Wikileaks adds little to Noriega story

On the big scale of things, Panama has got scant attention from the Wikileaks revelations with only one reference so far out of 250,000 U.S. State Department documents.

The leaked message was a cable sent by the United States Embassy in Panama to the Secretary of State in Washington on December 13, 1989, seven days before the American invasion.

It makes no mention of invasion plans and throws no new light on events that have been widely described in numerous books.
 The cable written by John Bushnell, then Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy said that the oppostion "shows signs of fatigue" while Noriega "is not giving signals that he has any intention of leaving voluntarily."
 The five-page message included an analysis of the political situation at the time in Panama, and predicted that Noriega would make use of "brutal tactics" to stay in power.
"Noriega will have to try to consolidate his control over the defense forces to avoid another uprising," said Bushnell, referring to the coup earlier in the year that led to the Albrook Massacre.
Bushnell said that, as a result of the coup, many of the more "professional" officers had been "killed, tortured or dismissed," and their replacements "lacked training, experience or intelligence" to fulfil their duties.
Bushnell also said that international pressure and economic sanctions were no more than an "irritant" to Noriega.
This recycling of widely known information seven days before U.S. forces invaded the country, could indicate that the decision to invade and remove Noriega from power had already been taken.

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