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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (136456)	4/23/2001 5:07:04 PM
From: Scumbria	Respond to of 1578161

Tim, Bush must have a standard press release by now for blaming other countries for military plane mishaps: Monday April 23 1:40 PM ET U.S.: Peru at Fault for Plane Attack By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House suggested Monday that Peru failed to follow the rules of engagement before firing on a plane carrying American missionaries. Americans aboard a CIA (news - web sites)-operated surveillance plane voiced objections to Peruvian air force authorities before a jet from that country shot down the missionaries' plane, a U.S. official said Sunday. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Monday that ``the United States, in the process of passing on information, as part of an ongoing operation, did its best to make certain that all the rules were followed.'' Asked if the standard rules of engagement were, in fact, followed, he said: ``As I indicated, the information that we are in receipt of indicates no.'' He later said the U.S. crew complied with standard procedures, but declined to say the same for the Peruvian crew. ``There have already been determinations about procedures that were not followed,'' Fleischer said. ``I'm going to suspend on further evaluations of it until all information is received.'' Peru's air force denied suggestions that they failed to follow the rules of engagement. ``The only thing I can tell you is that the air force followed the procedures. It regrets this lamentable accident in which two people died,'' said spokesman Cmdr. Robert Roca. Fleischer declined to address the matter of an apology, saying President Bush (news - web sites) accepted ``in a tone of sympathy'' the condolences expressed over the weekend by Peru's foreign minister at the Summit of the Americas in Canada. Fleischer did not go into details of the mission, but said the joint U.S.-Peru anti-drug program was suspended with Bush's approval because ``there are questions about the way the mission was carried out.'' But he defended the program as a success in drug interdiction. ``The war on drugs is an important mission of the United States government,'' Fleischer said. Asked whether the U.S. or Peru was out of compliance with the standard operating practices, he said, ``The United States plane in the area raised questions and the questions were not fully addressed by the Peruvian aircraft.'' ``Obviously, something went wrong and lives were lost,'' Fleischer said. ``We are working constructively with our Peruvian allies to determine exactly how this happened ... and we're doing so in an atmosphere of cooperation. The Peruvians expressed their sorrow about the accident. We will continue to investigate.'' The Peruvian jet shot down the missionaries' plane on Friday, killing two Americans, just one hour after the surveillance plane said it might be a flight ferrying illegal drugs. At approximately 10:43 a.m., ``despite serious concerns raised by the U.S. crew,'' a shootdown was authorized by Peruvian air force authorities, a U.S. official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The American members of the crew of the U.S. surveillance plane, which also included a military officer from Peru, were concerned that the nature of the suspect plane hadn't been determined, said this official. The Peruvian officer aboard the CIA plane requested permission from his superiors on the ground for the Peruvian jet to fire on the suspect aircraft in order to disable it, the U.S. official said. At this point ``the U.S. crew voiced objections'' and asked that the interceptor jet's pilot fly alongside the suspect aircraft and get its tail number. The number was obtained but apparently was not called back to the Peruvian air force operations center on the ground before the shootdown was authorized at 10:43 a.m., the official said. The U.S. surveillance aircraft is owned by the Defense Department but was operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites), a second U.S. official said. This official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said it appeared that the Peruvian authorities moved too quickly to attack the plane carrying the American missionaries. As a result, all such surveillance flights have been suspended, he said. Fleischer stopped short of blaming Peru for the incident. ``The president is not interested in assigning blame. The president is interested in making certain that we don't let it happen again,'' he said. The CIA has been involved in such surveillance flights over Peru since 1995 under authority provided in a law passed in 1994. The law permits U.S. government employees to assist foreign nations in interdicting aircraft when there is reasonable suspicion of illicit drug trade.

To: TimF who wrote (136456)	4/24/2001 12:08:06 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578161

Tim, I was at the dentist today, and I was reading a business magazine. It had a listing for the top 22 countries in terms of GNP per capita. In that listing, the US was 6th; however, then they redid the list allowing for purchasing power parity adjusted and the US was first. Never explained how they adjusted the purchasing parity. I imagine if I were a Swiss or Danish citizen, I would find the second list suspect. If you want to know the order of either list, let me know.....I will be glad to post it.