Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2003
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)

DON'T SHOOT FIRST

Drug Interdiction Should Avoid Deadly Force

An American Baptist missionary and her infant daughter were killed 2 1/2 
years ago when a Peruvian air force pilot shot down a small plane -- even 
after U.S. intelligence monitors expressed doubts that the craft might not 
be engaged in drug-running, as first suspected. That led to a suspension of 
such flights, in Peru and in Colombia, and an admonition by a Senate 
committee that they not resume until strict safeguards were in place to 
avoid a tragic recurrence, and even then that the shoot-down policy be 
reconsidered. That's still good advice. But now Secretary of Defense Donald 
Rumsfeld says the Bush administration supports a Colombian plan to resume 
drug interdiction flights employing deadly force, and the New York Times 
quotes officials as saying a resumption is also likely in Peru.

Congress must demand a thorough briefing on exactly what's planned. That's 
especially important in light of an apparent shift of virtually all 
responsibility for interdiction to Colombia, thus effectively immunizing 
the U.S. government against lawsuits in the case of any future harm to U.S. 
citizens. The enduring question remains: Why is it necessary to shoot down 
a plane based on assumptions that any plane fitting the profile of 
drug-runners must be guilty? Forcing a plane to land, which in some cases 
is done, is preferable when innocent lives may be at stake and there's no 
imminent danger to anyone. The anti-drug war can be fought without 
resorting to shoot-first, ask-questions-afterward tactics.

A recent United Nations report says that during a period roughly coinciding 
with the suspension of drug interdiction flights, plantings of coca -- the 
raw material for cocaine -- in Colombia have fallen by 30 percent while 
seizures of processed cocaine have increased by a comparable figure. That's 
encouraging, and reinforces the principle that taking deadly action on the 
basis of profiling and suspicions is not justified.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom