Manual A Noriega

Gen. Manuel A. Noriega may have been paid to spy for the United States, but he was never authorized to make the drug deals that led to his indictment on felony criminal charges, federal prosecutors contend in documents released Thursday. Prosecutors admitted that Noriega was paid a little more than $300,000 by the U.S. government for information that ranged "from incidental information to the negotiating posture of the Panamanian government during the Panama Canal negotiations."

Attorneys for Manuel A. Noriega asked a federal judge Friday to bar the U.S. government from sending the former Panamanian ruler to a maximum-security penitentiary to serve his 40-year sentence for drug smuggling and racketeering.

A former attorney for Gen. Manuel A. Noriega was a secret federal informant when he telephoned the former Panamanian leader in January, 1990, and advised him to surrender to U.S. forces that had invaded the country, a Noriega lawyer charged Wednesday. The assertion was made by Frank A. Rubino, Noriega's current defense attorney, one day before jury selection is to begin in the former dictator's drug-smuggling trial. Rubino asked U.S. District Judge William M.

A former executive of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International told Senate investigators Thursday that indicted Washington lawyer Robert A. Altman directed a cover-up of former Panama strongman Manuel A. Noriega's secret $20-million bank account.

A former executive of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International told Senate investigators Thursday that indicted Washington lawyer Robert A. Altman directed a cover-up of former Panama strongman Manuel A. Noriega's secret $20-million bank account.

After months of delays and legal melodrama, deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega is set to go on trial today in an unprecedented proceeding expected to explore the methods and morality of U.S. intelligence operations abroad. The drug-trafficking trial, which begins in federal court this morning with the tedious process of selecting jurors, represents the first time a foreign leader has been seized by invading U.S. forces and tried as a criminal in civilian court.

Jury selection began Thursday for former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega, with one of the first potential jurors denouncing him as a human rights violator. The juror's statement demonstrated the difficulties faced by both sides in finding an impartial jury as 96 candidates filed into the ornate central courtroom in the federal courthouse to begin Noriega's drug and racketeering trial.

A former president of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International and five other BCCI officials have been charged with laundering millions of dollars in drug profits as well as money belonging to former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega. The federal indictment, unsealed Thursday in Tampa after an international manhunt netted one of the former bankers in France, describes BCCI as a corrupt organization set up to launder illicit funds through its worldwide branches.

Attorneys for Manuel A. Noriega asked a federal judge Friday to bar the U.S. government from sending the former Panamanian ruler to a maximum-security penitentiary to serve his 40-year sentence for drug smuggling and racketeering.

President Alan Garcia said Friday he will attend the Feb. 15 anti-drug summit with President Bush in Colombia, reversing his decision to boycott the meeting. Garcia said he decided to go after Bush announced his intention Wednesday to withdraw by the end of the month troops sent to Panama to remove Gen. Manual A. Noriega from power in December. Garcia had pulled out of the meeting after the troops landed, saying, "I cannot meet with the leader of an invading nation."

Jury selection began Thursday for former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega, with one of the first potential jurors denouncing him as a human rights violator. The juror's statement demonstrated the difficulties faced by both sides in finding an impartial jury as 96 candidates filed into the ornate central courtroom in the federal courthouse to begin Noriega's drug and racketeering trial.

A former president of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International and five other BCCI officials have been charged with laundering millions of dollars in drug profits as well as money belonging to former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega. The federal indictment, unsealed Thursday in Tampa after an international manhunt netted one of the former bankers in France, describes BCCI as a corrupt organization set up to launder illicit funds through its worldwide branches.

A former attorney for Gen. Manuel A. Noriega was a secret federal informant when he telephoned the former Panamanian leader in January, 1990, and advised him to surrender to U.S. forces that had invaded the country, a Noriega lawyer charged Wednesday. The assertion was made by Frank A. Rubino, Noriega's current defense attorney, one day before jury selection is to begin in the former dictator's drug-smuggling trial. Rubino asked U.S. District Judge William M.

After months of delays and legal melodrama, deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega is set to go on trial today in an unprecedented proceeding expected to explore the methods and morality of U.S. intelligence operations abroad. The drug-trafficking trial, which begins in federal court this morning with the tedious process of selecting jurors, represents the first time a foreign leader has been seized by invading U.S. forces and tried as a criminal in civilian court.

Gen. Manuel A. Noriega may have been paid to spy for the United States, but he was never authorized to make the drug deals that led to his indictment on felony criminal charges, federal prosecutors contend in documents released Thursday. Prosecutors admitted that Noriega was paid a little more than $300,000 by the U.S. government for information that ranged "from incidental information to the negotiating posture of the Panamanian government during the Panama Canal negotiations."

Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen attacked the Republican Administration on Saturday for "botching" the war on drugs and said it was now proposing "to pass the torch of incompetence on to the junior senator from Indiana"--Dan Quayle. "They fight drugs the way they fight forest fires in Yellowstone Park--they let the fires rage and hope they'll burn themselves out," Bentsen said at an outdoor rally along the waterfront here.

Thomas Jefferson once expressed the conviction that if all relevant information were provided to the American people, they would inevitably reach wise decisions. I look back with some amusement on the younger version of myself cradling that opinion as a central element of democratic faith. I often wonder these days about what Jefferson would make of the George Bush campaign.