order to "unnerve Noriega and the Nuncio," Monsignor LaBoa. Noriega was reputed to be an opera
lover.
At the same time, Bush ordered the State Department to carry out real acts of thuggery in making
threatening representations to the Holy See. It became clear that Roman Catholic priests, nuns,
monks and prelates would soon be in danger in many countries of Ibero-America. Nevertheless, the
Vatican declined to expel Noriega from the Nunciatura in accordance with US demands. Bush'sforces in Panama had shown they were ready to play fast and loose with diplomatic immunity. A (^)
number of foreign embassies were broken into by US troops while they were frantically searching
for Noriega, and the Cuban and Nicaraguan Embassies were ringed with tanks and troops in a ham-
handed gesture of intimidation. It is clear that in this context, Bush contemplated the storming of
the Nunciatura by US forces. Perhaps he was deterred by the worldwide political consequences hewould have faced. When the German Wehrmacht occupied Rome during the war years of 1943-44, (^)
Hitler had never dared to order an incursion into the sovereign territory of the Vatican. Could Bush
face the opprobrium of having ordered what Hitler himself had ruled out? At this point, Bush's
criminal energy failed him, and he had to look for other options.
These were difficult days for Bush. On December 27, he gave another press conference during
which he was asked:
Q: Do you fear that Mr. Noriega might disclose any CIA information that could embarrass you or
the government?
Bush: No.
Q: Nothing whatsoever?
Bush: I don't think so. I think that's history and I think that the main thing is that he should be triedand brought to justice and we are pursuing that course with no fear of that. You know, we may get
into some release of certain confidential documents, that he may try to blind side the whole justice
process, but the system works, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Q: Would you opehas been in other cases? n up any documents that he might request so that there'd be no question as there
Bush: There would be enough to see that he's given a totally fair trial.
New Year's Day was excruciating for Busfootball scores yeilding only to speculation on howh, since this was another holiday spent at home with long Noriega would elude Bush's legions. The (^)
manifest refusal of the Vatican to expel Noriega seemed to deprive Bush's aggression of its entire
moral justification: if Noriega was what Bush claimed, why did the Pope John Paul II decline to
honor the imperative US demand for custody? While Bush squirmed in agony waiting for the Rose
Bowl to end, he began to think once again of People Power.
In Panama City, the Endara-Ford-Arias Calderon forces mobilized their BMW base and hired
hundreds of those who had nothing to eat for militant demonstrations outside of the Nunciatura.
These were liberally seeded with US special forces and other commandos in civilian clothes. As the
demonstrations grew more menacing, and the US troops and tanks made no move to restrain them,it was clear that the US forces were preparing to stage a violent but "spontaneous" assault by the
masses on the Nunciatura that would include the assassination of Noriega and the small group of his
co-workers who had accompanied him into that building. At about this time Msgr. Laboa warned
Noriega, "you could be lynched like Mussolini." Noriega appears to have concluded that remaining
in the Nunciatura meant certain death for himself and his subordinates at the hands of the US