Word: noriega
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...reasons that are still unclear, Bush was not told of this for almost an hour. At that point, Washington passed word to the rebel officers that the U.S. "was prepared to lift this burden from their hands." The rebels refused. "They were clearly not of a mind to turn ((Noriega)) over to us," Defense Secretary Richard Cheney said later. "They were not willing to have him extradited to the U.S." Soon after, word arrived in Washington that the coup attempt had collapsed...
...details of the botched coup emerge, it seems clear that the rebel force had potential that Washington underestimated. Noriega's subsequent roundup of plotters showed that the effort reached deep into the dictator's circle. Among the 37 arrested were three of the general's closest and most trusted associates: Colonel Guillermo Wong, head of military intelligence, Colonel Julio Ow Young, who oversees personnel for the dreaded Doberman militias that have repeatedly been turned on opposition rallies, and Lieut. Colonel Armando Palacios Gondola, head of an organization that supervised joint military operations with U.S. troops...
...helter-skelter quality of the plan was hardly enough to coax the U.S. into precipitate action. Instead, the Administration's prudent response was in keeping with the policy it has been enunciating for months. Bush, while he has repeatedly urged the P.D.F. to overthrow Noriega, has also maintained that the Panamanians must solve their own problems, with Latin leaders applying diplomatic pressure and the U.S. providing moral support...
Still, Bush's forceful calls for Noriega's ouster have created expectations in some quarters that the U.S. would intervene at some critical juncture to assist a coup attempt. The President's unwillingness to back tough talk with forceful action did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. No sooner had the shooting stopped in Panama than the shouting began in congressional chambers, resulting in some of the oddest political couplings in recent memory...
...espoused anti-interventionist sentiments in Nicaragua and toward the Navy escorts of Kuwaiti oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq war. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts called the episode "a black mark on our diplomacy and our values." Congressman Les Aspin of Wisconsin declared, "We should go in and capture Noriega." Aspin differentiated between military intervention and "a snatch. All I want is Noriega." In the face of such belligerence, Republican Senator Robert Dole cracked, "Suddenly the place is filled with hawks. They were all doves during the Persian Gulf...