1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:09,200 Speaker 1: Mcast, Part two, Robert Evans Behind the Bastards, Panama, Chelsea 2 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: Manning guests, Chelsea, how are you doing? On several minutes 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: after we last off, Hey, how's it calling? Uh, it's 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: still snowing, still snowing. It is not snowing here. The 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:22,599 Speaker 1: snow apocalypse is is starting to end here. So I 6 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: wanted to chat about something before we getting back into Panama. 7 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: I've become aware that the state of Ohio is advertising 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: on our podcast a lot about how how good a 9 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: place to move Ohio is. Well, that's because everywhere is Ohio, 10 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 1: is it? It's all Ohio. It's a it's just Ohio 11 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,639 Speaker 1: straight on down. I don't know. My experience in Cleveland 12 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,280 Speaker 1: suggests that there's something unique about Ohio. Maybe it's the 13 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,200 Speaker 1: way the river repeatedly caught on fire in the seventies. Yeah, 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: well you know it's it's Uh, there's a vast conspiracy 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: that has been keeping this from you, that every every 16 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: everywhere is Ohio. It's just all Ohios. Yes, well, that's 17 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: actually the greatest tragedy I can imagine. But I'm not. 18 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: I'm not on the pro Ohio faction. Why why is 19 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,479 Speaker 1: Ohio choosing to advertise on our podcast. I think they 20 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: think that a lot of are They're trying to get 21 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: people to start businesses in Ohio. Um, I don't. I 22 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: don't know why. I just didn't want anyone to think 23 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: that I'm a chill for Ohio. I'm this is a 24 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: firmly anti Ohio podcast. I was going to say, we're 25 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: not going to guess, according to Chelsea, means that we're 26 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: now anti the entire world. So because everywhere is Ohio, 27 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: I guess we're gonna have to go full joker here. 28 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: So if you are in a nuclear stilo right now 29 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: listening to a podcast that you have saved on your phone, 30 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: I guess we're now advising you to start the apocalypse. 31 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: So also, I just want the listeners to know that 32 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: I feel like I am now face timing with my 33 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: mom because Robert is only showing the top of his 34 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: forehead on the mid shot. I have to be in 35 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: I'm gonna Mac mansion right now and it doesn't have 36 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: a good recording room. Shout out to my mom, who's 37 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: the best person. Petty bourgeois this is this is the 38 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 1: pettiest bourgeois place. I mean, that's PLAINO in a nutshell right, 39 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: it's the land of thirty millionaires. Um, yeah, it is 40 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: where it is where all of your chips and all 41 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,880 Speaker 1: of your your missile guidance systems come from my my 42 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: high school. Like most of the kids there's parents either 43 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: worked for Friedo Lay or Ray Theon. So, Um, it's 44 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: a great place. In other words, Um, it's not Chelsea. 45 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: Are you ready to dive into America's war on biology 46 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: in order to make Panama safe for white people? Quite 47 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: frankly no, but I think we're going to do that anyway. 48 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: That's exactly what Panama said back in the eighteen well 49 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: the whole time really, So when we last left Panama, 50 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,079 Speaker 1: it was being turned in a canal into a canal 51 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 1: in order to further US financial and military interests. Obviously, 52 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,239 Speaker 1: as we talked about with the Suez Canal, which killed 53 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty thousand people, building canals is a 54 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: terrible thing to do. You should never make canals. At 55 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:10,919 Speaker 1: least they didn't have a biom to deal with Jesus. 56 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it was. It was about like Panama 57 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: was not as rough as Suez obviously, but was a 58 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: rough place to build a canal. Um, and the work 59 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:22,919 Speaker 1: couldn't be done entirely by non white people, whose desk 60 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: could be easily ignored by the United States, and this 61 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: is why they had to quest to make the canal 62 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: zone biologically safe, which mostly meant eliminating mosquitoes which could 63 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,640 Speaker 1: cause transmit both malaria and yellow fever. Now, the man 64 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: put in charge of this Titanic effort was Dr William 65 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: Gorgeous born Gorgus I guess g O R g A S. 66 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: I don't think it's pronounced gorgeous. Born in Alabama in 67 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four to an explosives expert, Young will grew 68 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: up obsessed with the military. He later admitted to skimming 69 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: the Bible just just so he could read all of 70 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: the battle scenes. William tried to enroll in West Point 71 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: as a young man, but he failed to make the cut, 72 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: and instead he went to Bellevue Medical School and then 73 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: joined the army as a doctor. He served on the 74 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: frontier during the Indian Wars, particularly in South Dakota, and 75 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: then he was stationed in Cuba. After the US invasion 76 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: in eight The Americans in Cuba ran into the same 77 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: problem that they would later hit in Panama, disease in 78 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: Cuba's case, this was yellow fever. Gorgas was point was 79 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,080 Speaker 1: put in charge of the effort of ridding the island 80 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,840 Speaker 1: of mosquitoes. His first task was to mandate that all 81 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:30,239 Speaker 1: Havannah residents cover cover cisterns, which are like open pots 82 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: of water, or pay a fine. He devoted army engineers 83 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: to the task of filling in and eradicating all standing 84 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: bodies of water, and in about eight months Gorgons succeeded 85 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,039 Speaker 1: in wiping out yellow fever in Havana. So it seemed 86 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:44,240 Speaker 1: like he was pretty good at this job of making 87 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: tropical islands and tropical areas safer for for white people 88 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: to live in uh and he was considered a natural 89 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: fit for the job of ending malaria in Panama. The 90 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: Canal Treaty the US had signed with some guy who 91 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: wasn't Panamanian gave the United States the right to administer 92 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 1: annotation not just in the canal zone, but in all 93 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: Panamanian cities in any land the US might later decided 94 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: wanted to use for some reason. Gorgons thus became the 95 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,120 Speaker 1: director of public health for the whole nation. In effect, 96 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: at least, so this treaty where we're like yeah, we 97 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,440 Speaker 1: could basically do what everyone in the canal zone. Leads 98 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: to us being able to put a guy in charge 99 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 1: of public health for all of Panama. And when I 100 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: say he's in charge of public health, he's not really 101 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: in charge of everyone's health. He's in charge of ensuring 102 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,359 Speaker 1: public health of the white people in Panama. Right. His 103 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: first degree was that all man made bodies of standing 104 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,720 Speaker 1: water must be eliminated. It turned out that the French 105 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: canal builders had started a practice of leaving open water 106 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: jugs at the base of their bed legs to keep 107 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: ants away, which probably explains why so many of them 108 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: died of malaria. The initial steps Gorge Gorgons took were 109 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 1: pretty reasonable, but things very quickly turned Authoritarian inspectors were 110 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: sent to enter every single home in Panama City in 111 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:57,159 Speaker 1: Cologne to look for open barrels and jugs of water. 112 00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: They did this on a regular basis, and violations were 113 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,159 Speaker 1: punished by fines, so he makes like water police, basically 114 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,800 Speaker 1: to make sure that people are not creating breeding grounds 115 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: from mosquitoes. The bulk of u S efforts, however, were 116 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: devoted to an omnocidal war on nature in order to 117 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: reduce the mosquito population, and I'm gonna quote here from 118 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:19,040 Speaker 1: Emperors in the jungle. Much of the Sanitary Department's efforts 119 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: focused on the non human world by cutting down and 120 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: poisoning the environment in which insects and rodents lived. Puddles 121 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: of fresh water that formed without human aid made excellent 122 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,160 Speaker 1: breeding places for mosquitoes. One of the methods employed to 123 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: eliminate such breeding places was simply to do away with 124 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: the jungle. Many square miles of jungle in the command 125 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: in the Canal zone were cut or burned during the 126 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: construction period, wrote the Chief Sanitary Inspector in nineteen sixteen, 127 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 1: which increased evaporation from sunlight, shortened the mosquito season, and 128 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: enabled the sanitary soldiers to locate hidden water. It also 129 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: facilitated sanitary social control. Clearing made it impossible for the 130 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: negroes to throw containers into the tall grass or brush, 131 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,080 Speaker 1: neither houses without detection. He added. Another important tactic is 132 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: to spread oil and other larva sides on all standing water, 133 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,280 Speaker 1: which killed mosquito larvae by by depriving them of oxygen. 134 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: The Sanitary Department devised myriad ways to distribute the oil 135 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: from sprinkling cans to horse drawn oil barrels. At the 136 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: peak of this method, the sanitation men distributed sixty five 137 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: thousand gallons of crude oil a month on the isthmus 138 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: As waters. So they are just pouring gasoline into fresh 139 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: water in order to kill mosquitoes, man versus nature. Winning 140 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: the wall. All the took was poisoning the thing we 141 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: need to survive with gasoline. Yeah. Now, as Gorgeous and 142 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:39,000 Speaker 1: others pointed out, the importation of a large number of 143 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 1: foreigners who were not immune to yellow fever favored propagation 144 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: of disease, as the non immunes also became carriers of 145 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: the fever once it was introduced through even a single case. 146 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: The physical construction also radically disrupted the environment, leading in 147 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: some cases to malarial mosquito incubators of the kind that 148 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,960 Speaker 1: Gorgus's sanitation department was opposing fines on Panamanians to eliminate 149 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 1: the canal. We're itself was constantly creating the most desirable 150 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: places for the same great biological purpose were, wrote Gorgus's widow. 151 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: Every time a steam shovel made a deep hole, water 152 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: would almost immediately collect, and the anopolies malarial mosquitoes would 153 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: at once seek such a depression as a breeding ground. 154 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen twelve, for example, the suction dredgers employed to 155 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 1: deepen the canal Ditch and Gatton pumped immense quantities of 156 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: saltwater and silt into the jungle, killing the trees and vegetation. 157 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: The resulting mass of dead matter generated a swamp that 158 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: attracted swarms of an afolies mosquitoes. As a result, the 159 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:33,559 Speaker 1: death rate from malaria in nineteen o six was higher 160 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:35,680 Speaker 1: than it was for workers from the French Canal effort 161 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: from eighteen eighty eight to nineteen o three. So there's 162 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: a couple of fascinating things about how badly they funk up. 163 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: One of them is that they focus all these authoritarian measures, 164 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: basically building a police force to punish black people from 165 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: leading jugs of water, while at the same time they're 166 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: creating these massive miles long mosquito incubators by digging these 167 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: holes which fill up with water, and by poisoning huge 168 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: chunks of jungle and turning them into swamps. So they're 169 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:05,720 Speaker 1: like they're blaming they're both blaming the mosquitoes having a 170 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: place to breed on black people having jugs of water 171 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: without covers and they're creating land for mosquitoes to breed 172 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: in order to build this canal. It's pretty rad. Yeah. 173 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:17,440 Speaker 1: And what what I what I think is fascinating is 174 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: just like looking at the looking at the map here, 175 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:23,400 Speaker 1: like the garden locks are like the shortest section of 176 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,559 Speaker 1: the entire Like they have to make this huge cut 177 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: through the mountains on the on the east side, but 178 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 1: on the west side they have like this very short thing. 179 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: But it's like it's it's biologically treacherous, it's you know, 180 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 1: it's got it's got all the standing water everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, 181 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 1: it's it's a fascinating situation that I didn't realize, Like 182 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:48,959 Speaker 1: I I assumed because I'd heard as a kid that 183 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: like the Panama and Al bunch people died from Lariay. 