PANEL WANTS CIA OUT OF DRUG FLIGHTS

The CIA should no longer run U.S. drug interdiction flights over Peru if
they are resumed, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence recommends.

The committee blamed errors by the Peruvian military and poor U.S.
management of the interdiction program for the April 20 accidental downing
of a Baptist missionary flight that was misidentified as a drug-smuggling
flight. Two people were killed and three others survived. U.S. officials
then suspended the interdiction program and a similar effort in Colombia.

"The lack of judgment displayed by key individuals involved was the primary
factor leading to this disaster," committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.)
said in a statement accompanying the release of the report yesterday.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby, (Ala.), the committee's ranking Republican, said
the CIA was at fault.

"The primary culprit in this case was lax management. Established safety
procedures were permitted to erode unchecked for a period of years. CIA
officials, from the program manager to the director [George J. Tenet],
failed to properly manage this program, with tragic results," Shelby said
in a statement.

The committee has primary oversight of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The CIA had no immediate comment, a spokesman said. The report said the
Customs Service or the military could take over the program because it is
now known to the public, and the CIA is "normally associated with secret
programs."