Word: noriega
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Noriega's extraordinary performance was carefully scripted melodrama, but he was not the only one wondering if he would ever face a verdict in a U.S. court. The government last week found itself floundering even further in its bid to convict Noriega of allowing Panama to be used for drug shipments by the Colombian cocaine cartel. During his hearing, Noriega's three attorneys sought to have Hoeveler dismiss the case on the basis of government misconduct, including the alleged illegal taping of Noriega's telephone conversations with his lawyers from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center near Miami. Said...
Rubino's charge was hyperbolic, but the ruckus over Noriega's tape-recorded telephone conversations had taken a bizarre new turn as the FBI got into the act. Declaring they were looking for "stolen government property," two bureau agents visited the hotel next to CNN's Atlanta headquarters, where Cable News Network investigative reporter Marlene Fernandez was staying. The agents said they were summoned by hotel security, but they did not have a warrant, and they carried off a videotape and sundry papers, despite the challenges of a CNN lawyer on the scene. Network president Tom Johnson said he protested...
...looking for scratchy recordings of Noriega's conversations in Spanish that CNN had revealed were in its possession. When Hoeveler issued an injunction forbidding broadcast of the recordings, CNN, which had previously disseminated parts of several tapes, still went ahead to air one purporting to ^ contain Noriega's talks with attorneys. After the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld Hoeveler's prohibition, the network appealed to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He referred the matter to the full nine-member bench, which at week's end was considering an emergency CNN petition to rescind...
...Noriega's lawyers verified that the tapes, apparently seven in all, were recordings of their client's telephone chats, including at least one with his legal defenders, discussing potential prosecution witnesses. All such calls are normally monitored by prison authorities, unless officials know the talks specifically involve a prisoner's attorneys. The question was whether the tapings violated the no-eavesdropping rule. Noriega's lawyers argued that the Sixth Amendment protection of Noriega's privileged communication with counsel had in fact been violated. Meanwhile, CNN claimed that its First Amendment freedoms from prior restraint had been abridged...
...enforcement officials were clearly disturbed about CNN's possession of the tapes and about how the network got them in the first place. The Panamanian government has claimed to have Noriega recordings that it received from the U.S. State Department; speculation was that the tapes came into reporter Fernandez's hands from Panamanian sources...