Congress briefing on CIA activities halted after officials refuse to take oath

Gloria Luttig

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A US Congressional briefing on the CIA was unexpectedly halted on Wednesday, after Justice Department officials refused to take the oath. The briefing, by the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, concerned the April 20, 2001 shooting down by the CIA of a Cessna 185 floatplane, which was suspected of transporting drugs from Colombia to Peru. The plane was actually carrying an American Christian missionary family, including two children, who were on their way to Lima, Peru. The attack on the plane resulted in the death of the mother and one of the children. As intelNews reported in November of 2008, a still-classified report by the Office of the US Inspector General concluded that the murder of the two Americans resulted from routine violation of intercept procedures by CIA operatives. The report also said that the CIA “misled and even lied to Congress about what happened and did not supply accurate information to the Department of Justice or the Bush administration” and that the Agency “obstructed inquiries into its role in the shooting down” of the aircraft by “cover[ing] up evidence of its failings”. The canceled briefing was an attempt to shed further light on the Inspector General’s report. Last year, the mother and grandmother of the murdered victims, Gloria Luttig, expressed her disgust about the fact that “some of the members of the CIA [involved in the incident] have been promoted” since the murders.