Hated Now: “Dictators Are Rulers Who Always Look Good Until The Last Ten Minutes”

First a friend, then an enemy of the United States, Manuel Noriega, the strongman of Panama, was finally taken down by a U.S. military operation, captured, and brought to Miami for trial on drug charges in 1989.

Early life

Manuel Antonio Noriega was born the son of an accountant and his maid in a poor section of Panama City, Panama, in 1934. At the age of five he was given up for adoption to a schoolteacher. He attended the National Institute, a well-regarded high school, with the intention of becoming a doctor, but his family could not afford to send him to medical school. Instead, Noriega accepted a scholarship to attend the Chorrios Military Academy in Peru. He graduated in 1962 with a degree in engineering. Returning to Panama, he became a sublieutenant in the National Guard.

Military career

Colonel Omar Torrijos (1929–1981) liked Noriega and obtained for him the command of Chiriqui, the country's westernmost province. In October 1968, they led a military takeover of the government of President Arnulfo Arias. Noriega's troops seized radio and telephone stations in the city of David, cutting off communications with Panama City. Torrijos emerged as the major figure in the new government. In December 1969, when Torrijos was out of the country, a trio of officers tried to seize power. Torrijos flew his plane into an airport in David that had no lights for night landing. Noriega lined up cars along the runway with their lights on to help Torrijos make it down safely. With Noriega's troops at his service, Torrijos reclaimed the capital.

From that moment, Noriega's career blossomed. He became involved with U.S. intelligence activities. In 1971 he went to Havana, Cuba, at the request of U.S. president Richard Nixon (1911–1994) to obtain the release of crewmen of two American ships seized by Fidel Castro's (1927–) government. At this time Noriega was already involved in drug deals. A high-ranking drug enforcement officer recommended that President Nixon order Noriega's assassination, but Nixon did not follow through. As head of G-2, Panama's military intelligence command, Noriega was the second most powerful man in Panama. In 1975 G-2 agents rounded up businessmen who criticized Torrijos, took away their property, and sent them into exile in Ecuador. Torrijos once said of Noriega, "This is my gangster."

Increase in power

Torrijos died in 1981 in an unexplained plane crash. In the following two-year contest for power between politicians and military officers, Noriega emerged as the winner. In late 1983, following his promotion to general and commander of the National Guard, the guard was combined with the navy and air force into the Panama Defense Forces (which also included the national police). The following year Noriega's choice for president, Nicolás Ardito Barletta, won a narrow victory over Arnulfo Arias. But Barletta failed to improve the country's weak economy (system of production, distribution, and use of goods and services), and Noriega forced him out. Noriega at this time began to be suspected of gun trafficking (smuggling), money laundering, torture, murder, and selling U.S. information and technology to Cuba and Eastern European governments. Noriega denied wrongdoing and said U.S. politicians were looking for a way to undo the Panama Canal treaties before the canal became Panamanian property on December 31, 1999.

In June 1987 Noriega's former chief of staff, Colonel Roberto Diaz Herrera, stated that Noriega had fixed the 1984 election and ordered the killing of Hugo Spadafora, who had publicly accused Noriega of drug trafficking. Herrera also said Noriega had been involved in Torrijos's death. Panamanians organized protests demanding the removal of Noriega. He responded by declaring a national emergency. He suspended constitutional rights, closed newspapers and radio stations, and drove his political enemies into exile. Herrera was captured and ordered to recant (take back) his statements. Church leaders, businessmen, and students organized into the National Civil Crusade, dressed in white, and went into the streets banging pots and pans. The riot squads drove them away.

United States steps in

By now Americans were outraged, and in June 1987 the U.S. Senate called for Noriega's removal. The administration of President Ronald Reagan (1911–) began looking for a way to bring Noriega down. The U.S. economic and military assistance ended, Panamanian bankers began withdrawing their support, and Noriega quickly lost favor everywhere except for the Panama Defense Forces (PDF). Secret talks were held between U.S. officials and Noriega's representatives calling for him to resign and leave the country before the 1988 U.S. presidential election, saving George Bush (1924–), who as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had dealt with Noriega, from embarrassment. The Justice Department filed charges against Noriega in federal court in early 1988 as a warning. Assistant Secretary of State Eliot Abrams went to Panama to get President Eric Del Valle to fire Noriega. Instead, Noriega forced out Del Valle and named a new president.

