Does anybody know much about when Bush I attacked Panama?

[madmunchie]

What was the flack from that and what really became of it?

[benddem]

1. Not much came of it

I don't remember any big fuss. But then the internet was just barely functioning. It was really almost** as stupid as * attacking Iraq. Same situation tin horn dictator we propped up. Then when we wanted someone else in power they went after Noriega militarily. Lots of people wounded and killed. Same stupidity, trying to exert their manhood.

** I say "almost" cause it was relatively short and compared to this debacle fewer lives lost.

[TomInTib]

2. One thing that came of it was the firestorm of the City of Angels

a slum in Panama City where we used Dresden-like firestorm bombing to annihilate around 100,00 souls in one night.

Oh, yeah, one other thing.
Manuel Noriega is being held in incommunicado solitary confinement for the rest of his life.

Why did we invade?

Noriega said he wasn't worried about the US because "I've got George Bush by the balls".

Do not insult the Carpetbagger He-Men of Connecticut, they NEVER fight fair. They will kill your women and children.
Every time.

[dchill]

4. "Carpetbagger He-Men of Connecticut..."

You have made me laugh. Say, you don't like the Bushes, do you? BTW, your brief summary is about all I know about the Panama invasion, and I watched it on my TV. But does your typo (100,00) mean 10,000 or 100,000?

Wasn't Noriega moving drugs through Panama to the US for the CIA? (Or something like that.) That might have made him think he had Bush by the balls.

[TomInTib]

11. No, I don't like them...

I know more about those bastards than I want to know.

Yes, I intended to type "one hundred thousand".

Noriega was facilitating the drug trade through Panama.

When we froze cash transfers between the US and Panama, Morgan, Chase, and the other big NY-based banks were drowning in large cash bills. They were renting barns in Upstate NY to store hundred dollar bills. I know this first-hand.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. During that time

I was working for a jewelry manufacturer in Miami. Two young very blonde men started showing up with bags of Noreiga's cash wanting to buy all the gold we could sell them. It was fun to watch the bankers bend over backwards in order to help deposit the money.

[Adelante]

13. 100,000 annihilated

Do you have a link for that figure? I've never seen anything nearly as high. Thanks.

[Neil Lisst]

3. Just another Bush war, started for Bush reasons.

Yet another dictator the Bushes had been in bed with, then chose to act like savior of the USA by attacking the same guy when he became expendable.

[NYC]

5. Deep Dish TV.

There was an independent reporter in Panama who had an appointment with Noriega. On the day of the appointment, Noriega chose to postpone it for one day, so the reporter stayed. That night, the attack started. I think it was called Operation Just Cause*.

The reporter went out in a taxi that night with his video camera. Part of the time he was lying in a ditch, so the picture was black, but he was still speaking.

If you can find that on public television, it is worth watching.

*Operation Just 'Cause, as in Just Because

[1932]

6. Some books to read:

America's prisoner : the memoirs of Manuel Noriega by Manuel Noriega and Peter Eisner
Getting to know the general: The story of an involvement
by Graham Greene
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
How Wall Street Created a Nation: J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Panama Canal by Ovidio Diaz Espino

[madmunchie]

19. I just finished Confession of an Economic Hit Man

A Phenomenol book. That is what brought up the question. "Getting to know the General" by Graham Greene was mentioned in his book.

[dchill]

7. Lots of background at Wikipedia...

According to statements made by former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1988, Noriega was on the CIA payroll since the early 1970s and he retained U.S. support until February 5, 1988 when the DEA had him indicted on federal drug charges relating to his activities before 1984. On February 25, Delvalle issued a decree, declaring that Noriega was relieved of his duties. Noriega ignored the decree, which he claims had no legal basis, and Delvalle left for the U.S. Noriega claims that on March 18, 1988, he met with U.S. State Department officials William Walker and Michael Kozak, who offered him $2 Million to go into exile in Spain. According to Noriega, he refused the offer.

Sen. John Kerry's 1988 Subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations concluded that "the saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970's and the 1980's, Noriega was able to manipulate U.S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each U.S. government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellin cartel {among whom Pablo Escobar}." Manuel Noriega was allowed to establish "the hemisphere's first 'narcokleptocracy'".

...

...US President George H. W. Bush launched Operation Just Cause, though this military action had obviously been planned out months in advance. This move was thought by some critics to be ironic since, during his tenure as Director of the CIA, George H. W. Bush had personally arranged annual payments to General Noriega in the initial amount of $110,000 - (as noted in the House Foreign Affairs Committee Report: "Narcotics Review in Central America" - U.S. Govt Printing Office, 1988). Losses on the U.S. side were 23 troops, plus three civilian casualties. The U.S. claimed Panamanian losses were "several hundred," though exact statistics remain disputed, and some Latin American and international sources have estimated the civilian death toll may have been as high as 3,000 to 5,000. The conflict also caused some considerable domestic problems, with 20,000 to 30,000 having been rendered homeless. Probably the majority of those resulted from a fire that devastated much of a poor area of Panama City that surrounded the Comandancia, a fortified headquarters that was shelled.

See more at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noriega

[struggle4progress]

8. Noriega was a CIA asset involved in smuggling cocaine to help ..

.. fund Reagan's contra war against Nicaragua.

His CIA ties date to the mid-60s, his ties to the Bush cartel to at least the mid-70's, and through most of the 80's, the Reaganites effusively praised Noriega.

In the late 80's, Noriega apparently got tired of having his chain yanked, started to show signs of pursuing an independent foreign policy, and publicly warned VP Bush that he would make public some embarrassing information. This probably sealed his fate.

Bush's links to CIA drug trafficking were raised by at least one Republican contender for the 1988 nomination: this got brief press coverage but then quickly slid down the memory hole, as the rightwing noise machine kept up a constant drumbeat about the Panama canal ...
Here are some links:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_cr/980507-l.htm
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sam/sam-2-05.html
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1989/WR89/Panama.htm
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

[madrchsod]

9. by the way i wonder how ole` pineapple face is doing?

i wonder what job he`s doing in federal prison.

[LA lady]

12. He's a fundie!

He enrolled in Bible study, got special permission to have an "immersion" baptism in jail and missionaries or witnesses to other prisoners!! My grandmother was all happy about it.:crazy:

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Saw that invasion coming long ( i.e decades) ago.

Was inevitable that some administration would concoct an excuse to invade rather than give us "our" canal.

[newspeak]

14. yes, remember the Panama Treaty?

we were supposed to relinquish the canal to the Panamanians, wasn't it during Carter's presidency? It was a treaty-we did not GIVE them the canal, it was under treaty--a treaty that we are supposed to honor. What the hell-looking at the government's treaties with the indians, the government has not honored one!!! I'm with Mark Twain, "Some people say, my country right or wrong; I say my country right." I also read that Noriega was doing drug money laundering and US black ops was involved.

[Disturbed]

15. "supposed to relinquish the canal to the Panamanians"

Noriega was going to hold the US to that. His drug running would have been overlooked but he really screwed up to think that the US would allow the canal to be under his control. He kept his mouth shut about his dealing with the CIA. My guess is that his family was mentioned.

[stevekatz]

17. the treaty

Was written in 1977 and we were supposed to relinquish control of the Canal by 2000, which was done.

[madmunchie]

20. So who controls the canal, Panama?

I thought that we took it back.

[Lostnote06]

21. If I recall the Chinese have oversite of the Canal.......

.....also their is an organisation that keeps an eye on the affairs of the Canal and of course a Bush sits on the board.....this imfo was posted 4 or 5 yrs ago so in all liklihood the players have changed.....the issue at the time was maintenance costs and who would pay

[Radio_Guy]

18. It was probably like

when Ronnie Raygun invaded Grenada. I mean, come one, the big and mighty United States invading a country the size of a postage stamp?

[madmunchie]

22. So this "Pre emptive Doctrine" has really been active for quite

some time now hasn't it. Just different reasons.

[jokerman93]

23. The Panama Invasion

...among other things, as I recall, was used as a testing ground for some gruesome new weapon technologies. Gotta field test your new products after all...

:sarcasm:

[TheWatcher]

24. I can't believe no one has mentioned the Documentary "The Panama Deception

If you haven't seen it, you should.

It aired one night at about 3 AM on The Sundance Channel, about 5 years ago.

As far as I know, it has never been on Cable since.

I wonder why?