Lawmaker Accuses CIA of Coverup

Nov. 20, 2008— -- A classified CIA report shows the agency operated a drug interdiction program outside of the law and that officials lied to Congress in an attempt to cover it up, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., is pushing for the declassification of the report, issued by the CIA inspector general, which is critical of the Narcotics Air Bridge Denial program, an agency initiative designed to shoot down suspected drug smuggling aircraft in South America.

The report, according to a congressional source, harshly criticizes the program, which dates back to the mid-1990s.

In April 2001, one of Hoekstra's constituents lost family members who were traveling in South America as missionaries after a plane they were in was shot down by the Peruvian Air Force because of faulty information provided by the CIA.

Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity were both killed in the incident; her husband Jim and their son Cory, as well as the plane's pilot, Kevin Donaldson, survived.

The U.S. government suspended the program in 2001 after the Peru incident. It relaunched it in Colombia in 2003.

"The IG reports states that parts of the intelligence community, parts of the CIA were acting outside of the law with the drug interdiction program at the time that the Bowers' plane was shot down. That there was an active coverup within the community," Hoekstra said at a news conference in Washington Thursday. "It was enabled by a culture that failed to recognize either internal or external accountabilities."

The IG report, which remains classified, is said to uncover systemic problems in the program which led to the shoot down and other incidents. Hoekstra has called for the Justice Department to review the facts in the matter and requested that prosecutors review the report to determine if a criminal investigation is warranted.

In response to Hoekstra's accusations, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said, "[the] CIA takes very seriously questions of responsibility and accountability."