After taking over as president, Bush increased the pressure. In May 1989 Noriega decided not to run in the election but backed another candidate, Carlos Duque. The opposition Panameñista Party nominated Guillermo Endara, who was immediately provided with $10 million by the Bush administration. Even though the election was being watched by former President Jimmy Carter (1924–) and other foreign officials, as soon as Noriega realized that Duque was losing, he ordered the PDF to seize ballot boxes. When the opposition took to the streets in protest, Noriega's squads beat them. Endara and a vice presidential candidate, Guillermo Ford, lost the election.

Last straw

Noriega declared the election void (having no legal force or effect), installed another president, and, in October 1989, survived a takeover attempt supported by U.S. forces. To improve the nation's international image and to prevent Noriega from naming one of his people as administrator of the Panama Canal, Bush took stronger action. Using as an excuse the firing on U.S. soldiers passing the PDF headquarters and Noriega's statement that U.S. actions had created a state of war, the United States launched a full-scale attack (Operation Just Cause) with twenty-four thousand troops on December 20, 1989.

Fighting continued for four days, with the United States losing hundreds of troops and the Panamanians losing thousands. Noriega escaped capture for a few days but was found hiding in the Papal Nunciature, a religious office. Under pressure from Vatican officials, Noriega surrendered to the Vatican Embassy in Panama City on January 3, 1990. In a deal worked out with the U.S.-created government headed by Guillermo Endara, U.S. authorities brought Noriega to Miami for trial, which was delayed into the early 1990s. He was convicted of several crimes including cocaine smuggling. He was sentenced to forty years in a Miami prison and ordered to pay $44 million to the Panamanian government. In 1999 a French court sentenced Noriega and his wife to ten years in jail along with a $33 million fine. Also in 1999 the Panamanian high court announced that it would seek to have Noriega returned to that country to make sure he served time there for murder.

In 2002 a parole hearing took place in Miami, which resulted in Noriega's denial for early release from his U.S. prison sentence. He would remain in prison in the United States for at least five more years.


Panama also has an outstanding request for the former dictator's extradition. He was convicted in Panama in absentia and sentenced to 54 years in prison on charges of embezzlement, corruption and ordering the murder of opponents.

What Is Important Enough To Go To War Over?

In his first interview since the successful Nation of Islam Saviours' Day 2011 convention, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan sat down in the studio with popular radio host and long-time friend Cliff Kelley on WVON-AM 1690 for a two and a half hour conversation.



A critically important portion of the discussion centered on the unrest in the North African country of Libya which the Minister spoke about for the very first time during his recent keynote address. He provided even more layered contextual understanding when questioned by Mr. Kelley March 10. Then the subject of Libya was raised. When the western media began reporting on Libya, Febbruary 15, it seemed as if it was a foregone conclusion that Col. Muammar Gadhafi would be ousted in the country he has led for over 42 years. Now, nearly a month later, he remains in power.
On March 12, the Arab League agreed on asking the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, days earlier, the African Union voted against it.


It is no secret that the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Libyan leader for decades. The United States has long opposed Col. Gadhafi and attempted to force him out of office even bombing his country during the Reagan administration, Minister Farrakhan noted.

The Minister blasted President Obama and Secretary Clinton for their arrogance in meddling in another sovereign nation's affairs and publicly recommending regime change.

Minister Farrakhan instructed Americans to look beneath the surface to see who stands to benefit from the unrest, and warned President Obama to be careful of the words coming from advisors lobbying him to move in with military forces to depose Col. Gadhafi.

