The CIA apparently played an important role in both preparing for and carrying out the Pentagon invasion of Panama in 1989 [nearly 20 years ago]. As Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA by Mark Perry revealed:
“Reagan signed a presidential finding that directed the CIA to provide secret nonlethal assistance to anti-Noriega forces inside Panama. This support included a radio transmitter and funding for a propaganda campaign to be run by opposition figures in the United States and the Canal Zone. The CIA chief of station in Panama was put in charge of disbursing the aid and organizing a credible political alternative to Noriega…
“CIA planning for the Noriega operation went forward in mid-May 1988…
“…Programs were approved at a high-level meeting at the White House in mid-February, when Bush, Baker, GATES, Webster and Stoltz decided to give opposition forces $10 million to help in the upcoming May elections…
“The agency participated fully in Operation Just Cause. It hastily set up a Panama Task Force that worked with a special liaison committee at the Defense Department. The CIA’s jobs were among the most important: to draw up targets, recruit new agents inside Panama, review on-site changes in the PDF order of battle, and debrief Panamanian immigrants on the habits and schedules of Noriega and his assistants. Their operations centered on psychological warfare, to grind away at the PDF in the days and hours leading up to American intervention…In the midst of the battle the CIA was required…to usher the new leaders of the nation through their first day in office…”
(Downtown 1/19/94)
Monday, July 27, 2009
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