Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Richard C. Shelby [R-Ala.], Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Bob Graham [D-Fla.], Vice Chairman of the Committee, invited today the Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet to explain the CIA's involvement in the tragic shoot down of a missionary's aircraft in Peru last Friday. Sen. Richard C. Shelby said, "Director Tenet has been invited to brief the Members on the CIA's involvement in this extremely disturbing event. Two Americans, a mother and her child were killed on that airplane and we need to know the extent of the Agency's involvement and the nature of our government's participation in this type of activity since it was instituted by President Clinton in 1994." "We intend to conduct a thorough examination of this tragic loss. Preliminary briefings have raised many questions regarding our role in this specific event and whether the CIA has done everything it can to avoid just this type of tragedy. It appears, at this time, that it did not."