Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001

With each day bringing fresh rumors of sightings of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and a cautious administration referring to the "closing noose,” the issue of what to do with the war criminal when and if taken alive looms large. So far, the administration is not saying.

Whenever pressed by the media if bin Laden will face a controversial military tribunal, Attorney General John Ashcroft repeats his conclusion that the United States is in the state of war. "[I]t’s important to give the president of the United States the maximum flexibility consistent with his constitutional authority.”

The president’s father, however, did not enjoy anything like "maximum flexibility” when U.S. forces invaded Panama in 1989, capturing dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been federally indicted in 1988 on many counts of racketeering and trafficking in drugs.

Having nothing to do with war crimes, the allegations against Noriega revolved around accepting cash payments for protecting cocaine shipments through Panama from 1981 through 1986.

With the Panama conflict over, Noriega finally arrived in Miami on Jan. 3, 1990. The laborious process leading up to his trial began with more than a year of hearings. Many of those hearings hashed and rehashed the issue of whether the U.S. court had jurisdiction over this chief of state of a sovereign country.

The trial proper finally began Sept. 5, 1991 and lasted more than seven months. Testimony filled 17,000 pages. The government called 51 witnesses to the stand to prove its case.

The prosecution cost an estimated $5 million, including a three-year investigation of Noriega’s crimes, fees to informants, the expenses of federally protected witnesses, and the salaries of 30 to 50 federal agents and lawyers who managed the case.

Twenty-six of the government’s witnesses were convicted drug dealers, and they testified only in return for plea bargains that allowed them to get out of jail and keep some of their drug profits.

Noriega’s jury of peers, none Hispanic and mostly black after defense challenges, deliberated for several days. Twice, the panel returned from its cloistered jury room to confront U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler and announce that it was hopelessly deadlocked in reaching a verdict.

Only after it was all over did the world learn that some jurors actually knelt to pray for the lone juror who had been holding out for acquittal.

On April 9, 1992, the jury handed down a guilty verdict on eight of 10 drug conspiracy counts. Noriega faced a maximum sentence of 120 years in prison and almost $1 million in fines. At a later separate sentencing hearing, he was awarded 40 years' confinement.

Noriega’s unhappy defense counsel declared he was "bitter” about the verdict, and called the trial "a political case, not a drug case.” He also announced that he would immediately appeal the verdict on issues of government misconduct, including the invasion, as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Six years after the conviction, Noriega was still seeking a new trial. His attorneys accused federal prosecutors of arranging secret deals with key witnesses and withholding information from the jury that convicted him.

Language in the pleadings said that Noriega has been in prison six years "as a consequence of the government’s willingness to use any means available to obtain his conviction.”

The language of the president’s executive order calling for military tribunals makes it clear that it was drafted with bin Laden foremost in mind.

"The term ‘individual subject to this order’ shall mean any individual who is not a United States citizen with respect to whom I determine … there is reason to believe that such individual … is or was a member of the organization known as al Qaida; has engaged in, aided or abetted, or conspired to commit, acts of international terrorism, or acts in preparation there for, that have caused, threaten to cause, or have as their aim to cause, injury to or adverse effects on the United States, its citizens, national security, foreign policy, or economy ….”

As a final proviso, the order adds, "It is in the interest of the United States that such individual be subject to this order.”

The price of justice for Noriega was the lives of 24 Americans. As of Wednesday, the closing noose around bin Laden has cost the life of the CIA’s Johnny Spann, a former Marine.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Panama Canal

Bush Administration

War on Terrorism

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