'Justice Denied' in CIA Shootdown of Missionaries

Feb. 3, 2010 — -- The CIA today was accused of lying to Congress and covering up its role in the deaths of two innocent Americans, a mother and her infant daughter, at the hands of the CIA and the Peruvian Air Force nine years ago.

"If there's ever an example of justice delayed, justice denied, this is it," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R.-Mich., ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee. "The [intelligence] community's performance in terms of accountability has been unacceptable. These were Americans that were killed with the help of their government, the community covered it up, they delayed investigating."

On April 20, 2001, Jim and Veronica "Roni" Bowers and their two children, six-year-old son Cory and infant daughter Charity, were returning to their home in Peru from a trip to Brazil in a small airplane piloted by Kevin Donaldson.

The Bowers' worked as Christian missionaries along a stretch of the Amazon River near Iquitos, Peru, a remote jungle region near the Brazilian and Colombian borders heavily traveled by drug traffickers.

The CIA and the Peruvian Air Force were working in the same area, trying to interdict the drug smugglers. Starting in 1995, they'd operated a joint program to intercept drug planes, shooting them down if necessary.

On April 20, a CIA spotter plane saw the Cessna in which the Bowers family was flying and alerted the Peruvian Air Force. What happened during the next hour and 49 minutes is captured in a CIA videotape.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH PORTIONS OF THE CIA VIDEO.

The CIA spotter plane, with two operative aboard, sneaked up behind the Cessna as it flew over the Amazon.

"We are trying to remain covert at this point," one of the CIA pilots on the plane can be heard to say on the tape.

The CIA pilot describes the aircraft as a high-wing, single–engine float plane, which is accurate, that it has picked up on the border between Peru and Brazil.

But the CIA personnel misidentified the craft as a drug plane. The CIA alerted the Peruvian Air Force, which scrambled an interceptor. Over the next two hours, the CIA personnel would express doubts, but would not correct their error, and would repeatedly violate what the White House believed to be strict rules of engagement.