Weblog: No Justice for 'Murdered' Missionary Roni Bowers and Daughter - Christianity Today Magazine

Weblog: No Justice for 'Murdered' Missionary Roni Bowers and Daughter - Christianity Today Magazine

Justice Department calls off criminal investigation into 2001 Peru shooting

The New York Times reported Sunday that the U.S. government won't pursue action against Central Intelligence Agency officers regarding the April 2001 downing of a plane carrying American missionaries. Association of Baptists for World Evangelism missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed as the Peruvian Air Force, guided and supervised by the CIA, shot the plane repeatedly. James Bowers and his son survived, and pilot Kevin Donaldson was injured



"The Justice Department's decision ended an inquiry that current and former government officials say was the most serious to focus on the official conduct of CIA officers since the Iran-contra affair in the late 1980's," Times reporters Douglas Jehl and David Johnston wrote. The article continues:



More broadly, the inquiry had been seen within the CIA as a message that employees could be held accountable for operations that go awry, at a time when officers at the agency are coming under scrutiny in other areas, like the interrogation and detention of terror suspects. …



The criminal investigation focused on whether the officials lied in closed-door testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee and to their CIA superiors about events surrounding the shooting down of the missionaries' plane, a Justice Department official said.



Roni Bowers's parents say there's a bigger problem than lying here. "They came up behind and shot her in the back with no warning," John Luttig told the Associated Press. "To me, that's murder."



Gloria Luttig says the government "hushed up" the investigation. "I'd like to know what's at the bottom of this and why it happened," she said. "From what I understand, the Americans didn't understand the Peruvians, the Peruvians couldn't understand the Americans. Well, how come? Why?"



The Luttigs are calling their congressional representative to ask that investigations continue.



Weblog really wishes that the video of the shootdown was still online, since it puts the lie to the U.S. government's repeated claims that language differences weren't the problem. Six-year-old Sesame Street watchers demonstrate better knowledge of Spanish than the Americans: "No b-r-r-r-r-r" is not a proper translation of "Do not shoot the plane." Missionary pilot Donaldson, on the other land, spoke in perfect Spanish when he screamed into the radio, "They're killing us!"



But perhaps the most damning statement the CIA team made wasn't in Spanish, and wasn't directed at the Peruvian Air Force plane—it was in plain English, one crew member to another. "I think we're making a mistake but … "



Not "they're making a mistake." We, the American CIA guys paid to go down to Peru to spot drug planes, are making a mistake. "But … " But we're going to approve this shooting, even though the procedures for identifying drug planes and safeguards against shooting innocent people haven't been followed. It came down to this: "Are you sure it's a bandito?" one of the Americans asked the Peruvians. "Okay, if you're sure."



Seconds later, Roni and Charity Bowers were dead, and Donaldson was shot in the leg, desperately trying to save his other two passengers as his plane fell out of the sky. (If anyone knows were the video can be found online, please contact Weblog.)



So what happened to the CIA workers? One might think that killing innocent Americans — missionaries, for crying out loud — might tarnish one's record. The New York Times reports that "the CIA officers who were the subjects of the investigation … [are] now serving at a senior level within the CIA. … Those who faced potential charges included at least one former CIA station chief in Lima, Peru's capital, at least one former chief of the aviation mission assigned to a base in Peru, and at least one official who had been based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va."



Senior CIA officials have been pushing the Justice Department for years to halt the investigation. "A criminal investigation is something that breeds a risk-averse culture at CIA," an unnamed Bush administration official explained to The New York Times.



Interesting. Seems like the CIA could use a little risk aversion. And having CIA workers break the law and approve the killing of overseas missionaries for no good reason—and then get promoted instead of disciplined or prosecuted—just might breed an unhealthy culture in the U.S., don't you think?