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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Manuel Noriega.md

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ Carlton testified that in mid-1982, while serving as Noriega's personal pilot, h
 
 ### Spadafora, the Contras and the "rent-a-colonel"
 
-By 1984 the Panamanian physician [[Hugo Spadafora]] was publicly criticizing Noriega for working with Colombian traffickers, and the subcommittee heard testimony from Carlton and Blandón that Noriega had Spadafora tortured and murdered by members of the Defense Forces in September 1985.[^2][^6] Webb wrote that [[Sebastian Gonzalez]], a CIA asset and close friend of [[Norwin Meneses]], was close to Noriega and was suspected of involvement in the beheading of Spadafora, who was a Contra supporter, shortly before Spadafora was to make public information about Noriega's drug involvement, and that [[Rafael Cornejo]] was arrested, tortured and jailed by Noriega's men in 1977 while smuggling cocaine through Panama for Meneses. Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.[^3] [[Robert Owen]]'s April 1, 1985 memorandum to [[Oliver North]], released by the National Security Archive, described Gonzalez as "now involved in drug running out of Panama."[^7]
+By 1984 the Panamanian physician [[Hugo Spadafora]] was publicly criticizing Noriega for working with Colombian traffickers, and the subcommittee heard testimony from Carlton and Blandón that Noriega had Spadafora tortured and murdered by members of the Defense Forces in September 1985.[^2][^6] Webb wrote that [[Sebastian Gonzalez]], a CIA asset and close friend of [[Norwin Meneses]], was close to Noriega and was suspected of involvement in the beheading of Spadafora, who was a Contra supporter, shortly before Spadafora was to make public information about Noriega's drug involvement, and that [[Rafael Cornejo]] was arrested, tortured and jailed by Noriega's men in 1977 while smuggling cocaine through Panama for Meneses.[^3] [[Robert Owen]]'s April 1, 1985 memorandum to [[Oliver North]], released by the National Security Archive, described Gonzalez as "now involved in drug running out of Panama."[^7]
 
 McNeil told the subcommittee that the State Department had never trusted Noriega and called him "the rent-a-colonel," in tribute to his ability "to simultaneously milk the antagonistic intelligence services of the United States," and that U.S. intelligence agencies, whom he said had become Noriega's clients, took a "see no evil approach." The former NSC staff member [[Norman Bailey]] testified to the [[House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control|House Select Committee]] on Narcotics that when he was at the NSC from 1981 to 1983 "a plethora of human intelligence, electronic intercepts and satellite and overflight photography" constituted "not a smoking gun but rather a twenty-one cannon barrage" of evidence of Noriega's drug and arms dealing, including gunrunning to the Sandinistas, Contras and Salvadoran guerrillas and illegal technology transfers to the Soviet bloc. Customs Commissioner [[William Von Raab]] testified that his service had evidence linking Noriega to narcotics trafficking as early as 1983. In 1985 and 1986, McNeil testified, a formal policy review concluded with a decision "to put Noriega on the shelf until [[Nicaragua]] was settled"; Assistant Secretary of State [[Elliott Abrams]] publicly denied that the delay was because of Nicaragua. [[Daniel Murphy|Admiral Daniel Murphy]] gave the explanation that lower-level information was not passed to policymakers.[^2]
 
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ The National Security Archive's briefing book prints North's electronic message
 
 [[Lawrence Walsh]]'s Final Report records that at a [[Restricted Interagency Group]] meeting in Assistant Secretary of Defense [[Richard Armitage]]'s office on September 19, 1986, North said Noriega had offered to have sabotage conducted inside Nicaragua for $1 million in cash that would not come from the U.S. Government; [[Alan Fiers]] understood the funds would be from Project Democracy. Elliott Abrams's meeting with the State Department officials [[Nicholas Platt]] and [[Charles Hill]] the next day is recorded in Hill's notes: "Noriega offers to do some sabotage (electric pylons) that we training contras to do but which they can't do for 18 mos. Wd get us on the map fast. Do it via mercenaries who may not know who employers are. Brits. Wd do it for cash (not from USG). Wants our go-ahead. Ollie will meet him w/approval of Pdx." Walsh states that "ultimately, the decision was made not to have North cause the $1 million to be paid to Noriega." Fiers testified at the 1992 trial of [[Clair George]] that he said, "No. We don't want to do that."[^8][^7] North met Noriega at a London hotel on September 22, 1986, where, according to North's notebook and the agreed statements of fact in his trial, they discussed a commando training program in Panama with Israeli support and sabotage of major economic targets near [[Managua]], and Noriega "agreed to take immediate actions against the Sandinistas and offered a list of priorities, including an oil refinery, an airport, and the [[Puerto Sandino]] off-load facility."[^2][^7] The Final Report's summary of North's "Quid Pro Quo" conduct lists discussions with Noriega about sabotage "in exchange for U.S. help in rehabilitating Noriega's public image."[^9]
 
-Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image," that North was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though sabotage would be acceptable, that North returned to Panama a month after Spadafora's death to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid, and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega. Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.[^3] The Kerry report dates Spadafora's murder to September 1985, the first North-Noriega meeting to June 1985 and the London meeting to September 1986.[^2]
+Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image," that North was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though sabotage would be acceptable, that North returned to Panama a month after Spadafora's death to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid, and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega.[^3] The Kerry report dates Spadafora's murder to September 1985, the first North-Noriega meeting to June 1985 and the London meeting to September 1986.[^2]
 
 ### The Kerry Committee, the GAO and the NSC
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ On March 4, 1999 Hoeveler cut the sentence by ten years, to thirty, citing "the
 ### Footnotes
 [^1]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXII, *Panama*, "Persons" and doc. 133, "Memorandum of Conversation," New York, October 6, 1976. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v22/d133
 [^2]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165 (December 1988), ch. "Panama" (pp. 80 to 98), including appended GAO and NSC correspondence, testimony of Carlton, Blandon, Milian Rodriguez, Kalish, McNeil, Bailey, Lawn, Murphy and Gorman, and the Conclusions. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
-[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Cast of Characters; ch. 5, "God, Fatherland and Freedom"; chs. 11 and 12; Epilogue, "The damage that has been done." Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Cast of Characters; ch. 5, "God, Fatherland and Freedom"; chs. 11 and 12; Epilogue, "The damage that has been done."
 [^4]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy* (1988), "Noriega and the Cartel" and "Noriega's Rift With the Cartel." https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
 [^5]: "Noriega's Prison Sentence Cut." CBS News/Associated Press, March 5, 1999. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/noriegas-prison-sentence-cut-05-03-1999/
 [^6]: Kerry Subcommittee, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, "Panama," testimony of Carlton and Blandon on the murder of Hugo Spadafora in September 1985. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras