he's in a very dangerous situation, and as far as we're concerned, he violated the Nunciatore's immunities when he went out and fetched an indicted criminal, then brought him inside and provided refuge.
'Advise the Nuncio that he's living in a bed of snakes who could care less about him and could kill him at any time.'
We then talked about the best way to get the women and children out of there, in order to simplify the situation.
Downing met Laboa in the elementary school.
'I'll do what I can to help,' Laboa said nervously when Downing gave him my message. It had scared him badly.
Then Downing asked, 'Will you authorize a rescue operation if we hear shots from inside? We believe Noriega has weapons.'
'I can do that,' Laboa answered.
'Will you put that in writing?'
'Yes,' the Nuncio responded.
'I have two other questions,' Downing said: 'Will you help us to get the women and children out?'
'Yes, of course.'
'And will you and your staff leave after that?'
'No, we can't do that,' Laboa replied, then went back inside the Nunciatore.
Thirty minutes later, a priest delivered an envelope with a note typed on Vatican parchment and signed by Laboa that authorized a rescue operation if shots were fired inside the Nunciatore. This was a 'get out of jail free' card for Laboa if anything beyond his control happened, but it was also our trump card. If anything
I quickly called General Thurman to give him an update. At the same time, I asked him for a change in his rules of engagement to allow an assault if the lives of those inside were in danger. This was approved by SECDEF.
Meanwhile, Downing went to work getting the women and children out, and it turned out they were not the only ones who were eager to leave; several men wanted out as well — all demanding to be flown to Nicaragua, Cuba, or Venezuela.
'We'll see about that,' Downing said.
Toward evening. Downing's old yellow Panzer Gruppe school bus rolled up, and about ten men and women and twelve children came out. They were then loaded and taken to a secure location, where they were segregated. The women and children were taken to their homes, and the men were sent to our detention camp.
'I didn't offer them asylum,' Downing said when he called me. 'I didn't have the authority. I just told them we'd work on it. But what I had to do is get the women and children out; it was a very dangerous situation.'
Still inside were Noriega, five of his henchmen, and the five Basque separatists — all bad people, except possibly for the chaplain, who may have stayed inside out of hope to take care of Noriega's spiritual needs.
In the meantime, while we tried to figure out how to get Noriega out of there, we'd begun to discover just how bad Noriega and his crew really were. Downing's task force had added ever more fascinating evidence to what Marc Cisneros had come up with after we captured the PDF side of Fort Amador.
On Christmas Eve, I received a call from Jim Johnson: 'We have secured Noriega's main residence in downtown Panama City,' he said, 'and found things you need to take a look at. I would recommend that you come out tomorrow.'
'What did you find?'
'He's heavily involved in witchcraft, for one thing. But that's only a beginning.' That caught my attention.
'I'll try to get out there tomorrow morning,' 1 told him.
When I dropped all this on my staff at a meeting that night, the J-2 spoke up: 'You won't believe this,' he announced, 'but 1 ran into a warrant officer in the MI Battalion with a master's degree in witchcraft. You need to take him along.'
'I didn't even know there was such a degree,' I said. 'But get him ready to go, and we'll leave tomorrow about eight-thirty.'
The next morning, I flew out and linked up with Johnson at Paitilla airfield. From there we were escorted to Noriega's house. When we got there, I had a hard time believing my eyes.
The house was lavishly furnished with gaudy 'objets d'art.' Large silver pelicans — estimated at about $25,000 each — were all over the place. In the main study was probably the biggest collection of ceramic frogs in the world. In the office was a world-class collection of busts of Hitler; he had at least twenty-five of them. Also in the office was a large poster board containing the pictures of the Catholic Church's representatives in each of the Central American countries with 'X' s marked beside several names. Presumably, an 'X' meant future elimination.
Behind the house was a patio, connecting the residence to what was called the 'girls' dollhouse,' built for his daughters when they were children; it was as large as most people's homes. On each end of the patio were two large altars set up for voodoo worship and witchcraft. Noriega had brought to Panama two 'high-powered witches from Brazil. One of them was reputed to be the world's leading witch; he lived on the causeway to Fort Amador in a house where at H-hour the SEALs had established a roadblock (I don't know what became of him).
The MI warrant officer explained each of the altars. On one was arranged containers of blood, a skull, crows' feathers, and cars of corn with multicolored kernels. All of this, the warrant officer explained, puts the 'worshiper' in the right frame of mind for some kind of atrocity or evil act.
On the other altar were arranged stuffed doves, pictures of babies, and other 'nice' things. The 'worshiper' would cleanse his soul here afterward.
In Noriega's bedroom were several pairs of red silk bikini underwear — a Noriega trademark. We had found them just about everywhere Noriega showed his face. According to the warrant officer, the witch doctor had likely told Noriega they would protect him from physical harm.
'Maintain tight security here,' I told Johnson as I left. 'I don't want anything disturbed before we show it to the right people. After that, we'll turn it over to Panamanian authority.' Among those whom I especially wanted to see all this — and what we had found at Fort Amador — were high-level officials of the Catholic Church. As soon as Noriega had himself brought to the Nunciatore, General Thurman started talking with the Catholic hierarchy, and of course with Washington, about ways to resolve the problem. When I got the chance, I suggested to Thurman that he invite some selected Catholic officials down to show them what we'd found.
It was an eyeful, that's for sure; but it gave us real insights into the man Noriega. It also began to give me ideas about how to get Noriega out of the Nunciatore.
The first thing I did after 1 left was meet with Downing. We were particularly interested in finding a use for Noriega's red underwear. For all we knew, he was wearing a pair right then. If he ever had a need for the powers they gave, it was certainly then.
Our first idea was to hang a pair on a clothesline outside his window (Laboa had told us where it was) and shoot them full of holes to show him how empty their powers were.
'I can take care of that,' Downing said, and the demonstration was carried out later that afternoon.
Meanwhile, I'd picked up an interesting detail from the warrant officer: A goat was a very bad omen. That set me thinking.
This led to an instruction to my J-2 to come up with the ugliest, stinkingest billygoat he could find, and doctor him up for Noriega. The next day the J-2 produced a goat with really impressive horns and a beard that came down just short of his knees. They decked him out in a pair of red bikini underwear, rigged him up so a remote control signal sent smoke blowing out of his nostrils and ears, and tied him outside Noriega window.
We never knew how Noriega took all this, but it couldn't have helped his digestion.
On the night of December 23, the media was cleared into Panama.
Well before the operation was launched, Thurman and I agreed on how we would work media affairs.
