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The CIA repeatedly misled Congress and the Justice Department in their investigations of the 2001 shoot-down of a Peruvian plane carrying U.S. missionaries, according to findings of an internal CIA probe released today by congressional officials. The agency’s inspector general concluded that CIA officers in Peru consistently ignored rules of engagement in connection with the downing of at least 10 aircraft suspected of carrying narcotics over the South American country. Yet, CIA managers covered up the problems and knowingly gave false accounts to government officials investigating whether agency employees committed crimes. Excerpts of the inspector general’s report were released by Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee. He called today for a new criminal inquiry, as well as congressional hearings, into what he described as a “startling” attempted coverup by the spy agency.

“These are the most serious and substantial allegations of wrongdoing I’ve seen in my time on the committee,” said Hoekstra, whose western Michigan district was home to two of the Americans killed in the 2001 incident. As part of a joint U.S.-Peruvian anti-drug program that began in the mid-1990s, CIA officers helped Peruvian air force pilots identify aircraft suspected of carrying illegal drugs through the country’s airspace. The program had succeeded in bringing down numerous suspected planes when, in April 2001, a Peruvian pilot mistakenly shot into a small plane carrying U.S. missionaries. Two of the Americans on board, Veronica “Roni” Bowers and her infant daughter, Charity, were struck by bullets and killed. The pilot, although wounded, managed to land the plane. Bowers’s husband and their 6-year-old son were not injured. More

Tags: anti-drug program, CIA Coverup, Justice department, Peru, Peter Hoekstra, U.S. missionaries