MAKE LANGUAGE SKILLS A MUST FOR CIA PILOTS IN DRUG WAR

Catching drug traffickers is important, but so is protecting innocent
lives. Until the mistakes that took two innocent lives are corrected,
Washington should not renew joint drug interdiction efforts in the
Andes.

One of these mistakes involves language skills.

CIA-contract pilots on a surveillance plane in April were unable to
speak Spanish well enough to warn Peruvian pilots they were making a
mistake by firing on a plane that turned out to be carrying American
missionaries and two young children. Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-
old daughter, Charity, died in the attack.

A Peruvian liaison official on the tracking flight was required to
speak English. But an investigation shows that as stress levels rose,
American and Peruvian personnel were unable to understand each other.

Even if certain Peruvians are required to speak English to be in the
interdiction program, it is a mistake not to require American
personnel on foreign assignment to be fluent in the language of that
country. This should be even more pressing for a job that involves
life-or-death decisions such as drug interdiction and air
surveillance.

The Bush administration must now decide whether to renew its joint
drug interdiction program with Peru and Colombia, which was suspended
after the April shootdown.

Drug flights may be going undetected for the moment. But it is more
important to guarantee that innocent people are not going to be shot
out of the sky.