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Prof.
Aaron
Baba,
Special
Advicer
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Site Powered by Directorate
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Updated
December 1, 2008
VOL.
13 No. 747 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER
9 - TUESDAY SEPTEMBER
15, 2008 ISSN 1116 - 7085 N70.00 |
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The Rise
and Fall of Noriega
Once one of Central
America's most notorious
military strongmen, former
Panamanian dictator and
convicted drug trafficker
Manuel Noriega has been a
prisoner since being toppled
from power in 1990 in a U.S.
invasion.
For almost two decades,
Noriega was a major player
in a country of critical
regional importance to the
U.S. because of its location
on the Panama Canal, a key
strategic and economic
waterway between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans
on the narrow isthmus
linking the Americas.
Born in 1934, Noriega was
abandoned by his parents at
the age of five and raised
by an aunt in a rundown
district of Panama City.
After failing to get into
medical school, Noriega
joined the army, studying at
Peru's Military Academy of
Chorrillos and quickly
rising through the ranks.
In the 1970s he served as
head of military
intelligence to General Omar
Torrijos, who had seized
power in a military coup in
1968. Torrijos' death in a
plane crash in 1981 saw
Noriega emerge as his de
facto successor and by 1983
he controlled both Panama's
armed forces and civilian
government.
Noriega's rule saw a
breakdown in relations
between Panama and the U.S.
with Washington cutting off
economic and military
assistance and freezing
Panamanian government
assets.
In 1988 Noriega was indicted
in the U.S. on charges of
racketeering, laundering
drug money and drug
trafficking. He was accused
of having links to Colombian
drug lord Pablo Escobar's
notorious Medellin cartel
and, in the process,
amassing a multi-million
dollar fortune.
Amid growing unrest in
Panama, U.S. President
George W. Bush ordered the
invasion of Panama in
December 1989, claiming that
Noriega's rule posed a
threat to U.S. lives and
property.
With more than 20,000 U.S.
troops on Panamanian soil,
Noriega took refuge in the
Vatican embassy for 10 days,
eventually surrendering to
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
officials on January 3,
1990, after U.S. troops had
surrounded the compound with
loudspeakers playing
deafening rock music.
Noriega's trial in 1991 was
dubbed the drugs "trial of
the century" by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency and
eventually saw him found
guilty on eight counts and
sentenced to 40 years in
jail. Noriega was the first
foreign head of state to be
convicted in a U.S. court,
but the trial also led to
revelations that Noriega had
been a paid CIA asset for
many years.
Amid procedural wrangling
over what should be
permissible in court,
Noriega claimed to have
earned almost $10 million
from his intelligence work,
while the U.S. government
offered to stipulate he had
been paid just $320,000.
But Noriega was prevented
from revealing specific
details of his work for the
CIA -- a ruling upheld by
the U.S. Court of Appeals
which said revelations about
Noriega's intelligence work
would have "shifted unduly
the focus of the trial from
allegations of drug
trafficking to matters of
geo-political intrigue."
Noriega has since said his
relationship with the U.S.
soured when he refused to
participate in acts of
sabotage against the
communist Nicaraguan
government during the Cold
War-era, anti-communist
efforts spearheaded by the
CIA in Central America
during the 1980s. The CIA
has not commented on
Noriega's claims.
Granted prisoner of war
status following his trial,
Noriega's sentence was later
reduced to 30 years and he
was due for release on
parole in 2007. But he
remained in captivity
pending a decision on a
French extradition request.
A Paris court had convicted
Noriega in absentia in 1999
on charges that he had
laundered $2.8 million in
drug money by buying
property in France.
As part of an extradition
deal agreed in April and
signed by U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton,
France agreed to hold a new
trial and to uphold
Noriega's prisoner of war
status.
Noriega's attorneys argued
that the United States was
violating the Geneva
Convention by not sending
him back to Panama, which
has also demanded his
repatriation to stand trial
on murder charges. Although
Noriega was sentenced to 60
years in prison in absentia,
Panama has said he would
receive a new trial.
But some say Noriega would
likely be treated leniently
in Panama following an
amendment to the country's
criminal code in 2008
allowing criminals older
than 75 to serve their
sentences under house arrest
instead of in prison.
"For us, it is better that
he is serving time in prison
in another country," Alida
Benedetti, an attorney and
former human rights activist
in Panama, told Time
magazine. "He deserves jail.
He killed a lot of people.
We don't want him back."
In his testimony to the
French court, Noriega
revealed more details about
his former relationship with
U.S. officials.
"I received high praise from
the U.S., Interpol and other
countries who all benefited
from my fight against
drugs," he told the
courtroom, adding that he
had been "especially in
contact with the CIA."
Noriega's attorneys argued
that a 10-year jail term
amounted to a life sentence
for an elderly man who
suffered a stroke and was
treated for prostate cancer
while in prison in the U.S.
In a recent interview with
CNN, conducted before
Noriega's extradition to
France, the former
dictator's grandson,
Jean-Manuel Beauchamp, said
his grandfather was "ready
for anything."
"He's the smartest man I
know. He's so friendly,
outgoing, knowledgeable.
He's always looking to teach
or give advice," said
Beauchamp. "He's ready for
anything. He's probably
developed strategies, in his
own mind, to emotionally
prepare."
Woman
Jailed 10 years for Having
Sex with Students
A judge in Tampa, Florida,
on has sentenced Stephanie
Ragusa, a former middle
school math teacher, to 10
years in prison for having
sex with two underage
students in 2008.
"As parents, we place our
trust in teachers to provide
a safe environment in which
our children can learn,"
Hillsborough County Circuit
Judge Chet Tharpe said in
handing down the sentence.
"You violated that trust in
the worst imaginable way."
Tharpe also sentenced Ragusa
to 15 years of sex offender
probation following her
prison time.
Ragusa, 31, pleaded guilty
in April to three counts of
lewd and lascivious battery
in a March 2008 case
involving a 14-year-old boy,
and two counts of having
unlawful sex with a minor in
an April 2008 case involving
a 16-year-old student.
Ragusa has been in jail
since she was arrested in
2008 leaving one of the
victims' homes.
Recent sentencing included
testimony from the victims'
families, who depicted
Ragusa as a sexual predator
who caused severe emotional
distress for their sons.
"Miss Ragusa maliciously and
intently preyed on my son
and the other boys," said
the mother of the
14-year-old victim. "She had
access to their charts as
far as their emotional
behaviors. ... I feel that
she was very conniving ...
in picking these boys out
and preying on them and
using that to manipulate
them and seduce them."
In a statement before her
sentencing, an emotional
Ragusa -- wearing an orange
jumpsuit and shackled at her
hands and ankles --
expressed remorse for her
actions. "I'm sincerely
sorry for the pain and
aggravation I have caused to
the victims and their
families," she said.
Her attorney, Robert Herce,
asked the judge to sentence
her to probation with time
served, saying she has spent
more time behind bars than
other people who have faced
similar charges.
A psychiatrist for the
defense also testified that
Ragusa has been diagnosed
with bipolar disorder and
borderline personality
disorder.But Tharpe issued
the maximum sentence and did
not hold back in his final
statement to Ragusa, calling
her a "danger to the
children in our community."
"You not only have disgraced
yourself, your family, but
also the teaching
profession," Tharpe said.
"And one thing that I have
gleaned out of this
sentencing hearing this
afternoon is you're a very
selfish person." He added
that he remained unconvinced
that Ragusa had accepted
responsibility in the case.
"You stopped only because
you got caught and put in
jail," Tharpe said.
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