Some not so lovely news about the plane shot down in Peru, killing a 35 year old missionary and her infant daughter. The spin continues, CIA doesn't want to own up to this one, either.
http://www.copvcia.com/peru_coverup.htm
PERU SHOOTDOWN COVER-UP UNRAVELING, BREAKING NEWS FROM PERU THREE STORIES FROM THE APRIL 30 ISSUE OF "FROM THE WILDERNESS"
* MORE HOLES IN THE COVER-UP THAN IN THE AIRPLANE
* DEA VET CHALLENGES GOV'T POSITION, ABC NEWS CHANGES STORY, WAS DYNCORP INVOLVED?
* REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY OF ILLINOIS INTRODUCES BILL TO BAN USE OF CONTRACT COMPANIES IN THE ANDES
"IT'S BULLSH**T!"
* More Holes in Shootdown Story, Was DynCorp Involved? - ABC News Changes Web Site
FTW-"It's bullsh**! I was in Iquitos and I flew on those shootdown missions. Nobody, I mean nobody, shoots down anything unless the CIA says so." So says retired DEA Agent Celerino Castillo, a Bronze Star winner in Vietnam who served as a DEA Agent in Peru from 1982-4. Castillo, author of the book Powderburns (available at www.copvcia.com) was emphatic about the US government's control of all military operations in the region. "In those days we flew on helicopters and the Peruvian soldiers would lean out the window with FN rifles and blast holes from above drug smugglers' planes. I was on those flights. Yes, the Peruvians did the shooting but it was always the US who gave the OK." Asked for a possible explanation for the shootdown Castillo observed, "I think it all has to do with Plan Colombia and the coming war. It's going to crank into high gear very soon. I think that the CIA was sending a clear message to all non-combatants to clear out of the area and to get favorable press. It sounds like a bigger shooting war is going to erupt any minute. Iquitos is at the heart of everything the CIA is doing right now. They don't want any witnesses." Castillo, who risked his DEA career for exposing direct CIA involvement drug smuggling from the Ilopango airfield in El Salvador during the Contra war, now works as a substitute teacher in McAllen Texas. He can be contacted at powderburns@prodigy.net. Even as the government line continues to lose credibility, a change in a story by Bill Reddeker of ABC Network news raises additional questions about the possible role of the giant military contracting corporation DynCorp in the shootdown. (Former CIA Director James Woolsey is a stockholder in the privately held corporation.) As repeatedly covered in FTW, DynCorp is the largest US government contractor in the region and has armed civilian personnel flying escort for Colombian military aircraft on coca eradication missions in Southern Colombia. These DynCorp operations are taking place in a region just miles from the location of the Bowers' shootdown. Last February FTW reported on a gun battle between a DynCorp helicopter and FARC guerillas after a Colombian military crew was shot down. But confusion remains as to whether DynCorp personnel had been contracted by the CIA to fly on the US surveillance plane which initiated the Bowers tragedy. A posting on the ABC news web site (www.abcnews.com) from April 22, 2001 at 6:30 PM EDT contained the statement, "According to senior administration officials, the Citation 5 surveillance plane used in the operation is owned by the Pentagon. Its crew was hired by the CIA from DynCorp, a private company. And the program is coordinated by the U.S. embassy in Peru. Dyncorp is involved in many aspects of Plan Colombia, a controversial, $1.3 billion American program to cripple drug production in South America." Yet by April 24 a series of four stories on the shootdown contained an amended statement which now reads, "According to senior administration officials, the Citation-5 surveillance plane, the US aircraft flying with the Peruvian interceptor, is owned by the Pentagon. The CIA hired its crew, and the program is coordinated by the U.S. embassy in Peru." A search of the ABC News web site reveals that all references to DynCorp in this case have been removed. Contacted for comment, ABC Network News spokesman Jeff Schneider had not provided a response as of press time. DynCorp officials twice emphatically denied any involvement in the incident, either by company employees or any of their subcontractors. Contacted by FTW, the CIA refused to comment. A crucial question that remains unanswered is where the CIA contract employees who initiated the tragedy came from. If they came from DynCorp, which has a demonstrable financial interest in continuing hostilities another motivating factor needs to be addressed by the Congress. Other Background - Chavez Caves In - Indications of escalating conflict in the region poured in throughout the month of April. On April 6, citing security concerns about terrorism, the U.S. closed its embassies Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay. On April 17 the State Department, citing continuing violence, issued a travel warning for all U.S. citizens in the region. On April 19 under pressure to protect Venezuelan interests at the pending FTAA summit in Quebec, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez relinquished his longstanding opposition to Plan Colombia. As reported by the AP, "At a news conference in Cartagena, Chavez, who has been the region's most blunt critic of the U.S.-backed strategy to drive rebels from Colombia's coca fields and give aid to poor coca farmers, said he had changed his mind about the plan. "'Where there were doubts about Plan Colombia, now there is clarity,' declared Chavez, who is seeking Venezuela's inclusion in the Andean Trade Preferences Act." And on April 21, The Washington Post broke the story of a brutal massacre in the village of Naya by right-wing paramilitary forces in which as many as 80 villagers had been murdered with chain saws and machetes. This, as preparations for wider conflict continue.
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http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/
BILL INTRODUCED TO BAN PRIVATE CONTRACTORS/ARMIES IN CIA WORK FTW APRIL 25 - In the unsettled wake of the CIA connected shootdown of an unarmed plane carrying Baptist missionaries in Peru, Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today introduced the Andean Region Contractor Accountability Act (ARCAA) that would prohibit the federal government from funding private armies in the Andean region. The bill specifically targets private contractors such as DynCorp which provide armed military support in the region while escaping Congressional oversight. As reported in a press release from Schakowsky's office the bill would prohibit the US government from entering into contracts with private organizations or individuals "to carry out military, law enforcement, armed rescue, or other related operations [in the] Andean region." Schakowsky stated, "The American taxpayers are funding a secret war that could suck us into a Vietnam-like conflict... Is [this outsourcing] to hide body bags from the media and thus shield them from public opinion?" The measure is co-sponsored by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Jim McGovern (D-MA).
Mike Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
"From The Wilderness"
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