WASHINGTON — A top-ranking Republican said he would call for a new federal inquiry into an alleged CIA cover-up in the 2001 military attack on a small plane in Peru that killed an American missionary and her infant child.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said the attack that killed Veronica and Charity Bowers can be traced to a reckless CIA-sponsored drug interception program that had already downed numerous other planes.
Hoekstra also said the CIA may be responsible for a widespread cover-up designed to hide embarrassing details about the Bowers’ deaths and similar incidents in the skies over Peru between 1995 and 2001.
A new report from CIA Inspector General John Helgerson accuses the agency of running a reckless air interception program for illegal drugs and ignoring regulations and procedures designed to protect innocent air travelers.
The CIA has admitted that proper procedures were not followed during the April 20, 2001, attack on the missionary plane carrying the Bowers family, according to Hoekstra.
The attack, by a Peruvian Air Force jet, resulted in the death of Veronica “Roni” Bowers, 35, and the Bowers’ 7-month-old daughter, Charity. Her husband, Jim Bowers, the Bowers’ young son, Cory, and pilot Kevin Donaldson survived. The couple had been working in Peru with the Pennsylvania-based Association of Baptists for World Evangelism when the attack occurred.
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