WHITE HOUSE WALKS FINE LINE ON BLAME IN PERU CRASH

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday walked a fine line between
absolving a CIA surveillance crew of blame and pointing the finger at Peru
in the fatal downing of a plane carrying U.S. missionaries.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the U.S. tracking crew
of CIA contract employees had followed proper procedures in identifying the
plane flying over Peru as a possible drug carrier.

But he said it was obvious that not all proper procedures had been followed
in the incident. Missionary Roni Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter,
Charity, were killed on Friday when a Peruvian Air Force jet mistook the
small aircraft for a drug plane and opened fire.

"Obviously, something went wrong and lives were lost in a program that is
meant to fight the war on drugs," Fleischer said.

"We are working constructively with our Peruvian allies to determine
exactly how this happened, what took place, and we're doing so in an
atmosphere of cooperation. And the Peruvians expressed their sorrow about
the accident, and we will continue to investigate and gather facts in that
vein," he said.

Washington was not seeking to blame anyone for the plane's downing, which
Fleischer described as an "isolated incident" in the drug interdiction
program begun in 1994, Fleischer said.

The program, under which some 30 planes involved in the drug trade have
been brought down, has been suspended pending an investigation into the mishap.

No Interest In Assigning Blame

"The president's not interested in assigning blame. The president is
interested in making certain that we don't let it happen again," he said.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after identifying the plane
as a possible drug smuggler, "our folks did raise questions and were trying
to hold the Peruvians back from action."

But he noted it was up to Peru to make the final identification of the
plane and decide whether to shoot it down.

Asked whether the U.S. surveillance team had followed program rules,
Fleischer said, "According to the information that we have received so far,
that is yes."

The plane crash-landed into the Amazon River. Bowers' husband, Jim, and
son, Cory, survived along with the pilot, Kevin Donaldson. The missionaries
were members of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.

Boucher said the U.S. team typically provides the Peruvians with location
data about planes flying without flight plans in a drug-trafficking region.

Peru has said the Bowers' plane had no flight plan. The Baptist association
published on its Web site on Monday what it said was the properly filed
flight plan of the doomed plane.

"We feel certainly that someone should have known about that flight,"
Michael Loftis, president of the missionary group, told ABC's "Good Morning
America."

Roni Bowers' parents said on the same program that they did not blame
anyone for their daughter's death and that it was "God's plan."

"We have no animosity in our hearts at all toward anyone. This is God's
plan and it was time for our daughter to go to heaven with her baby and
this is what it is," John Luttig, father of Roni Bowers, said.

Fleischer said senior Bush aide Karl Rove had called Baptist church
officials on Sunday to convey the president's condolences.

"The White House was in contact with the national Baptist organization
(which) heard that President (George W.) Bush expressed his condolences....
It was an expression of sorrow about the accident and an expression of
desire to help in any way," he said.