CHEERS & JEERS: DEADLY ENDANGERMENT IN THE DRUG WAR

Thumbs down: A State Department report on what caused the deaths of
two Americans -- a woman and her infant child -- in a missionary
plane shot down in Peru last April has confirmed what seemed apparent
at the time: There was a tragic breakdown in communication between a
Peruvian fighter plane and a U.S. drug surveillance plane, and a
failure to follow prescribed procedures and exercise caution before
firing at innocents.

A videotape with audio recording released as part of the report made
clear that the U.S. plane's crew did sense early on that the civilian
plane and its movements did not fit the profile of a drug-trafficking
craft. But the Americans and Peruvians involved did not speak each
other's language well enough to avoid misunderstandings. The Peruvian
pilot, for whatever reason, failed to hold off as urged repeatedly by
the U.S. crew via a Peruvian liaison officer on the U.S. plane.

The drug interdiction program should be discontinued, at least until
everyone engaged can converse comfortably in both English and Spanish
and understands that shooting down planes ought to be a last resort.
Beyond that, Congress ought to focus on the larger question of
whether it's worth the risks inherent in shooting down planes based
on profiles rather than actual evidence of serious criminal activity.
These deaths didn't have to happen.