ANTI-DRUG FLIGHTS MAY RESUME THIS YEAR

CIA Role Limited; Rules Tightened

The Bush administration expects to resume drug interdiction flights in Peru
and Colombia this year, roughly 18 months after the mistaken downing of a
civilian aircraft and its American missionary passengers, U.S. officials
announced yesterday.

Strict procedures are being drafted to prevent a repeat of the fatal April
2001 incident, a senior administration official said, and a State
Department employee will be aboard each flight to monitor the safety
checklist and participate in high-risk decisions.

CIA contract pilots no longer will fly the surveillance aircraft, and the
CIA itself will have no role in the interdiction operation beyond
intelligence-gathering. Peruvian and Colombian government pilots will take
the controls of nine refurbished Cessna Citations that the United States
will provide under State Department supervision.

The final decision to attack an aircraft will lie with the Peruvian and
Colombian military. High-level officers will be designated for the job,
said the official, who reported that training of participants in future
missions will begin soon.

Congress and the Bush administration alike have blamed inattention, loose
procedures and poor communications for a Peruvian fighter pilot's decision
to fire on the civilian single-engine Cessna above the Amazon River.
Bullets killed Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter and triggered the
suspension of a narcotics interdiction program that began in 1994.

The administration expected to release a report on the incident within
weeks but spent a year reviewing the situation and planning for a
resumption of operations, a timetable the official ascribed to "due
deliberation." Further negotiations will take place with the Peruvian and
Colombian governments over the details of the new policy and the precise
roles of each participant.

Flights will not resume until President Bush approves.

"People wanted to make sure at every level that we got this right," said
the U.S. official, who talked on condition of anonymity. "The last thing
this administration wants to do is to reinitiate the program and have a
recurrence of the tragedy of last April."

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence called for a radical
improvement of safety measures in October, with committee chairman Bob
Graham (D-Fla.) saying procedures had slipped so far that "this kind of
tragedy was almost inevitable." He said the interdiction program needed a
"dramatic overhaul" before it could be restarted.

A precise series of rules existed when the program began in Peru in 1994.
Pilots followed a set sequence to identify, contact and warn a potential
drug-smuggling aircraft before firing shots. But investigators discovered
that, as the years went by, participants took short-cuts and the procedures
"became less detailed and explicit," according to a report released by the
State Department.

The CIA operated the air surveillance program in Peru, while the U.S.
Customs Service ran the operation in Colombia. Studies of the Peruvian
situation showed that training of the American and Peruvian participants
was insufficient and the oversight by central governments was limited.
Although their decisions could mean life or death, the participants often
did not speak one another's language fluently.

In the 2001 downing, the Peruvian pursuer followed the Cessna for nearly 45
minutes without making its presence or intentions clear. The fighter pilot
did not fly ahead and waggle its wings, an international aviation signal to
land. A warning broadcast from the CIA surveillance plane to missionary
pilot Kevin Donaldson went unanswered because Donaldson was using a
separate high-frequency radio at the time.

The Peruvian military pilot fired warning shots, but Donaldson could not
see them. No one checked the registration number of Donaldson's plane. When
the fighter then opened fire, Donaldson was wounded in both legs but
managed to land the aircraft. Bowers's husband, Jim, and their 7-year-old
son, Cory, were unhurt. The administration recently announced it would
settle their claim for damages.