184 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:52,960 Speaker 1: It assume as just because there's a ton of malario 185 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: malarialist mosquitoes like in in the area. I didn't realize that, 186 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:00,840 Speaker 1: like number one, we brought a out of the problem 187 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: with malaria there by both like the kind of people 188 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: we imported to build the canal, and by the fact 189 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:08,880 Speaker 1: that we made breeding grounds and we like poisoned the 190 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,719 Speaker 1: jungle with salt water and created a rotting swamp that 191 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,840 Speaker 1: the mosquitoes would love, like I I yeah, I assumed 192 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:16,400 Speaker 1: it was just like yeah, it was just always really 193 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 1: dangerous before modern medicine to build stuff in Panama and 194 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 1: it turns out like no, no, no, yeah, it was 195 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: bad engineering, like we made it so dangerous, which is 196 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: rad now. It's worth noting Chelsea that yellow fever and 197 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: malaria were the only diseases that US occupiers concerned themselves 198 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,160 Speaker 1: with fighting, despite the fact that pneumonia actually killed more people. 199 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 1: From nineteen o six to nineteen o seven, pneumonia killed 200 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,720 Speaker 1: twice as many workers as malaria, but nine of the 201 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 1: people who died of pneumonia were classified by the US 202 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:50,840 Speaker 1: as colored, and thus their deaths were considered acceptable. Gorgus 203 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:54,040 Speaker 1: and his men were taught were tasked with fighting tropical diseases, 204 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: and in European medical literature at the time, the definition 205 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: of a tropical disease was a zase that affected white 206 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:07,320 Speaker 1: people in the tropics. That's that's and that's interesting that, 207 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,839 Speaker 1: I mean, that is interesting. It is yeah, I mean 208 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,480 Speaker 1: it's fun, but it's also interesting, like yeah, just it 209 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:15,440 Speaker 1: never like you know, like in terms of like how 210 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,280 Speaker 1: it was like how these things were classified. Yeah, I 211 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:20,560 Speaker 1: had no idea that like that that it was literally 212 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: down to so it's sort of like it was. It was. 213 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: So it's like it's sort of like black lung from 214 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:31,760 Speaker 1: like being exposed to like construction dust too. Yeah, it was. 215 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,400 Speaker 1: It was both the dust and there was another factor 216 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:37,440 Speaker 1: in like why the pneumonia was so bad, Like obviously 217 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 1: like the construction by a product, all the oil and 218 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: stuff that's everywhere has an impact. Also, these colored you 219 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: know generally black Caribbean canal workers were bringing brought brought 220 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,720 Speaker 1: into Panama live in these filthy converted box cars where 221 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:53,200 Speaker 1: they sleep six dozen to a room and there's no 222 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: mosquito screens, right, and they often had to use jars 223 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 1: and bottles as their bathrooms because the actual houses were 224 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,520 Speaker 1: distant and like across a swamp or something. Um so, 225 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,679 Speaker 1: and and you know this is again how the the 226 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: the black Caribbean employees are being treated. All white employees 227 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,160 Speaker 1: received furnished departments in the cities and they probably just 228 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:17,960 Speaker 1: didn't even get a proper diagnosis for like for like 229 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,960 Speaker 1: basic bacterial infections. No, of course not. And this and 230 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,640 Speaker 1: this is a pre penilla. This this is pre penisilla too, 231 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: So it's not all on the Some of the difficulty 232 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:28,320 Speaker 1: with treating it is they don't really know how. But 233 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,680 Speaker 1: the fact that they don't care about these people's comfort 234 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 1: or sanitation is why pneumonia spread so much. And they 235 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: also don't care about pneumonia because it's not hurting white people, um, 236 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: which is great. Uh. And the reason and there was 237 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,280 Speaker 1: like this was not just taken for granted. They spent 238 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: time to justify why white workers needed furnished departments while 239 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: black workers could live in these like filthy, crowded box cars. Uh. 240 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:56,880 Speaker 1: And the reason that white people needed a more comfortable 241 00:12:56,920 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: living situation was to stave off degenerate. So there were 242 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:06,640 Speaker 1: two schools of medical thought about how the tropics affected 243 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: white people at the time. One school believed that tropical 244 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: climates were inherently and specifically toxic to white human beings. 245 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:17,959 Speaker 1: As one doctor named Balfour wrote, there are those who 246 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,120 Speaker 1: believe that it is very doubtful if the white man 247 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: can accomplish manual work out of doors under true tropical conditions, 248 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:25,719 Speaker 1: and that if he tries to do so, he will 249 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:30,080 Speaker 1: assuredly degenerate. The settlers should drive machines rather than do 250 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,640 Speaker 1: work with their own muscles. And these people form the 251 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 1: basis of modern medicine. Yeah, yeah, it says a lot. 252 00:13:37,559 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: It's just bad to be in the white it's toxic 253 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,880 Speaker 1: just the white people. Now. Another school of medical thought 254 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,600 Speaker 1: at the time, championed by men like Gorgons, believed that 255 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:49,320 Speaker 1: white people could live in the tropics given proper sanitation 256 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: and segregation to quote, keep their blood pure. Children who 257 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: were blought to the tropics were thought to be put 258 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: at risk by contacts with the natives, which Navy Surgeon 259 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: General still claimed is apt to have a detrimental effect 260 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:07,800 Speaker 1: upon children's moral and mental outlook. Now this is so 261 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:14,480 Speaker 1: much worse than I think. I really bleak. Oh my god. Yeah, 262 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:16,200 Speaker 1: I mean that we're building to the story of how 263 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: the US exported Jim Crow to Panama. So one store 264 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: one solution to the problem of like that it's dangerous 265 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: for uh white people to be in tropical conditions for 266 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: too long was to give white workers regular extended vacations 267 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:32,760 Speaker 1: back north, a privilege which was not extended to non 268 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: white laborers. The perceived vulnerability of white people in the 269 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,880 Speaker 1: tropics was also used as a justification for why hard 270 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:42,320 Speaker 1: manual labor should be done only by black and indigenous workers. 271 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: Starting in nineteen ten, the international frenzy over phrenology reached 272 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: the canal zone. Doctors started to collecting autopsy data on 273 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 1: dead canal workers to answer questions quote concerning certain racial features. 274 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:59,320 Speaker 1: They noted brain weights, skull thickness, cephalic index, skull shape, 275 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,080 Speaker 1: and homicide or altercational tendencies, and they broke these down 276 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,680 Speaker 1: based on race. As a result of this data, Tropical 277 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,320 Speaker 1: doctors concluded that so many black people died violently on 278 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: the canal project died because they were crushed by machinery 279 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: or something you know, as opposed to death and disease. 280 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: They decided that this this was so common with black workers, 281 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: not because of poor safety measures or because of the 282 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 1: fact that black workers were used to do all manual 283 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: labor because it was considered dangerous for white workers, but 284 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: because black workers were genetic genetically had quote a striking 285 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: lack of appreciation for a dangerous environment. So the reasons 286 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: so many of them are getting crushed by machinery isn't 287 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: because we're the they're the only ones that we have 288 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,680 Speaker 1: doing this manual labor, and because we have no safety procedures. 289 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: It's because their brains aren't capable of understanding dangers. Good 290 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:56,480 Speaker 1: stuff real, this is it's very bleak. Uh yeah, this 291 00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 1: was a rough read. That book Emperors in the Jungle 292 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: is a fucking bleak read. Now, the dangers of the 293 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:05,680 Speaker 1: tropics for white people were not seen as a reason 294 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,560 Speaker 1: to avoid colonizing tropical climates by everyone. At least Gorgons 295 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: and many like him were convinced that settlement in South 296 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,440 Speaker 1: America would allow white people to avoid overpopulation in the 297 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:19,120 Speaker 1: United States, but first tropical disease needed to be eliminated. 298 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 1: This would quote enable man to return from the temperate 299 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,560 Speaker 1: regions to which he was forced to migrate long ago, 300 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: and again live and develop in his natural home, the tropics. 301 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: In his book, John Lindsay Poland notes an implicit premise 302 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: was that those already living in the tropics were not men, 303 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: which is a good point from John Lindsay Poland. Now, 304 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: the repeated failure of Gorgus and I know I'm pronouncing 305 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: his name differently every time, but fuck him. The repeated 306 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: failure of Gorgus another tropical doctors to actually defeat the 307 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: diseases they were trying to fight lead them to one 308 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: inescapable conclusion their failures were the result of black people, 309 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: of course, Like we're not going to admit that we 310 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,160 Speaker 1: fucked up fighting mosquitoes. It's got to be the act 311 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: of all of these people that we have imported into Panama. 312 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,399 Speaker 1: So there's there's layers of horrific stuff going on. It's 313 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: really deep. You have terraforming, you have a terraform project 314 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,879 Speaker 1: and an ethnic cleansing and a sort of subjugation like 315 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:18,119 Speaker 1: program all at the same time. And it's like and 316 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: it's like being medicalized. It's like being like given like 317 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: you know, like uh like just like just like sort 318 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,040 Speaker 1: of like being in trans and sort of the trans community. 319 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 1: It's like, oh, you know, like you know, you have 320 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:31,600 Speaker 1: to have a gate keeping doctor to like determine all 321 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: of these things and all these made up things that 322 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,360 Speaker 1: are based upon the predispositions of the doctors who are 323 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 1: writing it. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's a it's like 324 00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:43,919 Speaker 1: a layer cake of bigotry. Like the sediment of racism 325 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,919 Speaker 1: in this is very complicated and deep um, which I 326 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:52,399 Speaker 1: think is rad uh personally that it's such a complex 327 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,720 Speaker 1: level of horror. I am not going to use time not. 328 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,360 Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that. Yeah, I mean, it's 329 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,160 Speaker 1: it's it's it's obviously horrific um, which is why we're 330 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,199 Speaker 1: talking about it. So I'm gonna quote from Emperors in 331 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:09,680 Speaker 1: the Jungle because that book has a very good passage 332 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,440 Speaker 1: on how Gorges and his fellow doctors blamed the black 333 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,120 Speaker 1: Caribbeans that they were bringing into Panama for the fact 334 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:20,200 Speaker 1: that their disease control measures failed. What was needed, according 335 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:22,800 Speaker 1: to Dalla phrase Curry, a Canal Zone health officer in 336 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, was a sanitary conscience, a set of 337 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:29,919 Speaker 1: internalized rules that both individuals and nations could follow. But 338 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 1: while whites might be perceived as reliably civilized and obedient 339 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,439 Speaker 1: to sanitary regulations, West Indians and that's those are black Caribbeans. 340 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 1: That's what they called him this period, as West Indians 341 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: were seen as disturbingly negligent as elsewhere in the world, 342 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:46,720 Speaker 1: the enforcement of sanitation among the negroes as a gigantic task, 343 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:49,399 Speaker 1: wrote William Deek's director of the Medical Service during the 344 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: Construction era. As long as he has a roof over 345 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: his head and a yam or two to eat, he 346 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: is content, and his idea of personal hygiene is on 347 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: par with his conception of marital fidelity in these circumstance, 348 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: and says only physical segregation would protect whites from black 349 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,359 Speaker 1: carriers of disease which could establish reservoirs and infected West 350 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: Indians living in the bush. So, yeah, just a tremendous 351 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: amount of bigotry here, Like the entire US project in 352 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: Canal is is it's just racism all the way down. 353 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:22,720 Speaker 1: You know, it's it's it's you can't over emphasize how 354 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:27,480 Speaker 1: bigoted it is and stays until the fucking nineteen nineties. Um, 355 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,240 Speaker 1: this is probably why it's not in American high school textbooks. 