LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Manuel Noriega: Cases
built 239 days ago
The way in which the United States handled the Noriega affair was not an isolated case in how the United States has managed international crises in recent years. Several critical issues and mistakes made in this confrontation reappeared in subsequent international crises, most noticeably in the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis and war.(83) Like Noriega, Iraq's Saddam Hussein did not believe the United States would use force against him. Like Noriega, he received mixed and confusing messages from the United States, which led him to assume that he could take aggressive actions against the Iraqi opposition and neighboring states without risking a major confrontation with the United States. Indeed, as in the Noriega case, Washington considered Saddam a valuable ally serving a larger cause, in this case the battle against Iran's effort to spread Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East.
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Frank Rubino, the attorney who represented Noriega through his criminal trial and who has handled his case for nearly two decades, told WFOR-TV news partner El Nuevo Herald ''He wants to go home. He has no intention of remaining here.''
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At the same time... the CIA and the DEA continued to view Noriega as a vital asset and sent him the opposite message. CIA Director William Casey summoned Noriega, still on the CIA payroll, to a meeting on 1 November 1985 in the CIA headquarters. The State Department expected Casey, whom Noriega highly respected, to warn him. Casey, however, did not raise any of the disturbing questions about the Spadafora murder and the forced resignation of Barletta, and even assured Noriega that the Reagan administration would continue to support him.(16) The DEA also continued to send Noriega thank-you letters for his cooperation in drug enforcement efforts.(17)
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Harris chooses to tell much of his story through Grilli, who lived the Noriega case for a couple of years. Grilli, Gregorie, and Kenny Kennedy, the agent whose car was almost hit by the drug plane and who was an integral member of the prosecution team, became victims of the intense internecine politics of the Noriega takedown. Because these three men persevered and were successful, against the wishes of their superiors, their careers were damaged--which clearly outrages the author.
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US forces captured Noriega after a 1989 military invasion ordered by then-President George HW Bush in part because of Noriega's links to drug traffickers. It later emerged that Noriega had been on the CIA payroll for years and assisted US interests throughout Latin America, including acting as liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro.
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