As last Iraqi POW released, Noriega only US POW

[struggle4progress]

Source: Reuters

16 Aug 2007 14:54:55 GMT
By Jane Sutton

MIAMI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - ... Iraq's former Air Force commander, Hamid Raja Shalah Al-Tikriti, was captured in June 2003 and is the last enemy POW held by coalition forces, a U.S. military spokeswoman said ... The military declined to give details of his release but said recently it would take place within two weeks ...

Shalah's release will leave Noriega as the only captive the United States recognizes as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions. He is due to be released in September from a federal prison in Miami where he is serving a drug trafficking sentence.

Noriega was a general who led Panama's military, which made him de facto leader of the country. A U.S. judge presiding over his drug-smuggling trial in Miami granted him POW status because he surrendered to U.S. troops that invaded Panama in 1989 ...



Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16338560.htm

[Kagemusha]

1. Uh he's a POW but he's serving a criminal sentence?

How does that compute?

[DURHAM D]

2. Because Bush 41 -

(who personally selected Pineapple Face after Bush/CIA killed off the prior Panamanian leader because he would not accept US bribes) wanted it that way.

[struggle4progress]

3. Noriega helped the CIA run drugs-for-gun swaps to benefit the contras in Reagan's war

on Nicaragua; then he made the mistake of thinking the CIA owed him bigtime.

GHWB got heckled for his role in this, by other Repub candidates during the 88 primary season; having blathered about being "out of the loop" on the whole unsavory collection of slanders, he really wanted the matter put to rest; that meant taking Noriega down hard.

So US bombed Panama and, being unsuccessful at killing Noriega in the process, US brought him back for trial. There was no way that case could have been dropped.

[Kagemusha]

4. But why is he a POW?... Why is he counted as that? What war?

If he's a normal criminal with a normal criminal sentence, why is he a POW? Why does he need to be a POW?

[MADem]

5. According to the article

Noriega was a general who led Panama's military, which made him de facto leader of the country. A U.S. judge presiding over his drug-smuggling trial in Miami granted him POW status because he surrendered to U.S. troops that invaded Panama in 1989.

"He's the only POW in the United States," said Simon Schorno, a spokesman in Washington for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors enforcement of the Geneva Conventions.

[struggle4progress]

7. What war!? .... uh, the US invaded Panama in 1989 ... Remember?

Because GHWB decided to take Noriega down?

But Noriega didn't follow the CIA plan, according to which he should have gotten himself killed: instead, he surrendered.

http://www.cnn.com.nyud.net:8090/SPECIALS/1999/panama.canal/stories/government/1989.intervention.jpg

http://www.critica.com.pa.nyud.net:8090/archivo/historia/imaweb/f14-01.jpg

http://www.suasponte.com.nyud.net:8090/photos/modern%20rangers/smoke.jpg

http://www.countdown.org.nyud.net:8090/end/pix/panama1989.jpg

http://www.empowermentproject.org.nyud.net:8090/images/elchorrillo2.jpg

[David__77]

8. That war was revolting.

It's interesting how such things fade from collective consciousness.

[Kagemusha]

9. Uh, okay. That's not really my point, but fine...

I didn't really view it as much of a war because I didn't see how the "enemy" fought back worth a damn, but that's NOT the point at all.

The point is, I thought you did NOT charge POW's with regular crimes - and if you did, they're not POW's anymore. They're common criminals. I was not aware the two statuses mixed whatsoever. This is new to me.

[noel adamson]

6. As I recall they (officially) considered the crack epidemic an assault on the U.S....

...and sought to distance themselves (themselves = GHW Bush and his neocon conspirators running the Reagan administration)from the flooding of black neighborhoods in South Central L.A. with this crap and military weapons in connection with the Iran-Contra treason. The Contras were terrorists in the real sense of the word using torture to intimidate their opponents. Leaving tortured bodies of young men for their mothers to find etc. The Contras were the army of the ousted brutal American puppet dictator Samoza.

Not only did the neocons need Noriega silenced but the U.S. needed a more secure puppet in Panama to maintain control of the Panama canal. Our hundred year lease was up.

[auburngrad82]

10. It's misleading. They don't count Gitmo's "enemy combatants" as POWs

Which is a crock of shit. Now the ditto heads and sheeple following Bush into oblivion can say, "see, we don't have any POWs!"