2001 shootdown of missionary plane in Peru – this was apparently on ABC News last night (the US one, not the one in Australia)…. The main thing I see in the video is how unaware the CIA people are about the danger of giving information and guidance to people who don’t understand English…. Screaming “TERMINATE” when a military jet is shooting at an unarmed plane could easily to understood as “Finish them off” – finally the other guy says “no mas” and they stop… It’s like the stereotypical Ugly American who thinks that if you speak English REALLY LOUD that makes it easier to understand for someone who doesn’t speak English…
But the bigger question / issue here is – “Why now?”…. this video was obviously provided by the CIA – why after 9 years is this being brought to the public’s attention? There is virtually no coverage of this story in the global press (yet). The couple was from Muskegon MI, and Rep Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) serves on the oversight committee on intelligence… Here is the local coverage from Michigan
Might this be related somehow to the role of the CIA in Afghanistan?
The Unclassified report on the incident from the Hoekstra web site (pdf). The shootdown involving US citizens happened in April 2001, but the program had been in place since 1995 (See: Clinton, Bill)…. the report makes it clear that the safety procedures were not followed from the start – and I wonder how many planes were shot down in error that we don’t know about because the occupants were not Americans….
The GAO has (pdf)This Report about the incident and how changes were ordered in 2003 to prevent it from happening again.
