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"If there had been accountability in the program, if there had been respect for procedures and adherence to the law, the Bowers (family) never would have been shot down," said Hoekstra, who said he recently shared the new information with Jim Bowers.

"It was the senseless killing of a family, done by an agency that wasn't following the rules."

Hoekstra, who was chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the initial investigation of the tragedy, said he now realizes that CIA officials who testified before his committee, and answered his personal questions, may have been lying or concealing part of the truth.

Hoekstra said he would call for a new federal inquiry of the now-defunct drug interception program, the Bowers incident and the alleged CIA cover-up.

"We need to follow up as aggressively as we can," Hoekstra said. "We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it does and then lies to Congress."

A statement issued by the CIA indicated that the agency is taking the Inspector General's report seriously.

"As soon as Director (Michael) Hayden got the Inspector General's report in late August, he read it and recognized the seriousness of the matter," the CIA statement said.

Steve Gunn writes for The Muskegon Chronicle in Muskegon, Michigan.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Christianity Today coverage of Veronica and Charity Bowers includes:

Missionaries Shot Down in Peru, Mother and Infant Killed (April 1, 2001)

Peru's Churches Want Inquiry into Why Missionary Plane Was Shot Down | Christian leaders lament absurd, excessive use of force that killed Roni Bowers and her infant daughter. (April 1, 2001)

Series of Mistakes, Confusion Led to Missionary's Death (July 1, 2001)

Anti-Drug Flight Program That Killed Missionary and Daughter Will Resume (August 1, 2003)

Senate Committee Attacks CIA for Peruvian Missionary Plane Shooting (November 11, 2001)

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November (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52