Word: noriega
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...more than two years, the U.S. Government has encouraged the Panamanian military to overthrow its corrupt commander and turn him over to American authorities to stand trial on drug charges. Last week, after a group of rebellious officers actually had Noriega under their guns, debate raged in Washington about whether the characteristically cautious Bush Administration could have -- and should have -- done more to help the coup's leaders. Senators, senior officials and military officers alike wondered: Had the U.S. fumbled its best opportunity to seize Noriega? Or had it sidestepped a diplomatically dangerous and probably ineffective intervention...
...Administration's ability to respond to a crisis. In the three days leading up to and during the coup, the U.S. was hobbled by a breakdown of communications, a distressing lack of reliable intelligence and an obvious dearth of contingency plans should the call for a revolt against Noriega finally be answered...
...least, the Administration was caught in embarrassing contradictions about its role. Two hours after the coup collapsed, Noriega offered his version of events. "This is part of the continuing aggression and penetration of the P.D.F. by the U.S.," he charged on national television. As evidence, the general's supporters pointed to U.S. Army helicopters that passed close to the Comandancia during the fighting and the hundreds of troops who were deployed, within areas under U.S. jurisdiction, in positions blocking two of the roads leading into the city. That forced Noriega's allies to use alternate routes to transport loyal units...
...first intimations of a plot came on Sunday, when Major Moises Giroldi Vera, leader of the failed attempt, told U.S. officials in Panama that an uprising was imminent. The news was surprising, since Giroldi was a Noriega loyalist who played a key role in quelling the previous military revolt in March 1988. "Giroldi's a bastard, a sort of mini-Noriega," says a Pentagon official. "Warning signs went up. We feared a Noriega trap." Fueling that suspicion was the fact that two principal U.S. players -- General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Maxwell Thurman, chief...
When Thurman called Tuesday morning to say fighting had broken out, Powell promptly asked, "Where's Noriega?" That seemingly obvious question produced a host of answers that further muddied events. The roadblocks were ordered and the 12,000 troops attached to the U.S. Southern Command were put on Delta alert, a battle-ready status that calls for American forces to secure U.S. facilities. At about 11:45 p.m. two rebel lieutenants appeared at the gate of Fort Clayton, the main U.S. Army base in the canal zone, and were ushered into an office to meet with Southcom's deputy commander...