Word: noriega
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...think so. To put in grand opera at the climax, a CIA dope negotiator giving all the information on Bush's relation with Noriega and Don Regan, his security advisor, dealing with Felix Rodriguez--that is useful to have in a grand opera. It is not only of transitory interest but it is also typical time capsulation. People will look back and say "So that was what was happening...
...General Noriega," grouses Rubino, "has been the greatest get-out-of-jail card ever." Rubino estimates that the government cut as many as 70 special deals to get testimony against the general. Tony Aizprua, the pilot whose plane landed on I-75, served no time at all, while Noriega's trusted bagman Lieut. Colonel Luis del Cid got his 70-year sentence reduced to a 10-year maximum. Another defendant who is presumably trying to cut a deal is Ricardo Bilonick, a Tulane-educated lawyer who was whisked back from Panama last week to face charges of running cocaine...
...troubling questions about America's justice system. Judge Hoeveler has said he is "deeply concerned about the image that this case seems to be acquiring, that the defendant is not going to be able to get a fair trial." Two issues in particular have prompted delays in the proceedings: Noriega's inability to pay lawyers because his bank accounts were frozen, and the taping of his attorney-client phone calls from prison...
...civil liberties aspect of the Noriega case is "unprecedented and somewhat disturbing," says Charles Maechling Jr., a specialist in international law. Lawyers point specifically to Noriega's long pretrial incarceration without an opportunity for bail. Some experts are also worried that Noriega's lawyers haven't fully explored his POW status or the jurisdictional question of kidnapping him and bringing him to Miami to trial. "How would we feel about Libyan squads coming to the U.S. to extract Islamic justice?" wonders Alfred Rubin, professor of international law at Tufts University...
...doubt Bush would have preferred Noriega to follow the Duvaliers and Marcoses into a disgraced if opulent retirement. Instead the Administration will have the general trumpeting his accusations in court for at least the next six months and then through a lengthy appeals process. If there's any consolation for Bush, it is that no one expects Noriega to go free...