SHELBY: ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM IN DOUBT

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman cast doubt
Tuesday on the future of what he called a "very valuable"
anti-drug-trafficking program in Peru that led to the downing of a plane
carrying American missionaries in which a woman and her daughter were killed.

"When you lose a young woman and her child because of a lack of
communication, I believe, among other things, it's just too much," Sen.
Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said after a secret briefing by CIA Director George
Tenet.

He praised President Bush (news - web sites) for suspending the program, in
which CIA workers conduct surveillance over drug-growing areas of Peru and
point out potential drug-trafficking planes to Peruvian air force
authorities, who then decide what to do about it.

Shelby, like Bush administration officials before him, indicated the
problem stemmed from the Peruvians improperly "accelerating" procedures,
not taking all the steps needed to determine whether the pontoon plane
carrying the family of four and a pilot was involved in drug trafficking.

He indicated that Americans didn't skip any steps.

"I don't believe that the Americans accelerated the shoot-down of
anything," Shelby said. "The American role ... was to provide information
and they have not had a role in whether or not an interception takes place.
That is up to Peru."

The CIA crew contacted its base in Peru when it became clear the Peruvians
were set to shoot down the plane, a U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday
night, speaking on condition of anonymity. The crew described what was
going on and related their uneasiness with what was happening, he said.

The downing occurred at most two minutes later, the official said, adding
that the crew could do little since it was not in a position to tell the
Peruvians what to do.

Peru's prime minister, meanwhile, said Tuesday it was too early to lay
blame for the downing.

"I think that for the moment it would be premature to say that Peru's air
force was responsible or that the pilot of the plane was responsible," said
Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was in New York.

Tenet said his investigation should be done within 48 hours, Shelby said,
adding that the pilots have not yet been debriefed and he wants to hear the
Peruvians' side.

Despite Shelby's misgivings, the U.S. surveillance flights could resume in
a few weeks as the United States tries to prevent drug traffickers from
taking advantage of a lull in enforcement, said a State Department
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Within the next few days, U.S. officials are expected to leave for Lima to
talk with Peruvians about Friday's downing.

A surveillance plane owned by the U.S. Air Force and operated by three CIA
contract employees accompanied by a Peruvian technician, spotted the
missionaries' plane and called it to the attention of the Peruvian military.

U.S. officials have said the Peruvians failed to take all the required
steps - such as checking out the plane's identification number and
signaling it to land - before ordering the plane shot down. Killed was
missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, and her adopted 7-month-old
daughter, Charity. Her husband Jim and their 6-year-old son, Cory,
survived, as did pilot Kevin Donaldson, who was wounded and in fair
condition Tuesday after undergoing surgery on both legs.

The Peruvians have said they took all necessary steps, but the plane's
occupants failed to respond to radio messages.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., praised the U.S.-Peruvian efforts since the
mid-1990s to reduce cocaine production by virtually closing the so-called
"air bridge" between Peruvian coca growing areas and Colombian cocaine
production sites. Peru's coca cultivation has dropped dramatically.

"It's a very strict policy, and, to be frank, a very successful policy of
restricting drug trafficking - a shoot-first, ask-questions-later policy,"
said Chafee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, narcotics and terrorism. "One ingredient
of its success was its severity. It drove the trafficking out of Peru."