356 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: I just heard we built a canal and Teddy Roosevelt 357 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:41,200 Speaker 1: was there. Yep, Yeah, didn't hear any of this. So 358 00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: during the construction of the canal, which took place from 359 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,439 Speaker 1: nineteen o four to nineteen fourteen, black people made up 360 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:48,960 Speaker 1: at least three out of every four workers, and most 361 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,879 Speaker 1: of these people were imported from the Caribbean, an act 362 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:55,879 Speaker 1: which permanently changed the racial dynamics of Panama. Using public 363 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,360 Speaker 1: health and sanitation as a justification, The US then imported 364 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 1: Jim C Laws to Panama as well, effectively creating a 365 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: massive new racial underclass in that country. Most white people 366 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: had no contact with their black co workers outside of 367 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,439 Speaker 1: the jobs. Indigenous Panamanians endured somewhat less oppression, but the 368 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: United States still considered them unworthy of having any say 369 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: in the canal that was being cut through the middle 370 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: of their country. Panama was seen as a seedy, dangerous place, 371 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: and its people were inherently criminal and unreliable. One American 372 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,320 Speaker 1: writer at the time described the country as a hideous 373 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,520 Speaker 1: dung heap of physical and moral abomination. A US congressman 374 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,199 Speaker 1: called the black population of Panama, which the US had 375 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,560 Speaker 1: brought there in the first place, to be of no 376 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: more use than mosquitoes and buzzards. And again, these are 377 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:43,440 Speaker 1: the people doing three quarters of the work to build 378 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:54,000 Speaker 1: the canal. Uh, We're such a good country, really nailing 379 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:58,200 Speaker 1: it forever. So the legacy of segregation in Panama began 380 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: at the express command of the United States, and it 381 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,120 Speaker 1: is still with Panama today. As we will discuss later, 382 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,639 Speaker 1: the nation was independent on paper, but it was a 383 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,160 Speaker 1: colony and all but name, and the US acted quickly 384 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,879 Speaker 1: and brutally to stifle anything that's smacked of independence. Panama 385 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: initially had its own military, a small group of two 386 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:17,480 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty men led by General Estemon Huertas, a 387 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,159 Speaker 1: former Colombian officer and a hero of the Panamanian independence movement. 388 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 1: He was competent and beloved, but not willing to have 389 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,760 Speaker 1: his beloved nation exists purely for US profit. In nineteen 390 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,320 Speaker 1: o four, when canal construction had just begun, he threatened 391 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:32,960 Speaker 1: to revolt due to the United States' treatment of his people. 392 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,879 Speaker 1: U S diplomatic representatives advised the Panamanian president that he 393 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,439 Speaker 1: should fire the general, and U S Marines went in 394 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,000 Speaker 1: and disarmed his forces. Panama's army was disbanded and did 395 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,359 Speaker 1: not reform for half a century. Yeah, so we just 396 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 1: get rid of that army. Were like, you know what 397 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: if these people have an army that that might be 398 00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:53,680 Speaker 1: a problem for us doing whatever we want in Panama. 399 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:58,920 Speaker 1: Let's just let's just xnay on the snarmy. A. I don't. 400 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,639 Speaker 1: I'm not great at pig Latin. Hey, it's a pulling 401 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: up Paul Wolfowitz. Yeah, yeah, they got wolf of Witz. Good. Ye, Like, 402 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 1: we'll just disband this army and this police apprise. Yeah, No, 403 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: I mean unlike in Iraq. There's only two fifty of 404 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: these guys, So yeah, it's a lot easier, but it 405 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,240 Speaker 1: is the same basic idea, you know. So the US 406 00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: was extremely active in asserting its influence over Panamanian politics. 407 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighteen, the president died suddenly and Panama announced 408 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:34,359 Speaker 1: an indefinite postponement of elections. U S troops occupied the 409 00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:38,119 Speaker 1: cities in US General Richard Blatchford basically became the dictator. 410 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: This was never called what it was officially. The Panamanian 411 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,679 Speaker 1: state had just delayed elections, but the reason for it 412 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 1: all was World War One. The US could not afford 413 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:49,639 Speaker 1: to let the Panamanian people decided to do things that 414 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: might complicate the war effort. Of course, once he had 415 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,240 Speaker 1: total unchecked power, Blatchford immediately exceeded his mandate and decided 416 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,520 Speaker 1: to focus on the elimination of prostitution. Sex work was 417 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,199 Speaker 1: legal in Panama at the time, but Blatchford thought it 418 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: was ikey, and he had all the guns. I don't 419 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 1: like it, Yeah, I don't. I don't like it. This 420 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,879 Speaker 1: is part of my job to stop now. He also 421 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 1: didn't like drinking, and he decided to close the bars 422 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 1: that served US troops as he wrote back to Washington, 423 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: the United States has ridded the Panamanians of the evils 424 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: of yellow fever, which it hadn't and why should it 425 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: not rid them of the greater curse, which is, of 426 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 1: course alcohol. Blatchford was unsuccessful in forcing prohibition on Panama. 427 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: I'll imagine that especially with soldiers. They're like in Marines. 428 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,120 Speaker 1: He did briefly succeed in getting the country to ban 429 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,359 Speaker 1: opium bars and opium or banned bars and opium dims 430 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:43,520 Speaker 1: from serving US soldiers um, but he did not shut 431 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: them down throughout the entire country. As John Lindsay Poland writes, 432 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:50,200 Speaker 1: their prohibition remained an effect until Armistice Day in November, 433 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: when hundreds of soldiers broke away from the bases on 434 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:55,840 Speaker 1: the Atlantic after months have enforced abstinence, and stormed Cologne 435 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 1: as a mob. That night, Blatchford mounted a podium in 436 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,840 Speaker 1: Balboa Stadium to condemn the occurrence, but instead of acknowledging 437 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:04,960 Speaker 1: the soldiers carnel behavior, he condemned Panama City and Cologne, 438 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 1: suggesting maybe renamed Sodom and Gomorrah. He wrote afterward to Washington, 439 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: if Sodom and Gomorrah were in existence, today, they would 440 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,879 Speaker 1: probably sue me for slander. It's the fall of these 441 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,760 Speaker 1: damn Panamanians that American soldiers want to drink in horror, 442 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:21,960 Speaker 1: a thing American soldiers have never done anywhere else never, 443 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:26,400 Speaker 1: It's never happened. It's never happened to every single installation 444 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,960 Speaker 1: that we've ever had. I mean, it's it's not it's 445 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: literally the thing that every group of soldiers throughout the 446 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,600 Speaker 1: entirety of world history has always done. The age bracket 447 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 1: of of sex of sixteen to twenty five year old. Yeah, 448 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 1: if you are asking these people to die for you, 449 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,400 Speaker 1: you can't ask them not to drink and horr. They're 450 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,719 Speaker 1: going to do it like it's it's they've done it 451 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: for forever. But Blatchford blames Panama and it's uniquely sinful 452 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: nature for corrupting these American boys who stormed the city 453 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: in a mob. It's pretty great. So eventually Panama got 454 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: to have its elections again, and the fiction of autonomy 455 00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:12,240 Speaker 1: continued until nineteen A massive renters strike had erupted in 456 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,280 Speaker 1: Panama City among a population of twenty thousand unemployed black laborers. 457 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,440 Speaker 1: Most of these men had been brought to Panama to 458 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,240 Speaker 1: work on the canal, and when the construction finished, the U. 459 00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: S had said basically just abandoned them to figure out 460 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,080 Speaker 1: their own ship in the middle of an economic depression 461 00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 1: that hit Panama after the canal was finished. Because of segregation, 462 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: they were only able to live in certain neighborhoods, and 463 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,800 Speaker 1: their housing was uniformly squalid and ll maintained. Property owners 464 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,200 Speaker 1: announced written hikes that June, and several labor unions formed 465 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,879 Speaker 1: a renter's league to boycott rent. There were regular protests 466 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,119 Speaker 1: over evictions, and on October tenth, a peaceful demonstration was 467 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,480 Speaker 1: met with gunfire by Panamanian police, who killed two people. 468 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,359 Speaker 1: The crowd took action and swarmed the streets, shutting the 469 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,439 Speaker 1: city down by clogging every major artery of transit. The 470 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,080 Speaker 1: Panamanian president begged the United States for help, and we 471 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,520 Speaker 1: sent a battalion of six U S Marines into the 472 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,400 Speaker 1: city with bayonets. Fixed. The protesters initially fled, but later 473 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,439 Speaker 1: that night a gathering. The gathering as symboled around the 474 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: burial of one of the slain protesters. U S troops 475 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,199 Speaker 1: showed up there and after a confrontation, charged into the 476 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,400 Speaker 1: crowd with bayonets and stabbed three people to death. US 477 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,000 Speaker 1: newspapers portrayed this as a reasonable response to radical extremists 478 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: who could not be reasoned with. The New York Times 479 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,919 Speaker 1: neglected to talk to any protesters. Instead, their coverage focused 480 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,440 Speaker 1: around the captain and passenger of a luxury cruise ship 481 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: docked in the city at the time. They quoted the 482 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,960 Speaker 1: captain as saying, the nucleus of a revolution is a 483 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,560 Speaker 1: bottle of rum to half breeds and a negro armed 484 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:43,560 Speaker 1: with rifles and machetes. Solid journalism. Who should we talked 485 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: to you about this at all? Who should we talk 486 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,360 Speaker 1: to about the fact that our soldiers stabbed three protesters 487 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,520 Speaker 1: to death by a cruise ship? It was clearly just 488 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,280 Speaker 1: whoever was drinking next to the New York Times reporter 489 00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,639 Speaker 1: on that boat. What do you think about this? I 490 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:03,440 Speaker 1: gotta file something m h SO. As a rule, US 491 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: intervention in Panama tended to fall into one of two 492 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,960 Speaker 1: categories interventions in order to further specific US foreign policy 493 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,520 Speaker 1: goals and interventions made on behalf the Panamanian elite who 494 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,679 Speaker 1: ruled the country on the US government's behalf. This was 495 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,720 Speaker 1: got done with Gusto, the head Army general in Panama, 496 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:23,960 Speaker 1: William Lasseter actually requested permission to stay in Panama City 497 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 1: after the conclusion of the rent strike in order to 498 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,560 Speaker 1: oversee the massive viction of thousands of tenants. He was 499 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,600 Speaker 1: overruled by the State Department. So the Canal Treaty that 500 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: Roosevelt had overthrown a government to get was never much 501 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: more than a convention convenient fiction. The US basically did 502 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:41,879 Speaker 1: whatever it wanted in Panama, regardless of whether or not 503 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,040 Speaker 1: the treaty gave it a right to do so. We 504 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:48,040 Speaker 1: expropriated or stole land from Panama. On nineteen occasions from 505 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,280 Speaker 1: nineteen o eight to nineteen thirty one. The US military 506 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: would take land that we decided we wanted for some reason, 507 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,640 Speaker 1: and we would notify the Panamania the Panamanian authorities later, 508 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,960 Speaker 1: no compensation was ever given. The land was necessary in 509 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: order to allow the US government to expand its military facilities. 510 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:08,399 Speaker 1: Panama was used as a base for Latin American interventions 511 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: throughout the twentieth century. Our old friends Smedley Butler was 512 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: based there during his two trips into Nicaragua to put 513 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 1: down political movements that were seen as counter to u 514 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: s interests. YEA, Panama was also the initial Piteu. Yeah, 515 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,639 Speaker 1: I heard of that guy. He would he would He 516 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,760 Speaker 1: was based there whenever he would go into Nicaragua to 517 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: kill people. Um. Panama was also the site for the 518 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:32,359 Speaker 1: School of the America's where the US train tens of 519 00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: thousands of Latin American soldiers and more than a dozen 520 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: future dictators, including Panama's own future dictator, Manuel Noriega. We 521 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:44,720 Speaker 1: will be chatting about in just a little bit of Timerigat. 522 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: You got to take one of those things. Speaking of 523 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:54,000 Speaker 1: Manuel Noriega. You know what, Manuel Noriega loved capitals of cocaine, 524 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:57,000 Speaker 1: but also the products and services that you can buy 525 00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,959 Speaker 1: as a result of trafficking cocaine. And speaking of traffic 526 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:09,040 Speaker 1: in cocaine, here's some ads. Uh, we're back, and Sophie 527 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: has just informed me that we are not actually sponsored 528 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: by cocaine. This is going to radically change the direction 529 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: of the show. Yeah, this is I'm gonna have to 530 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,160 Speaker 1: recalibrate here. So let's let's get back to Panama now. 531 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,240 Speaker 1: We just we're talking about Manuel Noriega in the School 532 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 1: of the Americans and we will get back to Manuel 533 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: Noriega in just a little bit. But first Jelsey, how 534 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: do you feel about chemical weapons? How do I feel 535 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,840 Speaker 1: a chemical weapons? Yeah? Are you a big chemical weapons stand? Well, 536 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,960 Speaker 1: you know, there's there's varying degrees of chemical weapons, and 537 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,960 Speaker 1: they're all bad. There are varying degrees of bad chemical weapons, 538 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: and the US tried all of them out in Panama, 539 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: which was its chemical weapons testing site for decades. So 540 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 1: I take it, I take it. We're talking about HC now, 541 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 1: we're talking about everything up to and include VX nerve gas. Yeah. So, 542 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 1: starting in the thirties, we were like, chemical weapons are awesome. 