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"Well, today our dear brother (Obama) has to be very, very careful in this decision that he and his Secretary of State, and [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy and [British] Prime Minister [David] Cameron and others are planning. They would love to go into Libya and kill Brother Gadhafi, and kill his children as they did with Saddam Hussein and his sons, Qusay and Uday. You must remember, dear people of America, that whenever government wants you to think and act in a certain way that would bring justification to an action that they are already planning to make, they must make the person that they hate a 'boogey man,' " he said. Col. Gadhafi, who led a bloodless coup against a U.S. ally over 40 years ago, has seen constant negative publicity and was once called the "Mad Dog of the Middle East" by American leaders and analysts.


People unhappy with government are not solely in Libya, he pointed out. Many are unhappy with Mr. Obama, he said.
The U.S. government has a long history of deposing leaders of other nations in order to get natural resources, more specifically-oil, he continued, saying the imperialistic forces are not interested in saving those being killed, it is just a "noble motive to hide your (the U.S. government's) wicked agenda!"

"When George W. Bush was president, he said they wanted regime change in Iran, in (North) Korea regime change-how do you get regime change America? How do you do that? Congress, the Congress of the United States, voted to spend $150 million to replace the government in Iran that America doesn't like, so they send their agents in to work among the dissatisfied. So when they had this election, and the people in Iran rose up, they have legitimate grievances, all right-but stimulated from the outside," Minister Farrakhan continued. "Well, what about Libya? How much money is being spent to arm the so-called rebels? They're dissatisfied! Well, what is their dissatisfaction about? Do they (Libyans) have jobs? Yes. Do they have food? Yes. Has Gadhafi used the oil money to build Libya? Yes. Did Gadhafi use oil money and discover water under the Sahara Desert, and brought that water to the surface; and brought water from Benghazi all the way to the border almost of Tunisia? Did he impose farming in the desert so that they could feed their own people? Yes. Are there billions of dollars that he's spending building homes, building apartments for his people? Yes. So something is under this!" said Minister Farrakhan.

"Is it that you're (U.S. officials) so concerned over the blood that is being shed in Libya, when you looked the other way when the Israeli Defense Force was bombing the innocent people of Gaza, unarmed men, women and children? ... You looked the other way when the Israeli Defense Force went into Lebanon thinking that they were going to have an easy victory, then you had to come out with your tail between your legs?"

Minister Farrakhan said Col. Gadhafi has been investing money in Africa, enjoys international friendship, and should not be killed simply because he is not America's friend.
"Now, I want to warn you, in the Name of Allah, that this is more complex than what you think! Go into Libya if you want to. The Libyans do not want foreign occupation on their land. And when you make that kind of move, if you're not careful, you'll unite the Libyan people against you!"

Inside America members of the Branch Davidian religious sect were killed in 1993 in Waco, Texas, by federal law enforcement, while men, women and children of the MOVE organization were killed when police bombed their home during a 1985 standoff in Philadelphia, he said. Current American outrage is nothing but hypocrisy, the Minister said.

To President Obama, Minister Farrakhan delivered a pointed warning: "Don't let these wicked demons move you in a direction that will absolutely ruin your future with your people in Africa and throughout the world. They don't like the way you handled (former Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak! They don't like the way you're handling the situation in the Arab world! So I would advise you to be careful-and move with wisdom and skill.

And then, Minister Farrakhan offered President Obama some divine advice.

"Why don't you organize a group of respected Americans, and ask for a meeting with Gadhafi? You can't order him to step down, and get out-who the hell do you think you are, that you can talk to a man that built a country over 42 years, and ask him step down and get out? Can anybody ask you? Well, well there's a lot, now, [that are] going to ask you to step out of the White House, because they don't want a Black face in the White House," said Minister Farrakhan.

"Be careful, brother, how you handle this situation because it is coming to America! It has already started. Look in Wisconsin! Look in Ohio! Look at what's going on in your country! And remember your words because the American people are rising against their own government: It's not Muslims; it's not Black people! It's White militias that are angry with their government, and they are well armed. Are you going to tell them-'Put your arms down, and let's talk it over peacefully?' I hope so. But if not, America will be bathed in blood, not because Farrakhan said so, but because the dissatisfaction in America has reached the boiling point. Be careful how you manipulate the dissatisfaction in Libya and other parts of the Muslim world," he warned.