Summary

GENERAL MAXWELL THURMAN, WHO PLANNED AND IS OPERATING THE INVASION OF PANAMA (DUBBED OPERATION JUST CAUSE) BRIEFS REPORTERS ON PROGRESS.

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 275818
Story Slug Pentagon briefing / Panama invasion (1989)
Location WASHINGTON, DC
Format TVD
Date 12/22/1989
Archive Time 45:07
TRT 3:53
Supers Gen. Maxwell Thurman
Video Description THURMAN AT PODIUM AND WITH MAPS
Description GENERAL MAXWELL THURMAN, WHO PLANNED AND IS OPERATING THE INVASION OF PANAMA (DUBBED OPERATION JUST CAUSE) BRIEFS REPORTERS ON PROGRESS.
Script (SUGGESTED TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO) 00:00 We've been in a headquarters of the man that has run this show, Mr. Noriega. I don't call him a general, because he doesn't deserve that title, and he is clearly not only a narco trafficker, but in under going through the material that we found in his quarters that we've occupied, apparently, he is condones or uses the stuff himself, and we've kept more than 50 kilograms of cocaine that's been seized from his headquarters office, a man who's kept a picture of Adolf Hitler in his closet, kept a ready supply of pornography in his desk. And some of you been out to an area where his voodoo practitioners in his guest house, where they practice rituals for Noriega's protection, my understanding of what we have found here, and Mr. Noriega's fast arsenal, which is clear, seems to me that he has well intended on turning this country into a substantial threat to the freedom of navigation and the use of the Panama Canal, and had it gone on much longer, then that would have given us substantial problems to handle. You've been meeting in the streets of mischief, as you call it. Is that more than you expected, or less than you expected before this operation started? Yeah, I would say that the residual dignity, battalion strength and persistence about that is probably a little bit greater than I would have expected at the onset. However, we knew that they were arming those people, and I guess the thing that I've really learned since the exercise began is that with the cachets that have been gotten it, the target population of the dignity battalions was considerably larger than what we had estimated. Exercise. This is a shooting war down here. Yes, that's right, that's right. 02:32 There aren't people in 02:35 dignity battalions who are creating that business and that when you get a bullet fired at you, that's a war. So you're saying it's no longer an activity. No, it's not an activity. Now, you may have used the wrong term about that, but what I am saying to you is there a significant amount of terroristic, armed terroristic activity going on, and we have to pursue it until we clean it up. And the other thing I wanted to make to you is that you understand the work done in previous climates, in terms of being in either the United States, where our own internal problems or elsewhere, it takes a little while to do that, and so we're hard at it, and we're keeping on the offensive about it, but it takes work to clean it out, and it's going to Take a few days, obviously, to clean it out. You bet you bet your boots. They were hostile. Okay, a lot of troopers had a lot of firefights out there, and in so doing, you overwhelmed that, and you received them as detainees of the US government until such time as we can rehabilitate them through the local government. And so what I'm saying to you is it takes a while, and so I don't have a target date. I have a persistent view to go get the job done. That's what I am. Yes, I.
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Keywords

PANAMA INVASION
MILITARY
OPERATION JUST CAUSE
GENERAL MAXWELL THURMAN
NORIEGA
PANAMA CANAL
DRUGS
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