Surprised by Iraqi Freedom? Must have missed Panama "Just Cause" 1989.

[EFerrari]

This is what Global Security says:

Operation Just Cause

By the fall of 1989, the Noriega regime was barely clinging to power. Tensions increased when election results were voided and opposition leaders were physically beaten by Noriega's Dignity Battalions (DIGBATs). An unsuccessful PDF coup attempt in October produced bloody reprisals. Deserted by all but a small number of cronies, and distrustful of a shaken and demoralized PDF, Noriega began increasingly to rely on irregular paramilitary units called Dignity Battalions. In December 1989, the regime's paranoia made daily existence unsafe for U.S. forces and other U.S. citizens.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/just_cause.htm

Oh, really? The way I heard, Poppy creates an incident to take out the dictator Noriega (his longtime CIA asset) and return Panama to democracy? No, he needed to destroy their armed forces, expand our presence in Panama and replace his pal Noriega with someone agreeable to those plans. He didn't need to have thousands of people killed to take out Noriega. What he and or Cheney did was to have our service people become confrontational outside of their zones. Eventually, a Marine is killed and another American citizen is reportedly beaten and his wife threatened "sexually". And, we're off to the races.

NYTs, LA Times, WaHo and WSJ all endorse the move -- and they cover up the deaths of thousands of civilians, thousands of detentions, the burned down townships, the mass graves. Must see video but WARNING: graphic scenes.

(Oh, and Dick Cheney, then SecDef, named this "Operation Just Cause".)

The Panama Deception (1992) - 1:31:10
Barbara Trent, Empowerment Project - www.empowermentproject.org

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446387292666223710

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama#Casualties

The American public is told it's a surgical strike. Here's some of our surgeons:



Panama prepares to act out trauma of U.S. invasion
December 18, 1999

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -- Residents of a Panama City suburb set
ablaze in the December 1989 U.S. invasion to oust military strongman Gen.
Manuel Noriega are set to act out their collective trauma at a macabre
anniversary rite on Sunday.

Every year since the December 20 invasion, residents of the capital's El
Chorrillo district have built a model of one of the razed homes from their
community using tires, cardboard boxes and boards, only to torch it once
more, the rite's organiser, Hector Avila, told Reuters.

"Before we burn it, we are going to put Chinese explosives (powerful
firecrackers) inside, and throw rockets at it as if it were the U.S. attack,"
Avila said.

"When it's alight, the adults from the barrio are going to rescue the children.
We'll have black bags filled with beef to represent the bodies," he added.





http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/panama/chorrillo.htm