543 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: World War One was a hoot. We're going to use 544 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:11,959 Speaker 1: these things more in the future. I wonder how they 545 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: work in tropical clim um. So we decided we wanted 546 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: to know how this ship worked in tropical climates, and 547 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: since we owned Panama, it was the natural place to 548 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: dump chemical weapons into. General William Siebert, a World War 549 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,160 Speaker 1: One veteran and quote a staunch advocate of all forms 550 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: of chemical warfare in his own words, was made director 551 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,880 Speaker 1: of the Army's chemical weapons program. From a write up 552 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,840 Speaker 1: and so this is a true harbor stand Yeah, yeah, yeah, 553 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,240 Speaker 1: he loves he loves Old Fritz, who was also a 554 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: Bastards Pod alumni. Yeah, the man who just couldn't get 555 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 1: enough of making chemical weapons. So I'm gonna quote from 556 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 1: a write up titled test Tube Republic, Chemical Weapons Tests 557 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:56,640 Speaker 1: in Panama and US Responsibility. After the war, Sibbett became 558 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: a vocal proponent of the continued development of chemical weapons. 559 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: When armies were provided with masks and other defensive appliances, 560 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,720 Speaker 1: something less than four percent of gas casualties were fatal. 561 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,480 Speaker 1: Sibbert ruminated these figures, I think meet one of the 562 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,960 Speaker 1: chief objections brought against the use of gas that of humanity. 563 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: So far from being inhumane, it has been proven that 564 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: it is one of the most humane instruments of warfare, 565 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 1: if we can apply the word humane to the killing 566 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,640 Speaker 1: and wounding of human beings. Barely anyone dies in this 567 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:27,560 Speaker 1: stuff when they have gas masks, so it's cool. Yeah. 568 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,160 Speaker 1: And the kind of unstated corollary to that is that 569 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: barely in a Europeans actually died from chemical warfare once 570 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 1: people got gas masks and stuff. Chemical weapons were regularly 571 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: used on colonial populations, particularly in Ethiopia, by the Italians 572 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:45,840 Speaker 1: who didn't have access to that. So Sibert was basically 573 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,720 Speaker 1: saying it's humane and that it can't kill that many 574 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,520 Speaker 1: white people. It's it's pretty good, pretty good stuff. So 575 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen one, the Chemical Warfare Service was told to 576 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:58,440 Speaker 1: draw plans for defense of the canal zone and other 577 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 1: outlying U S possessions. The first chemical defense plans were 578 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,080 Speaker 1: thus drawn up in nineteen twenty three, and would be 579 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: updated every year through at least ninety six. The plan 580 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,040 Speaker 1: involved bombing with mustard gas the trails and routes that 581 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,520 Speaker 1: led inland from landing beaches on both the Atlantic and 582 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,280 Speaker 1: Pacific coasts, spraying the beaches, and find firing chemical mortars 583 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,200 Speaker 1: at military targets as well. So our plan was, if 584 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: anyone invades the Panama Canal, we just dubbed chemical weapons 585 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:27,840 Speaker 1: all over Panama in order to make it uninhabitable. So 586 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: the Vietnam doctrine, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean this was 587 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: kind of where that idea started. Let's just murder the 588 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,440 Speaker 1: jungle in order to make it impossible for it the 589 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: enemy to live here. Yeah. So US chemical weapons tests 590 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: continued for decades well after US forces in Panama faced 591 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 1: any threat of invasion. Huge chunks of jungle on San 592 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 1: Jose Island were regularly exposed to mustard gas and folst 593 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,720 Speaker 1: gene gas just to see what would happen. Munitions were 594 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: stored in open topped buildings exposed to the elements UM 595 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:02,320 Speaker 1: and yeah, they're like, so they just kind of left 596 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,000 Speaker 1: this stuff there, and they would drop tens of thousands 597 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,960 Speaker 1: of chemical bombs on particularly San Jose Island, and about 598 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: one ten of these weapons failed to detonate and they 599 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:13,840 Speaker 1: were just left where they landed to be a problem 600 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 1: for future generations. And when the Army left Panama, we 601 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: just told them we'd taken all of the chemical weapons, 602 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,840 Speaker 1: but thousands of bombs were left behind on these islands 603 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:25,680 Speaker 1: that we just kind of were like, maybe they'll figure 604 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,480 Speaker 1: it out, maybe they won't UM, which is rad Starting 605 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,719 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, VX nerve gas mines were tested 606 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,280 Speaker 1: and each of these mines contained a ten point five 607 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,640 Speaker 1: pounds of v X. Since ten milligrams is a fatal 608 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: human dose, this means that each one of these mines 609 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:44,360 Speaker 1: had enough poison to kill half a million people. We're 610 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: just kind of detonating these in the middle of the jungle, 611 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:52,000 Speaker 1: seeing what happened. It's pretty cool. Yeah, Now, most of 612 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,960 Speaker 1: the research the Army conducted in Panama sounded less like 613 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: advancing the frontiers of science and more like the kind 614 00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: of ship board Nazi scientists would have gotten up to. 615 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,200 Speaker 1: Goats and rabbits were fitted with various gas, masks and 616 00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: gas just to test the effect efficacy of the weapons. 617 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,399 Speaker 1: One witness said they brought goats from Ecuador. They put 618 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: those gases on them. The skin fell off the animals, 619 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 1: they died, and they ended up cooked. The animal was 620 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,320 Speaker 1: red red like it was cooked burnt. An US experiments 621 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 1: did not say limited to non human animals. The United 622 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 1: States partnered with the Canadian government to investigate whether or 623 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,880 Speaker 1: not different ethnicities were affected differently by chemical weapons. Puerto 624 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:31,279 Speaker 1: Ricans and Caucasian human beings were gassed alongside each other 625 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: to see if any differences arose. Medical historians Susan Smith 626 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:38,600 Speaker 1: explains scientists were trying to understand the impact of mustard 627 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: gas on people. They thought there was a possibility that 628 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,880 Speaker 1: some racial groups are less sensitive to mustard gas. It 629 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,640 Speaker 1: turned out not at all to be true, Smith told 630 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: Chemistry World. With the military, testing involved, among other things, 631 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,239 Speaker 1: the aerial release of mustard gas over soldiers via airplanes 632 00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,640 Speaker 1: in order to later examine and compare their blisters and 633 00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:59,160 Speaker 1: other injuries. Now, in PR actually tracked down a bunch 634 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,920 Speaker 1: of the men involved in these race based experiments. They 635 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: found that, in addition to Puerto Ricans, black Americans, and 636 00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: Japanese Americans were all gassed just to see if there 637 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: were racial differences and how they respond. My god, all 638 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,560 Speaker 1: of the gas subjects were enlisted men, and white soldiers 639 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,200 Speaker 1: constituted the control group. And this is I guess, one 640 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:19,360 Speaker 1: situation in which people of all races suffered equally, because 641 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:24,440 Speaker 1: again everyone responds the same way to poison gas. Imagine 642 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:29,279 Speaker 1: that it does sound it does It does say a 643 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,880 Speaker 1: lot that it does say a lot about the United 644 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,959 Speaker 1: States and Britain. That basically, like all of these things 645 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,200 Speaker 1: were pre you know, like all the things that are 646 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,480 Speaker 1: we associate with, like Nazi Germany, We're being done thirty 647 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,799 Speaker 1: years earlier, yeah, and him twenty years later. We keep 648 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:49,480 Speaker 1: doing this until nineteen sixty eight. Like, yeah, it's it's 649 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: pretty great. I'm gonna quote from NPRS right up on this. 650 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 1: All of the World War Two experiments with mustard gas 651 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 1: were done in secret and weren't recorded on the subject's 652 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,160 Speaker 1: official military records. Most do not have proof of what 653 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:04,040 Speaker 1: they went through. They received no follow up healthcare or 654 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,800 Speaker 1: monitoring of any kind, and they were sworn to secrecy 655 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,080 Speaker 1: about the tests under threat of dishonorable discharge in military 656 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,840 Speaker 1: prison time, leaving some unable to receive adequate medical treatment 657 00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,800 Speaker 1: for their injuries because they couldn't tell doctors what happened 658 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:20,320 Speaker 1: to them. Army Colonel Steve Warren, director of Press Operations 659 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:23,560 Speaker 1: at the Pentagon, acknowledged NPRS findings and was quick to 660 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,879 Speaker 1: put distance between today's military and the World War Two experiments. 661 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:29,560 Speaker 1: The first thing to be very clear about is that 662 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: the Department of different it was a different time. Yeah, 663 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,480 Speaker 1: this is the Department of Confenced does not conduct chemical 664 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,960 Speaker 1: weapons tests any longer. And I think we have probably 665 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: come as far as any institution in America. We didn't 666 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:49,359 Speaker 1: even have a Pentagon built, So I think particularly for 667 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:51,680 Speaker 1: us in uniform, to hear and see something like this, 668 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:56,480 Speaker 1: it's stark. It's even a little bit jarick. It is 669 00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:01,560 Speaker 1: a little bit jarring. Yes, more than a hundred experiments 670 00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,360 Speaker 1: were conducted by on human beings on San Jose Island. 671 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:08,800 Speaker 1: Lopez Negron, now years old, was one of the test suspects, 672 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:10,759 Speaker 1: and it is one of the only surviving ones. He 673 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,800 Speaker 1: was bombed with mustard gas by a plane. He told 674 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:17,440 Speaker 1: NPR we had uniforms on to protect ourselves, but the 675 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,640 Speaker 1: animals didn't. There were rabbits. They all died. I spent 676 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,040 Speaker 1: three weeks in the hospital with a bad fever. Almost 677 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: all of us got sick. It took all of the 678 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:30,320 Speaker 1: skin off of your hands. Your hands just rotted. Pretty 679 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:35,560 Speaker 1: good stuff there. Now, Negron was technically a volunteer, but 680 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:37,920 Speaker 1: he but he like he'd been asked to serve as 681 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,400 Speaker 1: a guinea pig, and he technically had the right to 682 00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: say no, but he did not feel like saying no 683 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,759 Speaker 1: was an option because he was a black man. N 684 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:50,520 Speaker 1: PR rights defiance was unthinkable, he says, especially for black soldiers. 685 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:52,799 Speaker 1: You do what they tell you to do, and you 686 00:37:52,880 --> 00:38:02,040 Speaker 1: ask no questions. He says, cool stuff. Yeah, US chemical 687 00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:04,600 Speaker 1: weapons test in Panama stopped in nineteen sixty eight, and 688 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:06,759 Speaker 1: again we just kind of left everything sort of where 689 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,959 Speaker 1: it was when we finally let Panama be a sovereign nation. 690 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,359 Speaker 1: We were doing it because we we had we could 691 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,680 Speaker 1: test it in Vietnam instead. Yeah, we just left it 692 00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:20,600 Speaker 1: behind there too, like just an uncountable number of deadly 693 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,759 Speaker 1: weapons we just left sitting on an island, and we're like, yeah, 694 00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:28,600 Speaker 1: we took everything, we cleaned up, it's fine. There are 695 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: people who tried to build resorts on San Jose Island 696 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 1: and kept finding like chemical weapons. It was it was 697 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,799 Speaker 1: a real problem, um, And we lied to the Panamanian 698 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:40,600 Speaker 1: government about this. We have mostly cleaned it up now. 699 00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,920 Speaker 1: I think in two thousand eighteen was the last time 700 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 1: I was able to find a U. S C. B 701 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: r N Army unit being sent to San Jose to 702 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,799 Speaker 1: disarmed chemical bombs. Um. But it took up until like 703 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,400 Speaker 1: a couple of years ago for most of that stuff 704 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,600 Speaker 1: to be cleared off. And there's probably still some bombs 705 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,239 Speaker 1: lying around on the island. You know. We couldn't have 706 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 1: gotten everything, and they had to. There was like a 707 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,600 Speaker 1: series of investigations and and like legal cases around it. 708 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,280 Speaker 1: I found an article in two thousand one where journalists 709 00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,880 Speaker 1: went there and just was like picking up chemical munitions 710 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: that were covered in rust and was like, oh, this 711 00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,399 Speaker 1: is a VX nerve mine that just didn't go off, 712 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:22,120 Speaker 1: that's filled with enough poison to kill. Yeah. Um, So 713 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,680 Speaker 1: the end of the US domination of Panama started as 714 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:27,160 Speaker 1: a result of things that happened on January nine, nineteen 715 00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:30,440 Speaker 1: sixty four. There had been protests over US violations of 716 00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,600 Speaker 1: Panamanian sovereignty for years at this point. In nineteen fifty five, 717 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:37,600 Speaker 1: Dwight Eisenhower was forced to make concessions and give back 718 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:39,799 Speaker 1: some of the land the US had stolen, but he 719 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: refused to negotiate on the portion of the U S 720 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,879 Speaker 1: treaty that gave US the canal in perpetuity. Demonstrations grew 721 00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:49,360 Speaker 1: in intensity throughout the late nineteen fifties. One major cause 722 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: was the fight for Panamanians to have the legal right 723 00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,680 Speaker 1: to fly their flag in the canal zone. Things seemed 724 00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 1: to be improving when JFK took office. He recognized that 725 00:39:57,760 --> 00:39:59,440 Speaker 1: the U S had kind of been fucking over the 726 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,840 Speaker 1: Panamania in people for decades, and he told the country, yeah, 727 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,680 Speaker 1: he was. He was, you know, open to negotiating with 728 00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:09,200 Speaker 1: them about concessions. Even sovereignty of the canal was on 729 00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,440 Speaker 1: the table. This may have been part of the reason 730 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,480 Speaker 1: that Bernard Sanders shot Kennedy dead in nineteen sixty three. 