PRACTICE OF SHOOTING DOWN DRUG PLANES IN PERU SEEMS SIDELINED

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 -- The Bush administration should not resume its policy
of helping shoot down planes suspected of carrying drugs over Peru until
safety procedures are radically improved, the Senate Intelligence Committee
said today. The committee's conclusion has the practical effect of
indefinitely sidelining a seven-year-old program run by the Peruvian Air
Force and the Central Intelligence Agency to halt drug flights over Peru.
The program was suspended in April after a Peruvian jet fighter shot down an
American missionary flight, killing two.

Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat and the committee chairman, said that
Peruvian safeguards to protect against the loss of innocent life had eroded
over the years and the C.I.A. had failed in its oversight responsibilities.
"The lack of judgment displayed by key individuals involved was the primary
factor leading to this disaster," said Mr. Graham, who released a committee
report on the incident today. "Safety procedures, however, had degraded over
time to the point where this kind of tragedy was almost inevitable. This
program needs a dramatic overhaul before we should consider restarting it."
The committee faulted an antiquated air traffic control system in Peru, a
cumbersome communications system and chain of command for conducting
interceptions and inadequate language skills of both Peruvians and
Americans. It said that the pilot of the missionary plane, Kevin Donaldson,
did nothing that should have led authorities to conclude he was transporting
drugs. The report also noted that the American C.I.A. employees helping to
track the plane had voiced "strong reservations" as their Peruvian
counterparts sought the use of deadly force.

But Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the
committee, said that that did not exonerate the C.I.A. "C.I.A. officials
from the program manager to the director failed to properly manage this
program with tragic results," Mr. Shelby said. The committee urged the
administration to consider placing the program under the control of another
agency, since it is not a secret operation. The committee's findings were
similar to those of the administration, which reported on its own
investigation in August. The administration first reported that Peruvian
authorities on the ground failed to run a check on the doomed plane's tail
number after pilots had radioed in the information, and that Peruvian pilots
ignored or failed to understand the Americans' objections.

The Senate committee said American and Peruvian authorities should make a
series of changes in the program before resuming it, including improving the
system for filing and retrieving flight plans, streamlining the process for
identifying unknown aircraft and considering giving American participants
the ability to shut down a particular operation.

The committee also plans to require that the president provide an annual
certification on the gravity of the trafficking threat and the safeguards in
place to protect innocent people before approving a renewal of the program.
One Senate official conceded that the committee demands are so sweeping they
may spell the end of the program.

Senators are less interested in a military approach than in finding ways to
support eradication of the coca crop in Peru and Colombia, and enhance law
enforcement coordination on the ground, the official said.