CIA GROUNDS MISSIONS IN COLOMBIA AND PERU

The CIA has grounded its joint anti-drug missions over Colombia as well
as Peru, imposing a total freeze on the airborne search for drug
smugglers over the cocaine-rich Andean region of South America, U.S.
officials disclosed Wednesday.

The suspension, a major setback in the U.S. war against narcotraffickers
in Latin America, was triggered by a Peruvian Air Force attack on a
plane full of missionaries that killed two U.S. citizens Friday.

Colombian officials decried the suspension. ``This is serious for
everybody because it will permit drug traffickers to operate with a
certain freedom,'' said Air Force Gen. Hector Velasco.

Colombia's program was ``significantly larger'' than Peru's, according
to a U.S. official who spoke on condition he not be identified. Citing
security concerns, he refused to quantify the number of surveillance
flights or intercepts.

Colombia authorities have destroyed 48 suspected narcotrafficking planes
over the past three years, Velasco said, adding that ``about 20'' were
flights first detected by U.S. authorities. Some were shot down, others
destroyed on the ground.

``We have a variety of programs as part of our overall counter-narcotics
support with countries in the region, but pending this investigation we
suspended that specific aerial intercept program,'' said State
Department spokesman Philip Reeker.

No U.S. official would even guess at a timetable for resumption of the
flights.

The U.S. halted the airborne drug war after a Peruvian jet mistook a
Cessna carrying American missionaries for a drug-running plane on April
20, shooting it down.

American evangelist Veronica Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter,
Charity, were killed. Pilot Kevin Donaldson, 41, who was shot in both
legs, ditched the float plane in the Amazon River, saving himself,
Bowers' husband Jim, 37, and their 6-year-old son Cory.

A U.S. intelligence plane carrying three CIA contract workers and a
Peruvian military liaison officer helped guide the Peruvian jet in for
the attack.

In the days since, U.S. and Peruvian officials have wrangled over
whether the shoot-down followed an elaborate set of procedures required
before a suspected plane can be fired on in the sky.

U.S. intelligence sources say the CIA contractors disagreed with the
Peruvians over whether the missionary plane was a legitimate target.
They said the Peruvian pilot rushed to open fire without sufficiently
seeking to identify the plane, ground it or warn its occupants.

Peru claims that it followed all procedures; an air force spokesman
called the episode a ``lamentable accident in which two people died.''

New questions emerged Wednesday on whether the CIA contractors were
fluent in Spanish. ``There have got to be better procedures and better
lines of communication,'' said Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of
Alabama, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Shelby summoned CIA Director George Tenet on Thursday to discuss the
investigation's findings and the programs future.

Under the Andean Interdiction program, the United States has negotiated
agreements with Colombia and Peru to share intelligence, separately, to
help them crush drug traffickers.

State Department and administration spokesmen said that over a five-year
period Peru had shot down or forced down 30 suspected drug aircraft with
U.S. cooperation.

The Bush administration announced this weekend that it placed a halt on
U.S. surveillance flights over Peru.

The U.S. ambassador to Bogota, Anne Patterson, almost simultaneously
ordered a cessation of CIA airborne operations in Colombia as well, a
State Department official said.

But, because the focus had been on Peru, the first word of the freeze
emerged Wednesday at a State Department news briefing.

Patterson, a career diplomat, ``made the decision on Friday but the word
had not gotten around until Saturday,'' the State Department official
said.

In Washington, retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey said the United
States was right to halt the flights even if drug traffickers
reestablished an air corridor.

``We cant tolerate a situation in both Peru and Colombia where they
don't comply with their own laws and international laws,'' said
McCaffrey, a West Point instructor who was drug czar under President
Clinton.

In the House of Representatives, Florida Republican Rep. Porter Goss of
Sanibel said mishaps may be inevitable. ``Can we guarantee a 100 percent
risk-free program? No, we can't,'' said Goss, who chairs the House
Intelligence Committee, after he was briefed by CIA Director Tenet.