731 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:17,600 Speaker 1: When JFK took office, the issue of US sovereignty over 732 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:20,239 Speaker 1: the canal was still technically on the table, but lb 733 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,120 Speaker 1: J was never going to do that. To be honest, 734 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: JFK probably wouldn't have either. UM and the even discussion 735 00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:29,200 Speaker 1: of US sovereignty being given up over the canal enraged 736 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,480 Speaker 1: a lot of US citizens and I'm gonna quote from 737 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:35,560 Speaker 1: American heritage here, any hint of concession worried the ultra 738 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,760 Speaker 1: patriotic U. S. Citizens who lived and worked in the zone. 739 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:42,040 Speaker 1: Kennedy's declaration that the U. S. And Panamanian flag should 740 00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:46,200 Speaker 1: be flown together at all non military sites prompted Zonian students, 741 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,160 Speaker 1: with the encouragement of adults, to raise the stars and 742 00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:53,040 Speaker 1: stripes outside of Balboa High School on January seventh, nineteen 743 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,040 Speaker 1: sixty four. The teenagers guarded the flag for two days 744 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 1: before a group of two hundred Panamanian students marched from 745 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,359 Speaker 1: nearby Panama City intent on raising their own banner. During 746 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:06,080 Speaker 1: the ensuing scuple, the Panamanian flag was torn. Thousands of 747 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:09,160 Speaker 1: angry Panamanian citizens took to the streets, forced their way 748 00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:12,440 Speaker 1: into the zone, and attacked American owned businesses. The canal. 749 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:15,120 Speaker 1: Zone police were overwhelmed and the U. S. Army took over. 750 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,080 Speaker 1: Responding to the violence with tear gas and rifle fire. 751 00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:24,160 Speaker 1: Ascanio Aros Ascanio Arosamina, a twenty year old student on 752 00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,640 Speaker 1: his way to a movie, stopped to help evacuate some 753 00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:30,160 Speaker 1: of them wounded. He was shot dead. Now, as you 754 00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:34,160 Speaker 1: might expect, uh, this marked sparked more protests or more demonstrations. 755 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,040 Speaker 1: Protesters rallied at what they called the Fence of Shame, 756 00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 1: which is a name I might have to steal. At 757 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,640 Speaker 1: some point, one Columbian leader compared the fence to the 758 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,520 Speaker 1: Berlin Wall, which is obviously embarrassing to the US. At 759 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,880 Speaker 1: this point, Panama broke off diplomatic relations with the United 760 00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:51,000 Speaker 1: States on January tenth. There were demands that the US 761 00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:54,480 Speaker 1: hand over the canal entirely. U s and Panamanian soldiers 762 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,640 Speaker 1: exchanged gunfire for days. At one point, Americans hosed down 763 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:02,080 Speaker 1: an apartment building and a tempted to take out a sniper. Instead, 764 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:05,240 Speaker 1: they killed an eleven year old girl named Rosa Landecho. 765 00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: So pretty bad, pretty bad time. And by the way, 766 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:14,600 Speaker 1: this date um which is January nine, nine four, is 767 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,200 Speaker 1: still a holiday in Panama to this day because of 768 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,640 Speaker 1: like this fight over the flag and all the deaths 769 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,520 Speaker 1: that results from it. The violence continued for four days 770 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,320 Speaker 1: while lb J negotiated with Panamanian leaders. He stoutly refused 771 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,480 Speaker 1: to make concessions under the threat of force. Eventually, Panama 772 00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,520 Speaker 1: called in their national guard and quelled the unrest. The 773 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 1: Canal Zones Governor Robert Fleming started pressing Washington to sign 774 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,720 Speaker 1: a new treaty, telling d C quote, the plain fact 775 00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: is that we must begin treating Panamanians as people. Wow. 776 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: So the US governor of the Canals and was like, yeah, 777 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,120 Speaker 1: we got it. We gotta guys, we gotta treat these 778 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,319 Speaker 1: folks like human beings. Otherwise we're gonna continue having problems here. 779 00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:01,400 Speaker 1: Someone had to say that. It's pretty remarked. Couple. So yeah, 780 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,160 Speaker 1: after you know, so that the governor of the canal 781 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:08,440 Speaker 1: is like, we have to finally start treating Panamanians as people. Um. 782 00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:12,360 Speaker 1: And three years of negotiations follow that, but little actually 783 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:16,080 Speaker 1: gets done. There's resistance from Americans and from elite Panamanians. Right. 784 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,520 Speaker 1: A lot of the Panamanians in charge want the US 785 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,719 Speaker 1: to stay because the US have been consistently they're armed 786 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:25,640 Speaker 1: enforcers right, um, and they fight every effort at giving 787 00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 1: Panama full sovereignty over the canal. The continued failure of 788 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:32,600 Speaker 1: these efforts in the decades of violent oppression eventually generated 789 00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:36,000 Speaker 1: enough anti American sentiment to allow for a revolution against 790 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:39,279 Speaker 1: the v She government. In nineteen sixty eight, a Panamanian 791 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 1: National Guard officer named Omar To Riho seized power and 792 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,759 Speaker 1: replace the old order with a populist government committed to 793 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,760 Speaker 1: getting a better deal for Panama. But even this moment 794 00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,240 Speaker 1: was not quite what it seemed because omar To Rijos 795 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:54,200 Speaker 1: was a long time US military asset. He had been 796 00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:57,440 Speaker 1: recruited as a spy in nineteen paid twenty five dollars 797 00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:01,160 Speaker 1: a month to inform the US on labor unrest, student activities, 798 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:05,200 Speaker 1: and Soviet Chinese penetration. During the nineteen sixty Flag Riots, 799 00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:08,440 Speaker 1: Trio's helped to suppress the popular unrest. One U S 800 00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:12,440 Speaker 1: military intelligence operative even helped him plan his nineteen sixty coup. 801 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,480 Speaker 1: So Torio's was a U S asset, but he was 802 00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,200 Speaker 1: also willing to push for Panamanian control of the canal. 803 00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:20,960 Speaker 1: Um So he's a complicated figure and he's viewed by 804 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:22,960 Speaker 1: as a hero still by a lot of Panamanians because 805 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,000 Speaker 1: he he is a committed committed to the Panama getting 806 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:29,440 Speaker 1: control of the canal. Um And by the way, basically 807 00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:32,360 Speaker 1: everyone with any power in the Panamanian National Guard is 808 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,400 Speaker 1: a US military asset, and they don't all always do 809 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,200 Speaker 1: what the U S says, So it's always more complex 810 00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:40,000 Speaker 1: than just he was getting paid to be a spy. 811 00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:44,359 Speaker 1: He's still like, has desires outside of US desires, which 812 00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:49,160 Speaker 1: is why certain things happened that happened later. So real 813 00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:52,480 Speaker 1: talks over Panamanian sovereignty of the canal took place during 814 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:55,919 Speaker 1: President Jimmy Carter's term. Rio's lucked out that his time 815 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,200 Speaker 1: in power happened to coincide with the election of the 816 00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 1: only vaguely reasonable man for elected president of the United 817 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,080 Speaker 1: States in nineteen seventy nine. It basically the last moment 818 00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,760 Speaker 1: such an act of baseline decency would have been possible 819 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,560 Speaker 1: from the United States. Carter and to Rijo signed and 820 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:14,440 Speaker 1: ratified a new Canal treaty. This promised a total handover 821 00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:16,640 Speaker 1: of the canal to Panama by the end of nine 822 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:22,840 Speaker 1: So that's good, right, we took a medicine. It's almost 823 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,840 Speaker 1: a century, but we did something that resembled the right thing. Eventually, 824 00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:29,400 Speaker 1: after a lot of death, yeah, and after profiting off 825 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,439 Speaker 1: of it for nearly a century. Still a canal zone. Yes, 826 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,440 Speaker 1: because the CIA was not happy about it. And remember 827 00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:40,640 Speaker 1: we're talking about the nineteen seventies. CIA and Latin America 828 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,080 Speaker 1: was just the c I a s CIA to ever CIA, 829 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,560 Speaker 1: they promptly tried to overthrow to Riho's and they failed 830 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,160 Speaker 1: thanks to the efforts of a National Guard officer who 831 00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:55,600 Speaker 1: substantly rose to became Omar Tario's right hand man, Manuel Noriega. Now, 832 00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:57,960 Speaker 1: and by the way, Noriega was also a U. S. 833 00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:02,200 Speaker 1: Army spy asset for years, stuck back in the fifties. Now, 834 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:04,640 Speaker 1: this is this is a running this is a running 835 00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:08,839 Speaker 1: theme in the US intelligence. It's amazing. So when the 836 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,359 Speaker 1: CIA failed to unseat Rio's by blatant and shameless coup, 837 00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:14,800 Speaker 1: they decided the right thing to do was to ingratiate 838 00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,560 Speaker 1: themselves with Noriega, who they correctly judge was a man 839 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,200 Speaker 1: with no principles. Noriega rose to become Panama's chief of 840 00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:24,279 Speaker 1: military Intelligence. At the same time he became a salaried 841 00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,800 Speaker 1: CIA asset. He would eventually receive well over a million 842 00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:30,879 Speaker 1: dollars for his work with the agency. Noriega would later 843 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:33,440 Speaker 1: claim that his work with the CIA was Torrio's idea 844 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,480 Speaker 1: in order to keep a quote open line of communication 845 00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:39,719 Speaker 1: with the agency that might stop future coatips as if 846 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:43,400 Speaker 1: there there is. There's one common theme in US history, 847 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,360 Speaker 1: and that is especially intelligence history, and that is that 848 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:51,080 Speaker 1: we were the there's this tendency to arm your future enemies, 849 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:55,439 Speaker 1: to arm and train, and this tendency that we see 850 00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,440 Speaker 1: in Syria, right but with you know, kind of the 851 00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:00,880 Speaker 1: differences between the CIA backing what they call the moderate rebels, 852 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,400 Speaker 1: in the Defense Department backing Rojava this and it's the 853 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,680 Speaker 1: same thing happening in Panama where the Army's got its 854 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,600 Speaker 1: people and the CIA has its people, and sometimes they 855 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,359 Speaker 1: overlap and sometimes they're asked to do different things by 856 00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,400 Speaker 1: both groups. Because one of the things I think that 857 00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:17,400 Speaker 1: has missed on a lot of left wing analysis of 858 00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:19,640 Speaker 1: like the CIA and the military is that they do 859 00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:25,600 Speaker 1: often hate each other. Oh yeah, like they're fighting as 860 00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:30,960 Speaker 1: much as they are working together. Um so yeah. Noriega 861 00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,239 Speaker 1: claims that he omar to Rios told him to be 862 00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:36,839 Speaker 1: a come up paid CIA asset so that he could 863 00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,080 Speaker 1: stop future coup attempts. And if this sounds like it 864 00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:42,200 Speaker 1: might be a lie. That's because Manuel Noriega was a 865 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,719 Speaker 1: was a consummate liar. Now, one of Noriega's gigs for 866 00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:48,239 Speaker 1: the CIA was to maintain an open line of communication 867 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,560 Speaker 1: with Fidel Castro. Because the CIA had repeatedly tried to 868 00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,480 Speaker 1: kill Castro and because the US refused to publicly deal 869 00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,839 Speaker 1: with the communist country, all communications between the two, which 870 00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:01,280 Speaker 1: they obviously still had, needed to take place in back channels, 871 00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:03,319 Speaker 1: and for a while, Noriega was one of the u 872 00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:07,319 Speaker 1: s back channels to Castro. Now more than anything, though 873 00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,960 Speaker 1: Noriega was a cocaine man, probably one of the most 874 00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:14,960 Speaker 1: prolific cocaine traffickers in history, the CIA was happy to 875 00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:17,080 Speaker 1: ignore his drug dealing as long as he remained their 876 00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:19,960 Speaker 1: man in Panama. This was largely because the CIA had 877 00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:23,880 Speaker 1: plans for Panama, and Night had plans and planes, and 878 00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,279 Speaker 1: they involved planes in cocaine. Yeah and yeah, Well, we'll 879 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: do a whole episode on the on the crack epidemic 880 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:32,040 Speaker 1: and the cocaine trade and the CIA and the d 881 00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:35,560 Speaker 1: e A at some point, um, but this all intersects 882 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,480 Speaker 1: with it. Now. By nineteen eighty one, oh more, or 883 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:40,719 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, Omar to Rios died in a 884 00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:44,960 Speaker 1: tragic plane accident that was almost certainly orchestrated by the CIA. 885 00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:49,160 Speaker 1: We don't know, but everyone suspects it, and it's very 886 00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:51,880 Speaker 1: much in line with ship the CIA did repeatedly in 887 00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:56,000 Speaker 1: this period of time. So probably we don't know, but 888 00:48:56,120 --> 00:49:00,080 Speaker 1: we don't not know. We do not know, And it's 889 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,160 Speaker 1: not like it's it's not like character. That's the kind 890 