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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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110689
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1990-10-10
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NATION, Page 35The Stovepipe ProblemThe real "micromanager" on Panama was the President
In the continuing exchange of recriminations about the failed
coup against Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, the Bush
Administration last week loudly accused Congress of trying to
micromanage intelligence matters. At the same time, however, a
National Security Council review indicates that if anyone was
micromanaging, it was the President, who picked up some unhealthy
habits during his year as President Ford's CIA director.
As chief spymaster, Bush learned to compartmentalize
information, drawing on many sources but sharing little of what he
knew or how he was leaning. As President, he continues the
practice; much undigested and conflicting intelligence from Panama
was "stovepiped" straight to the Chief Executive and his top aides,
bypassing lower-level experts who would normally sort it out. Some
Bush aides now admit privately that this practice confused the U.S.
response to the Panamanian coup. The compartmentalization of
information, says one senior Administration official, is "a
destructive trait in any President. The information the President
has is not shared with enough people to allow him to head off bad
ideas."
Despite these conclusions, the Administration is using the
furor over Panama to seek more leeway to assist a coup that, while
not intended to kill Noriega or an other foreign leader, might wind
up doing just that. At the same time, Bush last week assured the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he would give it
"timely notice" of covert actions, at least within a matter of days
(in contrast to the ten months that Ronald Reagan once took).
Before Bush flew to Central America to join regional leaders
in Costa Rica on Friday, new details emerged about covert U.S.
plans aimed at overthrowing Noriega in July and October 1988. These
plans, the Administration noted, were blocked by some of the same
Senators who last month criticized Bush as timid. Members of the
Senate intelligence committee, both Democratic and Republican,
defend their caution. One congressional source described the
October plan as an ill-defined "hodgepodge." Committee spokesman
James Currie added that conducting any high-risk covert operation
just before a presidential election could unduly and unpredictably
influence the election if the operation became public. Said Currie:
"No matter what side you're on, you probably don't want to let a
U.S. election turn on that kind of crap shoot, especially if
there's no reason it has to be done right then."