unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)
That's separate and apart from the proposition of whether or not
we would have made a decision, had we, for example, seen the 7th
Infantry Company moving from west of the city down the road where
our forces were deployed in and around Howard Air Force Base.
That's the kind of decision that would have come up the chain
rapidly to the President, and he would have been given the
opportunity to make the broad policy decision, if yes, we want to
intervene militarily. That decision was never made.
Q: Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you to clarify two points that
have come up in news reports today. There's a report in the
Wall St. Journal that several weeks before the coup took place
the wife of Major Giraldi relayed some sort of message to U.S.
officials indicating that he was interested in pursuing a coup
and wanted our support. There was also a report that the rebels
had asked us to help transport Noriega from his compound to some
other location. Perhaps they were not asking, were not going to
place him in U.S. custody, they were simply going to transport
him from the compound to some other place where he would be in
their custody or in retirement. But did they ask us to
transport by helicopter or some other means, Noriega from that
compound, if not into U.S. custody?
A: To my knowledge they did not. I never heard either one of
those reports until you saw them in the newspaper this morning.
I don't have any way of knowing what Major Giraldi's wife may or
may not have done three weeks ago. The first I heard of Major
Giraldi, the first that Washington people in the chain of
command, General Powell and myself, ever heard of Major Giraldi
in this regard with respect to the coup was the report we got
early Monday morning. If there were contacts between her and U.S.
officials, we have a lot of officials in Panama. I can't vouch for
that, but I know the beginning date, the time at which we first
got involved in being informed that there might be a coup or
that he was contemplating a coup was after the meeting Sunday
night when I was contacted by General Powell who in turn had
been contacted through SOUTHCOM very early Monday morning. I
don't know what transpired (inaudible)
Q: On the second part?
A: On the second part, no. In the conversations that tour
people had with the people involved in the coup during the
coup--this exchange, remember, that occurred in Panama between
one of our senior officers on the scene and representatives of
the rebels--again, they made it very clear to us that they would
not turn him over to us. There was no suggestion, will you move
him from one spot to another spot. It simply didn't happen.
Q: Mr. Secretary, there's been some finger pointing out of the
White House, pointing in the direction of the Pentagon, saying
that not enough information or incorrect information was getting
through so that Mr. Bush could make the proper decisions. Is
that true? Have you heard that? Have yo been asked about it by
the White House? Have you been accused?
A: Who at the White House? The President in conversations with
me on the telephone on Tuesday afternoon and again, as recently
as this morning at the White House in person, has expressed his
very strong feeling that the Department and the military
specifically involved performed well; that any suggestion of any
criticism does not come from him. The only thing I can suggest
is that as is true a lot of places, not all the Monday morning
quarterbacks reside on Capitol Hill.
Q: Did the information that the rebel leaders had gone to talk
to Genera Cisneros about Noriega, did that information get up to
Washington and to the President?
A: It did. There were two meetings, as I recall, on Tuesday. I
first received word that the coup had actually occurred, it was
underway or appeared to be underway Tuesday morning when I was
on the bus with General Yazov up touring the Gettysburg
Battlefield in Pennsylvania. This was a previously scheduled
event and we were sitting in the front seat of the bus with the
tour guide describing how the Confederate and Union forces
engaged one another on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 1863, when my
military assistant passed to me a portable phone. I took the
call. It was General Powell calling from the Pentagon to tell me
that in fact it looked like a coup was indeed underway at that
point in Panama.
I was up there the first few hours, Tuesday morning. I was back
here in the building around 11:00 o'clock. We held a meeting at
the White House at 11:45 that ran until roughly 12:30. We had
another one that started about 1:40 that had been previously
scheduled for the President to meet with General Yazo General
Yazov waited outside while we met with the President and
discussed developments in Panama. That second meeting was when
we had information available to us that in fact there had been a
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today?
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-