00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:09,320 Speaker 1: of gray area that that intelligence operations, uh, fluidly operated. Yeah, 891 00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,680 Speaker 1: you can't prove we did this even though it you know, 892 00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,200 Speaker 1: we've done the same thing to other people, and you 893 00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:24,719 Speaker 1: know we would benefit from it. So Yeppie, you know what, 894 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,600 Speaker 1: I also don't not know. I don't I don't know 895 00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:31,760 Speaker 1: where I'm going with this. Don't you know who won't 896 00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:38,360 Speaker 1: assassinate the leader of Panama? I don't know. Those Ohio ads, Yeah, Ohio. 897 00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:41,600 Speaker 1: Actually Ohio would absolutely because they're always trying to make 898 00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:49,040 Speaker 1: more Ohio. We can, but everything is already Ohio, terrible, terrible. Well, 899 00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:57,279 Speaker 1: don't move to Ohio and check out these ads. All right, 900 00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,239 Speaker 1: we're back. We're back, and we're shipped talking Ohio. But 901 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:03,000 Speaker 1: now it's time to ship talk, which in which we 902 00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:06,400 Speaker 1: all live, in which is which is the world? Um? 903 00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:10,560 Speaker 1: All right? So whatever the truth of Omar Tario's assassination 904 00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,799 Speaker 1: actually is, and again it's probably the CIA killed him. 905 00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:17,000 Speaker 1: The political climate and Panama suddenly improved for the United 906 00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:22,680 Speaker 1: States after his death. I imagine that John Lindsay Poland 907 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,960 Speaker 1: writes Panama support included the use of its territory for 908 00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:29,240 Speaker 1: joint military maneuvers and covert training, use of US basis 909 00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:32,759 Speaker 1: for logistical supply and intelligence flights to El Salvador and Honduras, 910 00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:34,800 Speaker 1: and training of troops from the region. In the School 911 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,600 Speaker 1: of the Americans were more than eighteen hundred Salvadorian soldiers 912 00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:41,560 Speaker 1: took courses in combat tactics, intelligence, logistics, and other military 913 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:44,560 Speaker 1: subjects from nineteen eight two to nineteen eighty four. According 914 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:46,520 Speaker 1: to Dwayne Claric, who was the chief of the Latin 915 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:50,000 Speaker 1: America Division of the Central Intelligence Agency, Noriega helped the 916 00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:52,040 Speaker 1: CIA set up a short lived trading camp for the 917 00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,840 Speaker 1: Nicaragua's contract for the Nicaraguan Contrast Southern Army in nineteen 918 00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,440 Speaker 1: eighty three. Noriega also provided all Over and North with 919 00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:02,000 Speaker 1: a pair of militians experts who helped blow up ammunition 920 00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:05,640 Speaker 1: storage dump in Managua, Nicaragua in March of nineteen eighty five, 921 00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:09,919 Speaker 1: which rocked the capital, So we use the ship out 922 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:13,440 Speaker 1: of Panama in this period of time. In nineteen eighty four, 923 00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,000 Speaker 1: massive and sweeping electoral flow fraud led to the election 924 00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:20,719 Speaker 1: of President Nicolas Ardito Barletta, a close friend of US 925 00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:24,239 Speaker 1: Secretary of State George Schultz, who attended his inauguration and 926 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:26,399 Speaker 1: went on to invest huge amounts of money and time 927 00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:30,960 Speaker 1: into the NOS. That that's George Scholtz. Yeah. In nineteen 928 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:37,040 Speaker 1: eighty four, after sweeping electoral fraud, Panama elects a president 929 00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:40,160 Speaker 1: who is the close buddy of the U S Secretary 930 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,640 Speaker 1: of State. And this guy is basically just a puppet 931 00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,160 Speaker 1: for Noriega and for the United States UM And as 932 00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:48,840 Speaker 1: a result from nineteen eight in nineteen eighties seven, Panama 933 00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:51,680 Speaker 1: received more than forty seven million dollars in US military 934 00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:54,759 Speaker 1: equipment and training, three times would have received in the 935 00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,760 Speaker 1: preceding thirty years. The goal of all this was twofold, 936 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,880 Speaker 1: to turn the Panamanian National Guard into a US loyal 937 00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,560 Speaker 1: force and to ensure the men who rose through its ranks, 938 00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:05,840 Speaker 1: and thus we're in a position to seize power if needed. 939 00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:09,040 Speaker 1: Were sympathetic to US goals. Now that the US had 940 00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:12,000 Speaker 1: picked had its picked man Noriega in an advanced position 941 00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:14,120 Speaker 1: with the army, and had a whole bunch of promising 942 00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,000 Speaker 1: young officers who received US training in a doctrination, we 943 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,279 Speaker 1: were more or less happy to let Panama have an 944 00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:22,840 Speaker 1: army again. The National Guard transitioned into a proper military 945 00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:26,160 Speaker 1: force in nineteen eighty three. Noriega was its first chief, 946 00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:29,000 Speaker 1: and that same year, nineteen eighty three, he became the 947 00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:32,840 Speaker 1: de facto military dictator of Panama. So again we elect 948 00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:34,960 Speaker 1: a president to be a puppet man who's the friend 949 00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,440 Speaker 1: of our Secretary of State. But Noriega is effectively in 950 00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:40,919 Speaker 1: charge of the country, and he was by no means 951 00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,760 Speaker 1: the legitimate leader of Panama through anything but brute force 952 00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:46,600 Speaker 1: in US support, and we were fine with this. At first. 953 00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:50,480 Speaker 1: There were constant complaints in Washington over his rampant cocaine trafficking, 954 00:52:50,719 --> 00:52:53,719 Speaker 1: but the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, who paid 955 00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:56,040 Speaker 1: him at least a hundred and sixty two dollars during 956 00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:59,919 Speaker 1: this period, successfully question to keep him safe. Yeah, real 957 00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:03,359 Speaker 1: seems kind of low. So, I mean, yeah, it's about 958 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,880 Speaker 1: arranged d I A double dipping is a popular is 959 00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:11,440 Speaker 1: a popular thing among among US informants. Yeah, yeah, he's 960 00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:13,520 Speaker 1: and he's getting money from the CIA and from the 961 00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:15,600 Speaker 1: from the d i A, which is really the way 962 00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:19,279 Speaker 1: to do it, which compete Yeah, which compete um. And 963 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:21,719 Speaker 1: they are the ones who keep him safe from like 964 00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:25,239 Speaker 1: the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which is the 965 00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:27,560 Speaker 1: precursor to the d e A. And in fact, the 966 00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:31,600 Speaker 1: the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs had known Noriega 967 00:53:31,719 --> 00:53:34,160 Speaker 1: was a massive coke trafficker since at least nineteen eight 968 00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:37,759 Speaker 1: seventy two, when they attempted to, or they pushed to 969 00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:40,480 Speaker 1: assassinate him, which is a thing we used to let 970 00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:44,279 Speaker 1: them do. It's just like assassinate for leaders for drug trafficking. 971 00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:48,879 Speaker 1: UM probably still do. But again he's kept safe consistently 972 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:50,880 Speaker 1: by his backers, first in the Army, then in the 973 00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:54,799 Speaker 1: CIA and the d i A. So in nineteen eight five, 974 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:57,920 Speaker 1: the Reagan White House received intelligence reports that Noriega had 975 00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:01,160 Speaker 1: met with cartel leaders and given them permission to manufacture 976 00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:04,640 Speaker 1: cocaine and Panama. Noriega had also offered to mediate turf 977 00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:08,359 Speaker 1: arguments among different cartels. Norman Bailey, a staff member, at 978 00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:11,880 Speaker 1: the National Security Council later said of the Reagan administration's 979 00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:15,000 Speaker 1: dirt on Noriega, this wasn't a smoking gun. It was 980 00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:18,719 Speaker 1: a twenty one gun salute. But things were fine for 981 00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,600 Speaker 1: Noriega until the end of nineteen eighties six, when the 982 00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:25,200 Speaker 1: Iran contra scandal burst onto the news and North Americans 983 00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:27,640 Speaker 1: learned that our government had been selling missiles to Iran 984 00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,160 Speaker 1: in order to fund death squads in Nicaragua, which of 985 00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,440 Speaker 1: course had been trained in Panama. This was explicitly forbidden 986 00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:35,799 Speaker 1: both by an arms embargo against Iran and by the 987 00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:38,560 Speaker 1: Bowland Amendment, which made it illegal to fund the contrast. 988 00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:41,120 Speaker 1: This what made what Reagan and his cronies did at 989 00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:48,320 Speaker 1: least light treason, but like treason, a separate skittle for 990 00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:51,480 Speaker 1: a separate podcast. Yeah, we'll talk about that at some 991 00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:55,880 Speaker 1: point too. Because Reagan was Reagan, the fallout was relatively 992 00:54:55,960 --> 00:54:59,360 Speaker 1: minor compared to the crime. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, the 993 00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:03,680 Speaker 1: Dodes Bagman, and CIA director William Casey were forced out 994 00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:07,719 Speaker 1: of the Yeah, really good at destroying the evidence. If 995 00:55:07,719 --> 00:55:12,759 Speaker 1: you need evidence destroyed, Bill Casey's your motherfucking guy. Yeah. 996 00:55:12,840 --> 00:55:15,280 Speaker 1: And if you need a show hosted on Fox News, 997 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,440 Speaker 1: Oliver North is apparently your man or destroying uh the 998 00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:23,000 Speaker 1: largest uh you know, the reputation of the largest uh 999 00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:28,360 Speaker 1: gun lobby group a group of the country. Yeah, Ali, 1000 00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:33,839 Speaker 1: what a great man, Ali North? Um so North. This 1001 00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:35,680 Speaker 1: was a problem, the fact that North and Casey are 1002 00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:38,120 Speaker 1: out of their jobs following a rand contra, because North 1003 00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:41,799 Speaker 1: and Casey had been Noriega's main points of contact. It 1004 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:44,359 Speaker 1: had been them and George H. W. Bush had been 1005 00:55:44,400 --> 00:55:46,959 Speaker 1: the guy's most responsible for defending him from the rest 1006 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:50,880 Speaker 1: of the government over his cocaine trafficking. So once they're out, 1007 00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,080 Speaker 1: Noriega's in deep ship and things get worse and worse 1008 00:55:54,280 --> 00:55:57,799 Speaker 1: for him throughout. Panicked by his loss of support, he 1009 00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:00,520 Speaker 1: cut off ties with the medaine cartel in death spiration. 1010 00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:03,120 Speaker 1: This was not enough to stop him from getting indicted 1011 00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:07,000 Speaker 1: by Grand Juries in Miami and Tampa in February of night. 1012 00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:10,839 Speaker 1: The US placed economic sanctions against Panama, and the goal 1013 00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:13,200 Speaker 1: at this stage was to force the Man from power 1014 00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:16,920 Speaker 1: from beginn From the beginning, though SOUTHCOM, the US military 1015 00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,600 Speaker 1: command in Latin America, had plans in place for an 1016 00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:22,799 Speaker 1: invasion of Panama, more U S forces were sent into 1017 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:26,720 Speaker 1: the country to prepare now. The sanctions against Noriegas Panama 1018 00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:29,399 Speaker 1: did what sanctions always do. They harmed poor people by 1019 00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:32,160 Speaker 1: making it impossible for them to get basic necessities without 1020 00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:35,640 Speaker 1: actually harming the people in charge. Noriega was not forced out. 1021 00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:38,319 Speaker 1: In fact, the sanctions made it easy for him to 1022 00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:41,680 Speaker 1: declare a national emergency and grab more power. The sanctions 1023 00:56:41,719 --> 00:56:44,719 Speaker 1: also provided Noriega with a prime opportunity to flood the 1024 00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:48,200 Speaker 1: airwaves with nationalists saber rattling. It was not hard for 1025 00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:50,840 Speaker 1: him to get many Panamanians on his side against the 1026 00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,640 Speaker 1: US for reasons that should be obvious based on the 1027 00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:58,360 Speaker 1: rest of these episodes now. During his run for Congress, 1028 00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:01,560 Speaker 1: candidate George H. W. Bo was criticized heavily for the 1029 00:57:01,560 --> 00:57:04,359 Speaker 1: fact that, as CIA chief and Vice president, he had 1030 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:08,080 Speaker 1: repeatedly acted to protect and use Noriega. This history was 1031 00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:11,239 Speaker 1: a problem for old George. But if you're a good 1032 00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:14,239 Speaker 1: politician like George H. W. Bush, you know that within 1033 00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,280 Speaker 1: every problem is a solution. The month that Bush was 1034 00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:21,400 Speaker 1: elected to was elected president, Newsweek published an article titled 1035 00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:24,480 Speaker 1: the Crack Nation, And I'm going to quote from Emperor 1036 00:57:24,480 --> 00:57:27,800 Speaker 1: and the Jungle about how this all gets tied to Noriega. 1037 00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:32,200 Speaker 1: The article was focused on that country in our midst 1038 00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:34,880 Speaker 1: but not a part of US, and distinct from people 1039 00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:39,200 Speaker 1: of normal human appetites. The Newsweek's nine stories made abundantly 1040 00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:42,200 Speaker 1: clear who the residents of this crack nation were, and 1041 00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:45,960 Speaker 1: they were nearly all black. If crack users truly represented 1042 00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:49,280 Speaker 1: a nation, surely that nation's sovereignty would have to be 1043 00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:52,560 Speaker 1: violated to address the danger. The article did not say 1044 00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:56,080 Speaker 1: whether Latin Americans were purposefully deploying cocaine to destroy the 1045 00:57:56,120 --> 00:57:59,160 Speaker 1: lives documented on previous pages, but it did call on 1046 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:02,440 Speaker 1: the new administration to make some hard decisions and asserted 1047 00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:06,080 Speaker 1: that America's cocaine problem in fact, has been caused by 1048 00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:10,360 Speaker 1: the Colombian cartels and their US based accomplices. Attacking the 1049 00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:15,040 Speaker 1: enemy high command is a good strategy, So suddenly George 1050 00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:18,320 Speaker 1: Bush has a way out of this problem. Yeah m hm. 1051 00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:22,200 Speaker 1: As crack cocaine spread through American cities, the media latched 1052 00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:24,520 Speaker 1: onto the problem and succeeded in turning what was a 1053 00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:28,880 Speaker 1: problem but a localized problem, into an absolute hysteria. In 1054 00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:31,720 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, the New York Times published an average 1055 00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,280 Speaker 1: of a hundred and one stories about drugs per month, 1056 00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:39,000 Speaker 1: three times the rate they'd published in nineteen. Drugs, particularly crack, 1057 00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:42,880 Speaker 1: were referred to as a plague and a foreign scourge. 