spooks can't even speak Spanish. You would think they could hire a Spanish speaking agent for duty in South America. I pay taxes for this? As usual, nobody is reprimanded.

When I see/read stories like this, I can't help bet wonder what the ratio of truth to disinformation is.

I wonder about the authenticity of the tape. Like has it been tampered/edited? It's supposedly from 2001, so it's 9 years old. Hmmm...

Why was the CIA there? What really was their purpose there? Were those really missionaries, or something completely different? Is that really a Peruvian airforce plane? Is the backstory a cover story?

Hard for me to trust anything about the story we've been told about this one.