By GottaLaff
Where there's a probe, there's a revelation. Surprise:
One: Whenever horrific things have occurred over the past 8 years, they're always "aberrations".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.
[...] 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. [...]
[A]gency officials had repeatedly described the 2001 incident as an aberration, insisting that CIA officers had closely followed the rules in other cases. In 2005, the Justice Department concluded its probe after deciding against filing criminal charges against any of the U.S. officials involved. [...]
The investigators found that CIA managers "knew of, and condoned" the violations and failed to properly oversee the program. Later, when asked about the problems by Justice officials and congressional overseers, CIA officials gave misleading accounts, knowingly distorting the facts, [Rep. Peter] Hoekstra said.
Two: Bush's Department of Justice does it again.
Three: January 20, 2009.
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