1058 00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:47,360 Speaker 1: Breathless op eds worried about crack use crossing over, crossing 1059 00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:50,360 Speaker 1: over from black neighborhoods into affluent white ones. Now there 1060 00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:53,320 Speaker 1: was no evidence that this occurred because rich white people 1061 00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:56,120 Speaker 1: used cocaine. But rich white people needed a reason to 1062 00:58:56,160 --> 00:58:58,880 Speaker 1: care about crack that didn't make them care about poor 1063 00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,280 Speaker 1: black people, and worrying that it was going to hurt 1064 00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:03,840 Speaker 1: their children in mansions was the way to do that. 1065 00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:08,160 Speaker 1: Time called the crack epidemic a plague without boundaries, and 1066 00:59:08,280 --> 00:59:11,760 Speaker 1: as John Lindsay Poland writes, quote, a plague that respects 1067 00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:15,160 Speaker 1: no sovereignty would have to be met with comparable methods. 1068 00:59:15,800 --> 00:59:19,480 Speaker 1: So if the crack epidemic can spread everywhere, then US 1069 00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:23,480 Speaker 1: forces are justified in going into any place, even sovereign nations, 1070 00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:27,080 Speaker 1: in order to fight the crack epidemic. Source. Yeah, go 1071 00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,760 Speaker 1: to the source, which you might argue with the CIA, 1072 00:59:31,040 --> 00:59:36,920 Speaker 1: but in may, not that far, not that far, go 1073 00:59:37,080 --> 00:59:40,840 Speaker 1: up to the guy they're paying who isn't an American citizen. 1074 00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:45,720 Speaker 1: So in May of nineteen eighty nine, Noriega suspended Panamanian elections, 1075 00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:49,240 Speaker 1: using the emergency caused by U S sanctions as a justification. 1076 00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,840 Speaker 1: This led to mass protests and the Organization of American States, 1077 00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:55,000 Speaker 1: which is like a group of Latin American states that 1078 00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:58,200 Speaker 1: is designed to be kind of an overarching diplomatic organization, 1079 00:59:58,520 --> 01:00:01,000 Speaker 1: put together a mediation to him to go to Panama 1080 01:00:01,080 --> 01:00:03,360 Speaker 1: and try to find a solution, maybe to try and 1081 01:00:03,400 --> 01:00:06,120 Speaker 1: to find a way to get Noriega to peacefully leave 1082 01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:09,080 Speaker 1: power and into the crisis. The US did not think 1083 01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:11,560 Speaker 1: that this was mediation was the thing to do, so 1084 01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:14,120 Speaker 1: instead they sent in two thousand soldiers and a Delta 1085 01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:18,919 Speaker 1: Force commando team. Now, these troops and special forces were 1086 01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:22,439 Speaker 1: on special orders from President Bush to travel on Panamanian 1087 01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:27,479 Speaker 1: public roads and ignore Panamanian army checkpoints. The explicit goal 1088 01:00:27,560 --> 01:00:31,760 Speaker 1: of this policy was to provoke confrontations between Panamanian soldiers 1089 01:00:31,920 --> 01:00:35,080 Speaker 1: and US soldiers. Now, when number of clashes followed, and 1090 01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:36,880 Speaker 1: at first none of them rose to the level of 1091 01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:40,320 Speaker 1: deadly violence, but that was President Bush's goal. He wanted 1092 01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:43,920 Speaker 1: a fight between the Panamanian and US militaries to justify 1093 01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:46,320 Speaker 1: further interventions in the country. So it didn't look like 1094 01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:48,960 Speaker 1: we were just invading a sovereign nation. You need a 1095 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:53,080 Speaker 1: dead American serviceman really if you're gonna like truly fux 1096 01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:57,000 Speaker 1: some ship up. So while all this is going on, 1097 01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:00,840 Speaker 1: Noriega was doing standard dictators ship. He sent his soldiers 1098 01:01:00,880 --> 01:01:03,880 Speaker 1: after the vice presidential candidate, a guy named Guerrimo Ford, 1099 01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:06,480 Speaker 1: and he sent a lot of his supporters, and his 1100 01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:10,320 Speaker 1: supporters killed Ford's bodyguard, and suddenly all these images Afford 1101 01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:14,760 Speaker 1: with blood sprayed across his white shirt went viral internationally. Now, 1102 01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:18,720 Speaker 1: because Noriega was a populist, he had kind of He's 1103 01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:20,920 Speaker 1: been a lot of time messaging to the most downtrodden 1104 01:01:20,920 --> 01:01:23,560 Speaker 1: people in Panama, which were, of course, the dark skinned 1105 01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:27,440 Speaker 1: descendants of Caribbean workers imported by the United States. Because 1106 01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,440 Speaker 1: he did ship for them, he was seen as standing 1107 01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:32,640 Speaker 1: up to the United States, and so they supported them 1108 01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:36,000 Speaker 1: because he helped them out and because they hated the US. 1109 01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:38,720 Speaker 1: So the video of this attack, which every US news 1110 01:01:38,720 --> 01:01:41,680 Speaker 1: network played for days, showed a crowd of very dark 1111 01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:46,240 Speaker 1: skinned people attacking Ford, who, as a wealthy Panamanian, was 1112 01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:49,640 Speaker 1: a white man. So you see how this plays on 1113 01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:53,040 Speaker 1: the news. You've got this crowd of dark skinned Noriega 1114 01:01:53,080 --> 01:01:56,320 Speaker 1: supporters beating a white man in the streets, and every 1115 01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:59,280 Speaker 1: US broadcaster plays this footage over and over and over, 1116 01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:02,920 Speaker 1: referring to this crowd of angry people as government goons, 1117 01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:05,840 Speaker 1: These people who are angry because of U S sanctions 1118 01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:08,360 Speaker 1: that have materially affected their lives, and angry because they 1119 01:02:08,360 --> 01:02:12,160 Speaker 1: see Ford as an asient of the US government. Um. 1120 01:02:12,200 --> 01:02:14,560 Speaker 1: But it works in the American news, right, it builds 1121 01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:17,200 Speaker 1: this kind of race war narrative that is really helpful 1122 01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:20,640 Speaker 1: in drumming Americans up for violence. So the media stokes 1123 01:02:20,720 --> 01:02:24,240 Speaker 1: multiple cycles of outrage playing this alongside footage of Noriego 1124 01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:27,120 Speaker 1: waving a machete, which is like a thing in Latin America. 1125 01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:29,800 Speaker 1: It's like there's a lot of cultural weight to the machete, 1126 01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:33,080 Speaker 1: right that everyone, Yeah, Bolivar, it's a tool of revolution, 1127 01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:36,320 Speaker 1: it's also a tool of daily life. But again, when 1128 01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:39,680 Speaker 1: you have this clip of this crowd of Noriega supporters 1129 01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:42,920 Speaker 1: called government goons, attacking Ford in the streets, and you 1130 01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:46,840 Speaker 1: switch to Noriega waving a machete, it presents this image 1131 01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:50,840 Speaker 1: of Panamanians again as savages like they've been presented in 1132 01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:54,120 Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds under Roosevelt. Right, it's the same 1133 01:02:54,440 --> 01:02:57,160 Speaker 1: basic tactic, and it's the same in a lot of cases, 1134 01:02:57,200 --> 01:02:59,480 Speaker 1: the same news organs that are are pushing this This 1135 01:02:59,640 --> 01:03:03,240 Speaker 1: information pundit started yelling at George H. W. Bush for 1136 01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:07,000 Speaker 1: not acting to intervene. They called him a wimp. And 1137 01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:09,400 Speaker 1: this is there's a ton of jokes and like early 1138 01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:12,520 Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live about George Bush being a wimp and 1139 01:03:12,560 --> 01:03:16,120 Speaker 1: it's because he's not doesn't invade Panama fast enough. When 1140 01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,040 Speaker 1: all this footage starts going viral on the news, it's 1141 01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:25,240 Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty good stuff, Like George Bush is definitely 1142 01:03:26,080 --> 01:03:29,120 Speaker 1: a bad guy in this story, but by god, he 1143 01:03:29,280 --> 01:03:33,880 Speaker 1: is not the only one. Um. Nope, Yeah, it's pretty cool. So, 1144 01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:37,520 Speaker 1: of course, all of this manufactured Consett manifest that's exactly 1145 01:03:37,520 --> 01:03:40,360 Speaker 1: what's going on. In the documentary, The Panama Deception does 1146 01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:42,360 Speaker 1: a great job of just cutting together. There will be 1147 01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:46,640 Speaker 1: like thirty different like clips from different primetime news segments, 1148 01:03:46,640 --> 01:03:49,400 Speaker 1: all using the same phrase government goons to refer to 1149 01:03:49,440 --> 01:03:53,680 Speaker 1: this mob um and there's a bunch of different kids 1150 01:03:53,720 --> 01:03:56,840 Speaker 1: because they got the same memo. Now, of course, throughout 1151 01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:59,080 Speaker 1: all of this pressure to deal with the crack At 1152 01:03:59,080 --> 01:04:02,240 Speaker 1: epidemic was also a building. In nineteen eighty nine, President 1153 01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,440 Speaker 1: Bush made his first televised speech. He focused on the 1154 01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:07,840 Speaker 1: crack epidemic and held up a baggy of the drug 1155 01:04:07,880 --> 01:04:09,800 Speaker 1: that he said had been purchased from a black drug 1156 01:04:09,800 --> 01:04:12,880 Speaker 1: dealer across the street from the White House. This was 1157 01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:15,880 Speaker 1: technically true. What was left unsaid was that the d 1158 01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:18,320 Speaker 1: e A had deliberately pushed the dealer to meet them 1159 01:04:18,320 --> 01:04:21,160 Speaker 1: in Lafayette Park, far away from where he normally did 1160 01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:23,520 Speaker 1: his business, so that Bush could claim it had been 1161 01:04:23,520 --> 01:04:26,200 Speaker 1: bought within sight of the White House. That's the story 1162 01:04:26,280 --> 01:04:28,400 Speaker 1: for another day, though for now, I just want to 1163 01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:32,400 Speaker 1: repeat something John Lindsay Poland wrote about this whole episode. Quote. 1164 01:04:32,840 --> 01:04:37,440 Speaker 1: The speech illustrates how internal ethnic minorities had become politically 1165 01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:40,800 Speaker 1: expendable props in the drug war at the time. Now 1166 01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:43,360 Speaker 1: An ABC poll taken after the speech found that six 1167 01:04:44,080 --> 01:04:47,280 Speaker 1: of respondents believed drugs were the most important problem facing 1168 01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:50,960 Speaker 1: the United States. A few days later, Panamanian soldiers attempted 1169 01:04:50,960 --> 01:04:53,280 Speaker 1: a coup against Noriega, which he put down with as 1170 01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:56,480 Speaker 1: much bloodshed as you would expect. More pundits called George 1171 01:04:56,480 --> 01:04:58,959 Speaker 1: Bush a whimp. The President had been willing to ruin 1172 01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:01,680 Speaker 1: a young black citizen life for political theater, and he 1173 01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:03,720 Speaker 1: was about to prove that he would be happy to 1174 01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:07,400 Speaker 1: do much worse to foreigners in advancing the same goal. 1175 01:05:08,720 --> 01:05:11,880 Speaker 1: General Colin Powell, at that point, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 1176 01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:14,680 Speaker 1: later told Bob Woodward that he had never witnessed a 1177 01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:17,480 Speaker 1: political fight as ugly as the debate over whether or 1178 01:05:17,480 --> 01:05:20,160 Speaker 1: not to invade Panama. He said he felt like the 1179 01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:24,560 Speaker 1: political class was acting as a lynch mob. War fever 1180 01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:26,800 Speaker 1: was as high in the United States as it could 1181 01:05:26,800 --> 01:05:30,040 Speaker 1: possibly be, and within the military itself it was damn 1182 01:05:30,080 --> 01:05:33,360 Speaker 1: near boiling over. In nineteen eighties seven, it had become 1183 01:05:33,400 --> 01:05:36,240 Speaker 1: clear to even the most dedicated Cold Warriors that the U. S. 1184 01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:38,960 Speaker 1: S R Was not long for this world. This meant 1185 01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:40,640 Speaker 1: an end of the Cold War, and thus an end 1186 01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:42,680 Speaker 1: to the billions and billions that the US had spent 1187 01:05:42,720 --> 01:05:45,680 Speaker 1: funding death squads and dictators in Latin America under the 1188 01:05:45,680 --> 01:05:48,880 Speaker 1: guise of anti communism. The people doing this, murdering and 1189 01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:53,439 Speaker 1: receiving these funds did not want to stop. Colonel John D. Wiggelstein, 1190 01:05:53,720 --> 01:05:56,800 Speaker 1: who coordinated the U. S. Military intervention in El Salvador 1191 01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:59,640 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighties seven, wrote that the military needed to 1192 01:05:59,680 --> 01:06:02,960 Speaker 1: find quote a weapon with which to regain the moral 1193 01:06:03,080 --> 01:06:06,560 Speaker 1: high ground we appeared to have lost. He suggested that 1194 01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:10,000 Speaker 1: a melding in the American public's mind and in Congress 1195 01:06:10,000 --> 01:06:13,200 Speaker 1: of this connection between the drug trade and insurgency would 1196 01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:15,920 Speaker 1: lead to the necessary support to counter the guerilla and 1197 01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:20,080 Speaker 1: narcotics terrorists in this hemisphere. Those church and academic groups 1198 01:06:20,080 --> 01:06:23,959 Speaker 1: that have slavishly supported insurgency in Latin America would find 1199 01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,919 Speaker 1: themselves on the wrong side of the moral issue. Pretty fun, 1200 01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:30,919 Speaker 1: there's a yeah, there's a there's a lot going on here. Yeah, 1201 01:06:31,040 --> 01:06:33,200 Speaker 1: it's fun when you say, but it all leads, But 1202 01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:35,560 Speaker 1: it all leads in one direction. It does lead in 1203 01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:38,439 Speaker 1: one directly. And what he's talking about we chatted about 1204 01:06:38,440 --> 01:06:40,160 Speaker 1: the sum in the School of the Americas. There are 1205 01:06:40,200 --> 01:06:43,360 Speaker 1: like a lot of Catholic churches are very supportive of 1206 01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,160 Speaker 1: left wing insurgents in Latin America in the sixties and 1207 01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:50,720 Speaker 1: seventies because the right wing death squads are so fucking brutal, 1208 01:06:50,760 --> 01:06:53,640 Speaker 1: and because there's like a strong social justice component, two 1209 01:06:53,680 --> 01:06:56,920 Speaker 1: aspects of Catholic theology. And this really pisss off the 1210 01:06:56,960 --> 01:07:00,520 Speaker 1: Americans because it means that US backed groups keep murdering 1211 01:07:00,600 --> 01:07:03,800 Speaker 1: nuns and raping nuns in mass and that looks really 1212 01:07:03,840 --> 01:07:06,680 Speaker 1: bad in the media, and it's led to a degradation 1213 01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:09,960 Speaker 1: in like US support for the military in Latin America. 1214 01:07:10,280 --> 01:07:12,880 Speaker 1: And so the idea is that if we tie the 1215 01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:15,840 Speaker 1: drug war to these left wing insurgents, if we blame 1216 01:07:15,880 --> 01:07:19,840 Speaker 1: it on them, nobody likes drugs. They're the ultimate evil. 1217 01:07:20,280 --> 01:07:22,479 Speaker 1: Just forget about the contrasts for a second. Forget about 1218 01:07:22,480 --> 01:07:26,320 Speaker 1: the contrasts for a second. Think about crack. Now. By 1219 01:07:26,360 --> 01:07:29,520 Speaker 1: all accounts, the strategy was a staggering success. In nineteen 1220 01:07:29,520 --> 01:07:32,320 Speaker 1: eighty nine, Congress made the Defense Department the single lead 1221 01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:35,280 Speaker 1: agency in the federal government for the detection and monitoring 1222 01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:39,960 Speaker 1: of drug trafficking in the hemisphere. This, yeahn't that cool? 1223 01:07:40,560 --> 01:07:44,040 Speaker 1: That makes sense. They should be the ones doing that now. 1224 01:07:44,400 --> 01:07:46,360 Speaker 1: This explains why a lot of folks at the top 1225 01:07:46,360 --> 01:07:49,880 Speaker 1: in the military wanted war with Panama. But outside of 1226 01:07:49,960 --> 01:07:53,200 Speaker 1: high command, war fever was just as strong. And this 1227 01:07:53,360 --> 01:07:56,880 Speaker 1: was largely because in the decades of relative peace since Vietnam, 1228 01:07:57,240 --> 01:08:00,000 Speaker 1: the United States had developed a whole panoply of high 1229 01:08:00,080 --> 01:08:02,840 Speaker 1: tech killing machines that we had never had a chance 1230 01:08:02,840 --> 01:08:07,040 Speaker 1: to test out stuff like Apache helicopters, Abram's battle tanks, 1231 01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:10,400 Speaker 1: stealth bombers, and a whole bunch of Neto rocket launchers 1232 01:08:10,400 --> 01:08:15,200 Speaker 1: and new precision guided bombs. Troops and commanders were unbelievably 1233 01:08:15,240 --> 01:08:18,400 Speaker 1: horny to try this stuff out. One American general even 1234 01:08:18,439 --> 01:08:22,400 Speaker 1: admitted in an interview, we are mesmerized with firepower. We 1235 01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:25,519 Speaker 1: have all these new gadgets, laser guided missiles and stealth fighters, 1236 01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:29,320 Speaker 1: and we are just dying to use that stuff. Perhaps 1237 01:08:29,439 --> 01:08:34,920 Speaker 1: that's a problem their excuse to use that. Within a 1238 01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:37,639 Speaker 1: few years they will be using yeah, and it will 1239 01:08:37,680 --> 01:08:41,439 Speaker 1: turn out none of it really helps when ship gets that. Nope. 1240 01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:44,960 Speaker 1: So their excuse to use that stuff came in December 1241 01:08:45,960 --> 01:08:47,760 Speaker 1: as a result of some of the soldiers Bush had 1242 01:08:47,880 --> 01:08:51,080 Speaker 1: ordered to drive around on Panamanian roads being jackasses and 1243 01:08:51,200 --> 01:08:53,640 Speaker 1: doing exactly that. The facts of the story are that 1244 01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:56,840 Speaker 1: on December sixteenth, four American officers and civilian clothes in 1245 01:08:56,880 --> 01:08:59,960 Speaker 1: a private car were stopped at a Panamanian checkpoint point 1246 01:09:00,120 --> 01:09:03,280 Speaker 1: close to PDF headquarters. They had gotten lost downtown, or 1247 01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:06,000 Speaker 1: so they claimed. A conflict arose at the checkpoint, and 1248 01:09:06,120 --> 01:09:08,799 Speaker 1: the U. S soldiers drove through the checkpoint without approval, 1249 01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:12,280 Speaker 1: and the Panamanians opened fire, killing one soldier and wounding another. 