2D EX-AIDE SAYS BUSH WAS WARNED ABOUT NORIEGA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580035-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: September 23, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401580035-3
STAT
2d ex-aide says
Bush was warned
about Noriega
By Tom Fiedler
lnQutrer Waahinttan Bureau
WASHINGTON -George Bush's
former chief of staff told a Senate
subcommittee in Julv that the vice
prestdent was an riled in "face=to-
face" CIA briefings as lone as fivg
years a o that the intelli
agency suspecte anamanian Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega of launder-
ing drug money.
The testimony of retired Adm. Dan-
iel Murphy, which has not been pre-
viously reported, raises new ques-
tions about when Bush learned of
Noriega's connections to the drug
trade.
Those questions arose anew yester-
day in a British television documen-
tary focusing on Noriega's alleged
involvement in the drug trade. A
former senior aide to Noriega, Col.
Roberto Diaz Herrera, said on the
broadcast that Bush complained to
Noriega, during a meeting in Decem-
ber 1983, about the laundering of
drug money.
Bush insisted during the GOP pri-
mary campaign that last February's
indictment of Noriega was the first
indication he had of the Panamanian
military leader's criminal activities.
But in May, Bush amended that
position after revelations that he had
attended the December 1983 meeting
during which the subject of drug
nied that Bush had discussed money-
laundering with Noriega, although
they confirmed that Bush attended
the December 1983 meeting with
Noriega and other Panamanian offi-
cials at the airport in Panama City.
Craig Fuller, Bush's current chief of
staff, said that Bush had raised the
subject of drug-money laundering,
but with other officials, not with
Noriega.
Murphy's testimony, given to the
Senate Foreign Relations subcommit?
tee on terrorism, narcotics and inter-
national communications, may be
the strongest yet suggesting that
Bush had been made aware of Norie-
ga's suspected involvement in the
drug trade as long as five years ago.
Murphy, now a Washington?based
consultant, was the vice president's
top aide from January 1981 to ApMI
1985. His duties included coordinat-
ing the activities of the South Flor-
ida Task Force on drug smuggling,
which Bush headed. Murphy did not
respond to a request for comment
yesterday.
Murphy told the Senate panel on
July 14 that he was present during
"face-to-face briefings of the CIA
men and the vice president." Bush
headed the CIA in 1976, and Murphy
served as his deputy director of intel-
ligence.
Asked b Sen. Brock Adams (D.,
Wash.) if the IA briefing officers
provided them with evidence that
Noriega was engaged to laundering
ru ro t^ts Murphy replied? "It was
suspectea that Nortega was launder-
m~move~'. _
"1_don't recall any evidenc wh rp
[the brtefing officer) would say there
was d~`tnttely money-laundering go-
inq on, but tt was suspected " Mur-
satd.
t was suspected at the time in the
Caymans and probably Panama and
it was definitely suspected in the
Bahamas," he said.
Murphy was careful in his testi-
mony to separate money-laundering
activities from drug transshipments
and said that Panama had a "very
high reputation in the fight against
drugs." He also indicated that nei-
ther he nor Bush attached signifi-
cance to the Noriega allegations be-
cause of Panama's cooperation in
stopping drug shipments at sea.
Bush campaign aides yesterday d~
the U.S. ambassador to Panama.
drug activities were alluded to l~
meeting in 1985 in which Noriega
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Date
"I would have not had tats Impres-
sion if we had intelligence that Nor-
iega was this bum" involved in the
drug trade, Murphy said.
The issue of what Bush knew of
Noriega's drug profiteering and
.when he may have known it has
troubled his candidacy since Norie?
ga's indictment by two federal grand
juries in Florida in February.
Democratic presidential candidate
Michael S. Dukakis has pointed to the
Noriega case as an example of Bush's
mismanagement of the administra-
tion's drug war.
Last May, another senior Bush
aide, Donald P. Gregg, said in a depo-
sition that Bush had been told on
Dec. 16, 1985, of Noriega's possible
involvement in the drug trade.
Gregg, the vice president's national
security adviser, testified under oath
that Bush was told by then-U.S. Am-
bassador Everett Briggs that Noriega
"was a growing problem politically,
militarily and possibly in the drug
area."
Gregg also testified that Bush had
been told by Panamanian President
? Ricardo de la Espriella at the Decem-
ber 1983 airport meeting that pub-
lished reports in the Miami Herald
about suspected involvement of top-
level Panamanian officials in the
drug trade "aren't true." Gregg
quoted Bush as replying: "I wasn't
aware of them. If I had been, I would
have raised them with you."
The deposition prompted Bush to
qualify his earlier statements that he
had had no hint of Noriega's possible
involvement in drug trafficking un-
til February, when he was indicted
by two federal grand juries. Press
aide Peter Teeley told reporters in
May that what Bush had meant was
that he hadn't seen any "concrete
evidence" of Noriega's involvement
- leaving open the possibility that
Bush had heard unverified reports.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401580035-3