War on Drugs, the death of innocents, and the cover-up of dirt-bags

From Lynn Vincent in World, another problem with the Drug War-- the death of innocent victims and often, government complicity in the crimes...

CIA officials lied to Congress about a tragic drug war shoot-down that killed Baptist missionary Veronica Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter Charity, according to a CIA Inspector General (IG) report. The Bowerses died in April 2001 over a Peruvian jungle when a Peruvian air force jet shot down their plane after receiving a CIA tip that it could be carrying narcotics....

According to the IG report, portions of which were declassified in late November, "CIA officers began to characterize the shoot-down as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program. In fact, this was not the case." Key Peruvian and American Airbridge participants told the IG that program safeguards designed to protect innocent lives were "in many cases" skipped because they took too much time....

"To say these deaths did not have to happen is more than an understatement," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, who represents the Michigan congressional district the surviving Bowers still call home....

I think Hoekstra is a Drug War hawk. If so, he ironically bears some of the blame for that which he complains about here...