1250 01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:15,360 Speaker 1: The Defense Department alleged that the men were unarmed and 1251 01:09:15,360 --> 01:09:17,960 Speaker 1: that they had been harassed by Panamanian soldiers, and maybe 1252 01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:20,640 Speaker 1: they had been We don't really know what happened. We 1253 01:09:20,720 --> 01:09:23,320 Speaker 1: know what the Defense Department says has happened, and we 1254 01:09:23,400 --> 01:09:26,600 Speaker 1: know that other soldiers had been given orders to ignore checkpoints. 1255 01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:30,559 Speaker 1: And Furthermore, as the l A. Times reported the killing 1256 01:09:30,560 --> 01:09:33,439 Speaker 1: of a U. S Marine lieutenant by Panamanian forces last December, 1257 01:09:33,479 --> 01:09:35,920 Speaker 1: an event used by President Bush in part to justify 1258 01:09:35,960 --> 01:09:39,440 Speaker 1: the invasion of Panama, was not the unprovoked active aggression 1259 01:09:39,439 --> 01:09:42,280 Speaker 1: portrayed by the White House, according to American military and 1260 01:09:42,360 --> 01:09:45,040 Speaker 1: civilian sources. Instead, it was a step in a pattern 1261 01:09:45,040 --> 01:09:47,400 Speaker 1: of aggressive behavior by a small group of US troops 1262 01:09:47,439 --> 01:09:51,320 Speaker 1: who called themselves the hard Chargers, and who frequently tested 1263 01:09:51,320 --> 01:09:55,280 Speaker 1: the patients and reaction of Panamanian forces, particularly at roadblocks, 1264 01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:57,960 Speaker 1: the sources said. And of course the Pentagon denies this. 1265 01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:02,400 Speaker 1: But that's the story. Now. You can decide what you 1266 01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:05,000 Speaker 1: want to believe there. Whatever the truth was present, Bush 1267 01:10:05,040 --> 01:10:08,640 Speaker 1: immediately gave orders to invade, and invade. We did. The 1268 01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:11,559 Speaker 1: US launched its attack on Panama a December twenty nine, 1269 01:10:11,880 --> 01:10:14,960 Speaker 1: eighty nine. It would be the bloodiest war on Panamanian 1270 01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:17,960 Speaker 1: soil in ninety years. The United States owned the most 1271 01:10:17,960 --> 01:10:21,519 Speaker 1: advanced and deadly military apparatus and human history. At this point, 1272 01:10:21,680 --> 01:10:24,240 Speaker 1: we had tens of thousands of soldiers and marines, extensive 1273 01:10:24,280 --> 01:10:27,920 Speaker 1: air and naval support, and armored vehicles. The Panamanian military 1274 01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:31,679 Speaker 1: numbered three thousand men. Needless to say, US forces tore 1275 01:10:31,760 --> 01:10:34,920 Speaker 1: through them with basically no resistance. Most of our air 1276 01:10:34,960 --> 01:10:39,320 Speaker 1: assets and artillery focused on shelling heavily populated areas. The 1277 01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:43,720 Speaker 1: Panamanian military headquarters was located in the mostly black and indigenous, 1278 01:10:43,760 --> 01:10:47,840 Speaker 1: densely peopled El Tario neighborhood. The US gave ten minutes 1279 01:10:47,840 --> 01:10:50,600 Speaker 1: of warning for these people to abandon their homes and possessions, 1280 01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:53,839 Speaker 1: and then leveled the entire neighborhood with high tech weaponry 1281 01:10:53,880 --> 01:10:56,599 Speaker 1: from the sky. This marked the first time the fifty 1282 01:10:56,640 --> 01:10:59,679 Speaker 1: million dollar F one seven A stealth bomber was deployed. 1283 01:10:59,680 --> 01:11:02,559 Speaker 1: In that the stealth bomber was invisible to radar, which 1284 01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:06,120 Speaker 1: didn't matter because Panama did not have r did not 1285 01:11:06,280 --> 01:11:10,640 Speaker 1: have any radar, could have used a blimp. Americans had 1286 01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:13,479 Speaker 1: been assured that the bomber was incredibly accurate, able to 1287 01:11:13,560 --> 01:11:17,120 Speaker 1: drop bombs down chimneys and avoid collateral damage. In reality, 1288 01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:20,120 Speaker 1: it missed its bombing target by more than three hundred yards. 1289 01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:27,960 Speaker 1: That's a huge rain. Yeah, it's three football fields, which 1290 01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:31,360 Speaker 1: is again every time, that's a half a bad square. Yeah. 1291 01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:35,719 Speaker 1: Anytime someone in the military too says the word precision bombs, 1292 01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:39,280 Speaker 1: they're lying to you. Such a thing has never been invented. 1293 01:11:40,439 --> 01:11:42,599 Speaker 1: I say that as someone who has watched the United 1294 01:11:42,640 --> 01:11:45,599 Speaker 1: States bomba city with my own eyes. We don't have 1295 01:11:45,720 --> 01:11:49,280 Speaker 1: precision bombs. We have bombs that are more precise than 1296 01:11:49,280 --> 01:11:51,400 Speaker 1: I don't know guys in were one dropping them out 1297 01:11:51,439 --> 01:11:54,920 Speaker 1: of a cockpit, but it is not very precise. But like, 1298 01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:59,040 Speaker 1: that's that that like three yards is huge. That's a 1299 01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:01,439 Speaker 1: that's half a group. That's like a third to half 1300 01:12:01,439 --> 01:12:05,400 Speaker 1: a grid square. That's you don't like like like whatever 1301 01:12:05,439 --> 01:12:07,479 Speaker 1: I think. Whenever I think like precision, I'm like, oh, yeah, 1302 01:12:07,520 --> 01:12:09,400 Speaker 1: like you know, a tenth of a grid square, you know, 1303 01:12:09,439 --> 01:12:14,960 Speaker 1: a hundreds like ours, that's pretty good. Three is a 1304 01:12:15,000 --> 01:12:18,479 Speaker 1: wide miss. Yeah, and we didn't find that out. You'd 1305 01:12:18,479 --> 01:12:21,000 Speaker 1: be better off, you know, World War two bomber pilot, 1306 01:12:21,080 --> 01:12:23,519 Speaker 1: you know. And one of the things that's happening here 1307 01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:27,000 Speaker 1: is the US Press court that's supposed to cover this 1308 01:12:27,479 --> 01:12:30,920 Speaker 1: is embedded with the Defense Department, who they're only getting 1309 01:12:30,960 --> 01:12:34,160 Speaker 1: the best, and the Defense department make sure they arrived 1310 01:12:34,240 --> 01:12:37,000 Speaker 1: several days late, so they missed the fighting. There are 1311 01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:39,880 Speaker 1: a couple of journalists, including a local Panamanian journalists who 1312 01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:42,160 Speaker 1: are there and who we get some reports from because 1313 01:12:42,160 --> 01:12:45,320 Speaker 1: they're there during the fighting. But the mainstream American press 1314 01:12:45,320 --> 01:12:47,599 Speaker 1: corps doesn't arrive until later, and of course they receive 1315 01:12:47,680 --> 01:12:50,280 Speaker 1: a gated tour of all of this, and that's why 1316 01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:52,760 Speaker 1: the initial reports from Panama are just talking about, oh 1317 01:12:52,880 --> 01:12:55,759 Speaker 1: precision our weapons are, and like they're able to strike 1318 01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:57,800 Speaker 1: this building and leave all of the buildings around it. 1319 01:12:57,960 --> 01:13:00,800 Speaker 1: You can look at footage of Alt Tario neighborhood around 1320 01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:04,240 Speaker 1: the painting and Panamanian defense. It's leveled. It looks like 1321 01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,439 Speaker 1: they just wipe this place off the face of the 1322 01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:11,080 Speaker 1: fun precisely limited this entire grid square where all of 1323 01:13:11,120 --> 01:13:12,760 Speaker 1: the poor people live, where all of the black and 1324 01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:18,240 Speaker 1: indigenous residents live. Um now wealthy neighborhoods were avoided and 1325 01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:21,280 Speaker 1: preserved during the US invasion, and in fact, when US 1326 01:13:21,320 --> 01:13:24,000 Speaker 1: forces entered Cologne, they found that business owners in the 1327 01:13:24,040 --> 01:13:27,880 Speaker 1: wealthy shopping district had shot three looters dead. Obviously, when 1328 01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:30,640 Speaker 1: the fighting starts, people who are starving under U S 1329 01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:34,080 Speaker 1: sanctions start looting, business owners shoot them dead, and the 1330 01:13:34,200 --> 01:13:37,200 Speaker 1: US forces allow these men to keep their guns and 1331 01:13:37,240 --> 01:13:40,400 Speaker 1: even send in soldiers to help protect these business owners 1332 01:13:40,600 --> 01:13:44,000 Speaker 1: from people who are starving due to sanctions. It's pretty 1333 01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:47,400 Speaker 1: fucking cool. Um, I'm gonna quote again from Emperors in 1334 01:13:47,439 --> 01:13:51,639 Speaker 1: the jungle. The impoverished community of San Miguelito was also 1335 01:13:51,720 --> 01:13:55,679 Speaker 1: bombed across the town at Punta Patila. Wealthy Panamanians watched 1336 01:13:55,720 --> 01:13:59,040 Speaker 1: the invasion from their condominiums and expensive high rises at 1337 01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:02,000 Speaker 1: near my petit Lea Airport, Navy seals were ordered to 1338 01:14:02,080 --> 01:14:05,720 Speaker 1: undertake a risky operation to disable Noriega's personal jet at 1339 01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:09,240 Speaker 1: close range to avoid damage to nearby residences from crossfire. 1340 01:14:09,600 --> 01:14:12,639 Speaker 1: Four seals lost their lives in the operation. No such 1341 01:14:12,680 --> 01:14:15,160 Speaker 1: care was taken with a PDF headquarters next to El Jarillo, 1342 01:14:15,560 --> 01:14:18,360 Speaker 1: where U S forces bombed from the air. Their tracer 1343 01:14:18,400 --> 01:14:21,600 Speaker 1: bullets and flares contributed to the conflagration that incinerated the 1344 01:14:21,640 --> 01:14:24,320 Speaker 1: community and many people who were trapped inside. So in 1345 01:14:24,360 --> 01:14:27,719 Speaker 1: the rich neighborhood, when we're trying to disable Noriega's plane, 1346 01:14:27,960 --> 01:14:30,679 Speaker 1: we send a Navy seals and we lose a lot 1347 01:14:30,720 --> 01:14:33,080 Speaker 1: of Navy seals taking out his plane so that we 1348 01:14:33,120 --> 01:14:36,800 Speaker 1: don't have to damage the wealthy people's houses. But in Elcheria, 1349 01:14:36,840 --> 01:14:40,639 Speaker 1: where people are poor, we just fucking level it. Pretty bad, 1350 01:14:41,160 --> 01:14:44,080 Speaker 1: pretty bad, pretty bad, Chelsea. But it's not the good 1351 01:14:44,120 --> 01:14:47,519 Speaker 1: imagery that you know. It's it's it's it doesn't make 1352 01:14:47,560 --> 01:14:50,800 Speaker 1: for a good good CNN. Yeah, this is not what 1353 01:14:50,880 --> 01:14:54,360 Speaker 1: Peter Jennings talks about at the time. Now, today, the 1354 01:14:54,400 --> 01:14:58,759 Speaker 1: Defense Department officially recognizes five hundred and sixteen deaths, mostly civilian, 1355 01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:01,360 Speaker 1: as a result of us A actions in Panama. An 1356 01:15:01,400 --> 01:15:04,040 Speaker 1: internal Army memo put the death toll it more than 1357 01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:08,080 Speaker 1: a thousand. Central American Human Rights Commission estimates between two 1358 01:15:08,120 --> 01:15:10,439 Speaker 1: and three thousand dead, and I've heard estimates of about 1359 01:15:10,439 --> 01:15:13,240 Speaker 1: thirty five hundred. You have to expect a couple of 1360 01:15:13,240 --> 01:15:19,600 Speaker 1: thousand is the likely death toll? Yeah, yeah, well, I 1361 01:15:19,600 --> 01:15:22,639 Speaker 1: mean yeah, definitely more than the United States is willing 1362 01:15:23,000 --> 01:15:24,800 Speaker 1: than the do O D is willing to admit. And 1363 01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:27,880 Speaker 1: those deaths were just the start. More than eighteen thousand 1364 01:15:27,960 --> 01:15:31,000 Speaker 1: Panamanians were rendered homeless by the invasion. More than five 1365 01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:35,040 Speaker 1: thousand Panamanians were detained on suspicion of being potential insurgents 1366 01:15:35,240 --> 01:15:39,240 Speaker 1: and put in concentration camps. There are multiple allegations, some 1367 01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:43,040 Speaker 1: of which have been substantiated heavily, that US forces executed 1368 01:15:43,080 --> 01:15:47,160 Speaker 1: civilians during the occupation. Mass graves were dug and filled 1369 01:15:47,200 --> 01:15:50,160 Speaker 1: with corpses and would be uncovered for years afterwards in 1370 01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:54,000 Speaker 1: Panama City. And then this is a tiny country, very 1371 01:15:54,080 --> 01:15:57,600 Speaker 1: small place. Um. And the mass graves suggest that the 1372 01:15:57,680 --> 01:16:00,439 Speaker 1: d D undertook extensive efforts to hide the ath told. 1373 01:16:00,600 --> 01:16:03,960 Speaker 1: Some of these corpses are found in handcuffs with bullets 1374 01:16:03,960 --> 01:16:07,240 Speaker 1: in the back of their skulls. Um, it's bad, It's 1375 01:16:07,320 --> 01:16:10,880 Speaker 1: very bad. What happens in Panama? Um? And again Yeah, 1376 01:16:11,200 --> 01:16:16,479 Speaker 1: messed up stuff. Six days in Panama. Yeah, yeah, simple, quiet, peaceful, 1377 01:16:16,520 --> 01:16:20,200 Speaker 1: little war. Noriega went on the run. Of course, soldiers 1378 01:16:20,240 --> 01:16:23,000 Speaker 1: searching for him found materials used in Santa Ria, a 1379 01:16:23,080 --> 01:16:26,960 Speaker 1: popular religion popular in the Caribbean. The military, prodded by 1380 01:16:27,000 --> 01:16:30,120 Speaker 1: the d D, used this to suggest that Noriega supportives 1381 01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:33,040 Speaker 1: were devil worshippers. The military claimed that a hundred and 1382 01:16:33,040 --> 01:16:35,400 Speaker 1: ten pounds of cocaine was also found in what they 1383 01:16:35,400 --> 01:16:40,080 Speaker 1: called Noriega's witch house. The Los Angeles Times particularly bought 1384 01:16:40,120 --> 01:16:43,200 Speaker 1: into this and wrote in one article that's of blood, 1385 01:16:43,479 --> 01:16:47,719 Speaker 1: animal in trails, a picture of Adolf Hitler, spike heeled shoes, 1386 01:16:48,040 --> 01:16:50,880 Speaker 1: more than a hundred pounds of cocaine all were part 1387 01:16:50,920 --> 01:16:53,800 Speaker 1: of the bizarre scenes encountered by American troops as these 1388 01:16:53,840 --> 01:17:02,880 Speaker 1: storms Noriega's inner sanctum. Basically, now, Chelsea, you want to 1389 01:17:02,880 --> 01:17:05,320 Speaker 1: guess with that hundred and ten pounds of cocaine? Actually, 1390 01:17:05,400 --> 01:17:12,200 Speaker 1: was I gonna guess sugar or something to Molly's, to 1391 01:17:12,400 --> 01:17:18,559 Speaker 1: Molly's um. It took a month for us to find 1392 01:17:18,560 --> 01:17:20,439 Speaker 1: out that it was to Molly's. That he just had 1393 01:17:20,479 --> 01:17:23,040 Speaker 1: a house full of to Molly's. And the animal gets 1394 01:17:23,160 --> 01:17:26,840 Speaker 1: were probably because they were, you know, like gutting and 1395 01:17:26,880 --> 01:17:30,880 Speaker 1: preparing animals to eat. Anyway, the lie served its purpose. 1396 01:17:30,960 --> 01:17:33,960 Speaker 1: Noriega was effectively made into a demon, awful enough that 1397 01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:37,240 Speaker 1: whole neighborhoods had to be leveled in order to catch him, 1398 01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:40,720 Speaker 1: and thousands slaughtered. The fact that Noriega never managed to 1399 01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:43,360 Speaker 1: do as much damage to Panama as the Bush administration 1400 01:17:43,360 --> 01:17:46,320 Speaker 1: had done went onset, and as did the fact that 1401 01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:49,360 Speaker 1: the invasion gave the United States what it wanted. The 1402 01:17:49,400 --> 01:17:54,200 Speaker 1: Panamanian military was destroyed, and under negotiations with the new government, 1403 01:17:54,240 --> 01:17:56,920 Speaker 1: the US got the right to maintain their military presence 1404 01:17:56,920 --> 01:18:00,960 Speaker 1: in Panama. After all, Panama didn't have a literry anymore, 1405 01:18:01,240 --> 01:18:05,120 Speaker 1: so they were going to need protection. Convenient. Yeah, and 1406 01:18:05,160 --> 01:18:07,520 Speaker 1: that's basically the end of the story. You know, eventually 1407 01:18:07,560 --> 01:18:09,839 Speaker 1: the US pulls most of its stuff out of Panama. 1408 01:18:09,960 --> 01:18:12,800 Speaker 1: It takes another kind of people would forget about Panama. Yeah, 1409 01:18:12,840 --> 01:18:16,559 Speaker 1: and people forget about Panama. Noriega dies in US custody 1410 01:18:16,600 --> 01:18:20,719 Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen. I think, um, and yeah, 1411 01:18:20,880 --> 01:18:24,200 Speaker 1: that's that's the story of the US and Panama. Horrible. 1412 01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:28,760 Speaker 1: And I'm prad being American, where at least I know 1413 01:18:29,080 --> 01:18:34,839 Speaker 1: I'm free. I hated that so much. Yeah, well, Chelsea, 1414 01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:37,120 Speaker 1: do you have any plugables for US? I do have 1415 01:18:37,280 --> 01:18:41,479 Speaker 1: a Twitter account, it is Twitter dot com forward slash 1416 01:18:41,880 --> 01:18:44,920 Speaker 1: x y Chelsea. I have a Twitch account which is 1417 01:18:45,360 --> 01:18:50,400 Speaker 1: uh twitch dot tv forward slash x y Chelsea, And 1418 01:18:50,600 --> 01:18:52,960 Speaker 1: those are my two social media accounts. You can figure 1419 01:18:52,960 --> 01:18:54,720 Speaker 1: out all the things that I do. I am a 1420 01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:59,680 Speaker 1: Twitter streamer as well as a Twitter tweet out with 1421 01:18:59,840 --> 01:19:04,000 Speaker 1: your feet out and think about panamall. And I just 1422 01:19:04,040 --> 01:19:07,200 Speaker 1: played video games. I just played mine Craft, a little 1423 01:19:07,200 --> 01:19:11,000 Speaker 1: bit of harmless Minecraft, a little bit of harmless. Maybe 1424 01:19:11,000 --> 01:19:15,840 Speaker 1: a little bit of political commentator commentators ships on from 1425 01:19:15,880 --> 01:19:18,320 Speaker 1: time to time. Yeah, I mean, you have a famously 1426 01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:21,040 Speaker 1: positive relationship with the US government, so I can only 1427 01:19:21,040 --> 01:19:24,280 Speaker 1: imagine what some of your tweets are about. Yeah, I 1428 01:19:24,400 --> 01:19:28,719 Speaker 1: try to keep I tried to. I hold my tongue 1429 01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:35,280 Speaker 1: a little bit, all right, Well hold your tongues um 1430 01:19:35,360 --> 01:19:39,920 Speaker 1: on Twitter or not, because there's effectively very little moderation 1431 01:19:39,920 --> 01:19:44,920 Speaker 1: on that platform. Podka, let's go