As anyone who thinks about these kinds of things knows, there’s a rather striking difference between the media in the U.S. & how news is done abroad.  For example, take the following: Manuel Noriega (remember him?  Thought not…) is up for release from prison soon, and there’s dispute over where he goes from there.

Here’s the Associated Press’ take:

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega wants U.S. officials to send him back to his home country when he finishes his drug trafficking and racketeering sentence next month, but American prosecutors are pushing for him to be extradited to France to face another trial.

Noriega, 72, appeared in federal court Monday as attorneys debated the ongoing question of where he will be sent when he finishes his sentence in a Miami prison on Sept. 9.

During the hearing, Noriega wore a military uniform and his dark hair slicked back, pausing at points to put on glasses and read documents, and conferring with an attorney. He used a headset to follow a Spanish translation.

His lawyers say because he is a prisoner of war, he should be sent to Panama, where he wants to fight a conviction in the slayings of two political opponents. U.S. prosecutors, meanwhile, are pushing for him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted in absentia in 1999 on money-laundering charges.

Sounds pretty bog-standard really.  Note that they found what he was wearing to be relevant to the story.  Onward, as the AP throws in a short history lesson…

U.S. forces captured Noriega after a 1989 military invasion ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush in part because of the Panamanian’s links to drug traffickers. It later emerged that Noriega had been on the CIA payroll for years, assisting U.S. interests throughout Latin America, including acting as liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

“Assisting U.S. interests”?  Rather ambiguous term there, wonder what he was doing?

Britain’s Daily Telegraph at least fills in the blank somewhat:

The US invaded Panama in 1989 after sanctions and local opposition forces failed to oust Gen Noriega. From the late 1950s to 1986 he had been a key US ally in the region and had worked for the CIA while also dealing in drugs and mixing with Colombian cartel bosses.

As his military regime tightened its grip and Gen Noriega became increasingly critical of Washington, the US took action to remove him.  Panama’s government is under pressure to secure his return to face allegations that he ordered several murders, including that of the opposition leader Hugo Spadafora, who was tortured and decapitated in 1985. (emphasis mine)

Oh, that’s what he did.  Torture & murder people, and sell drugs off our tax dollars for decades before the charade of arresting him — which itself made no sense even if he wasn’t on the payroll, since he was, um, not in the fucking US at the time — even came about.  Need I mention where he learned such techniques in the first place?

It’s obvious what’s going on here.  If he stands trial in Panama, the reasons for his crimes are going to be discussed, and since there’s no Operation Panamanian Freedom going on at the moment, there’s no microphone to shut off when he goes into detail. From the perspective of our current rulers, the LAST thing the world needs is yet another airing of our dirty laundry, another reminder of how long we’ve been utter hypocrites.  With a track record like ours, where we’re going to be trying frantically to sweep it back under the rug for years to come, can you really blame the rest of the world for rolling their eyes when we claim to want to help them somehow?