BUSH REPORTEDLY RESTORED NORIEGA TO CIA PAYROLL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370026-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: October 1, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370026-4
Bush reportedly
restored Noriega
to CIA payroll '~
Washington Bureau of The Sun
WASHINGTON -. Adm. Stans-'
field Turner, George Bush's success
sor as CIA director, said yesterday`
that Mr. Bush, as vice president, put.`
Panamanian strong man Manuel'
-Antonio Noriega back on the CIA'
payroll four years after Admiral
Turner removed him, United Pres's'
International reported yesterday.
Admiral Turner's charge, aired'
on two television networks last`
night, was immediately branded "pa=
tently false" by Stephen Hart, a
spokesman for Mr. Bush.
Admiral Turner told the new's'.
agency that he had General Noriega,.
then head of Panamanian military
intelligence, removed from the CIA's
payroll in 1977, the first year of tire'
Carter administration.
"He was an unscrupulous charac
ter. He was spying on us. He was not
the kind of character we should be
relying on." he was quoted as saying.'
Admiral Turner said that Mt:'
Bush, after taking office as vice press'
ident in 1981, "met with Noriega and
put him back on the payroll" as an
intelligence source. UPI reported. He
declined to say how he knew that td
be true but said, "I can tell you I am .
very confident of that."
UPI reported that Admiral Turn@r
spoke out in response to Mr. Bush's
assertion in Sunday's presidentiaf
debate that seven administrations
had been dealing with General Nor!
iega.
Mr. Hart, while declining to cot
ment on CIA activities, flatly denied
that Mr. Bush met with General Nor-
lega in 1981.
An intelligence source knowl=
edgeable about the U.S. relationship
with General Noriega said that As
vice president, Mr. Bush could not
have ordered William J. Casey. then
the CIA director, to put anyone oil
the CIA payroll, particularly given
Mr. Casey's close relationship with
President Reagan.
"As vice president of the U.S., he
can't do that, and he particularly
can't do it with Bill Casey" as CIA
director, he said.
FILE ONLY
The Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today.
The Chicago Tribune
Date -Z_Q~ 701- ~
However, the source said that
General Noriega's intelligence serv-
ice may have been enlisted, and
paid, to help in a U.S. operation, and
that the money could have ended up
in General Nortega's pocket.
"My best judgment is that Bush
would not have been instrumental"
in that kind, of operational decisio'Q,
he said. but. "could have jiven-111
strong suggestion:" t,
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,--, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100370026-4