FORMER CIA DIRECTOR TURNER: PANAMA INVASION 'A MISTAKE'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: February 3, 1990
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

L
ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370014-7
STAT
The Washington Poet
The New York Timex
The Washington Times
..The wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daiy New"
USA Today
The Chbapo Tribune
T'
Date
Former CIA Director Turner:
Panama Invasion `A Mistake'
Jimmy Carta.
In an interview after the pre-
sentation, Turner discussed his
own relations with deposed Pan-
amanian leader Manuel Antonio
Noriega as well as George Bush's
invasion of the country.
Turner said Bush's action was
unwarranted.
"I think we're just beginning to
pay the price to improve his do-
mestic policy image," he said.
After sending 24,000 American
troops to the central American
nation just before Christmas,
Bush gave four reasons to justify
the invasion. Turner disputed
each of them.
First, Turner said the Panama
Canal was not in danger; as the
president had asserted.
Second, he said Bush's rhetoric
about promoting democracy was
weak considering the world has
By BRYAN PFEIFFER
Times Argus Staff
NORTHFIELD - Admiral
Stansfield Turner, former director
of central intelligence, said the
invasion of Panama was a mis-
take that undermines America's
reputation abroad.
"We are going to pay a big
price for this," he said during a
stop in Northfield Thursday.
Turner engaged Norwich Uni-
versity cadets in a dialogue about
ethics and tough decisions he
personally made as a naval officer
and later as CIA director under
more than 100 other undemo-
cratic nations, many of which en-
joy relations with the United
States.
"If we're going to establish
democracy...then we've got a big
job on our hands," he said.
Third, Bush's claim of wanting
to halt Noriega's alleged drug
dealing did not warrant a full-
scale invasion, he said.
"Twenty-four thousand troops
to stop one drug smuggler is more
than we normally employ," he
said.
And finally, Turner said the
president overreacted to the death
of an American serviceman before
the invasion. Although he called
the shooting wrong, Turner said
the serviceman was running from
a Panamanian roadblock, which
he called 'unwise."
A former NATO commander in
Southern Europe, Turner said the
invasion now makes it difficult to
criticize the Soviet Union for sim-
ilar actions - such as sending
troops into Azerbaijan.
And he said the military action
has stirred passions of nati-
onalism in Central America and
assured a Sandanista victory in
Nicaraguan elections later this
month.
As for his own dealings with
Noriega, Turner said, "We had no
illusions that he was a God-
fearing, honest citizen."
He said Jimmy Carter's CIA
used Noriega as an intelligence
contact, but did not have him on
the country's payroll.
"There is no question in my
mind that when I knew of Nori-
ega that he was doing illegal
things," he said, calling the
former leader a "nefarious, un-
ethical character."
But Turner said he had no
knowledge of Noriega's ties to
drug trafficking.
A former Rhodes scholar,
Turner is now a professor of na-
tional security at the U.S. Mili-
tary Academy at West Point.
Turner addressed the Norwich
corps of cadets as this week's
President's Leadership Speaker.
Pape 2 Z$
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370014-7 --