U.S. to Bolster Its Panama Troops : Officials Cite Shultz Plan to Seize Noriega

Secretary of State George P. Shultz urged President Reagan this week to order U.S. military or covert action against Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega, but Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci strongly opposed his proposals as dangerous and ill-timed, Administration officials said Friday.

Shultz and his aides startled other officials by proposing options in Panama that included sending a U.S. special operations force into the country to kidnap Noriega and bring him back to the United States to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges, the officials said.

The kidnaping idea was discussed at several high-level meetings and shelved as unworkable, at least for now. But the Administration is still discussing possible actions that include fomenting a military coup against Gen. Noriega and landing more than 3,000 combat troops at U.S. installations in Panama in a show of force, the officials said.

White House Meeting

The Pentagon’s decision Friday to send 1,300 additional troops to beef up security around the Panama Canal, ordered after a White House meeting Thursday, falls far short of the kind of action Shultz was asking, several officials said.

Although no final course of action has been selected, the CIA already has prepared a draft presidential order for limited covert action against the Panamanian regime, the officials said.

“Clearly, they’re posturing,” said one official, referring to the Pentagon’s decision to send a minimum number of military police and other troops to increase the protection of the canal and the estimated 17,000 American civilians in Panama. The United States already has 10,000 troops stationed around the strategic waterway.

Other Measures Faltered

Shultz urged the use of force against the Panamanian dictator after aides concluded that U.S. economic measures were running out of steam. The Reagan Administration has attempted to force Noriega out of office by cutting off his regime’s supply of U.S. dollars, but the tactic appeared to falter this week after the military broke a general strike and reopened Panama’s ports.

The Reagan Administration has been seeking Noriega’s ouster since discovering that the Panamanian general allegedly was helping drug traffickers move cocaine into the United States and was dealing with Cuban President Fidel Castro at the same time that he was ostensibly cooperating with U.S. drug and intelligence agencies.

The options proposed by Shultz and Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for Latin America, were reported to include:

-- Landing more than 3,000 troops in Panama in a major show of force intended to encourage Panamanian military officers opposed to Noriega.

-- Using the CIA to help organize and finance a military coup against Noriega. A group of officers attempted a coup last month but failed. Since then, U.S. officials have called almost openly for another attempt, saying that it is up to Panama’s military officers to get Noriega out.

-- Taking unspecified military action inside Panama in response to a request from deposed civilian President Eric A. Delvalle. Delvalle was ousted by Noriega last month after he attempted to fire the general, but the United States has continued to recognize him as Panama’s president. Aides to Delvalle already have called for U.S. military intervention against Noriega.

-- Kidnaping Noriega to bring him to trial in the United States. But several knowledgeable officials said that a kidnaping has been effectively ruled out, arguing that America’s image would be blackened worldwide if Noriega were accidentally killed during such an attempt. Opponents also reportedly warned Shultz that the drug-trafficking charges lodged against Noriega in federal court, while serious, may not be grave enough to justify the act of arresting him forcibly on Panamanian soil.

Both the Pentagon and the CIA objected strongly to the State Department’s proposals, according to officials on both sides of the argument. One senior official dismissed Shultz’s proposals as “harebrained.”

State Department spokesman Charles Redman, traveling with Shultz in Rome, would not comment on the reports.

First Direct Policy Clash

The controversy marked the first direct policy clash between Shultz and Carlucci to surface publicly since Carlucci succeeded Caspar W. Weinberger as secretary of defense last year. The two Cabinet members have made a concerted effort to avoid the constant feuding that crippled relations between Shultz and Weinberger for five years.

National Security Adviser Colin L. Powell, a former deputy to Carlucci, attempted to mediate the two sides, officials said.

The debate has been part of half a dozen meetings in the White House and State Department, including sessions of the top-level National Security Planning Group and the lower-ranking Policy Review Group, officials said.

Carlucci and Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued especially hard against a proposal that they send more than 3,000 additional troops to Panama in a show of force.

‘Not Sent for Presence’

“Any time there’s a commitment of military force, there has to be a reason,” one Defense Department official said. “Generally speaking, combat troops are not sent for presence. . . . They didn’t think it was advisable to send a large force without a mission.”

Another official said the Pentagon’s opposition to the proposals was “partly parochial, because they have bases down there.” U.S. military or covert action in Panama may only arouse anti-American sentiment and lead to retaliation against U.S. military facilities should the actions fail, he said.

At the CIA, some officials were also reportedly resisting Shultz’s proposals for covert action. “You don’t use covert action to bail out a policy that isn’t working, but as an instrument of a well-thought-out policy,” one source complained. Some CIA officials were also reportedly concerned that the State Department was attempting to short-circuit the agency’s own procedures for considering proposals for covert action.

Further Action Resisted

According to one source, if the CIA and the Pentagon continue to resist further action, the State Department is preparing to direct the covert actions from its own Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Such a move would echo the Iran-Contra scandal, when the staff of the National Security Council took over the job of running some covert operations.

However, a State Department official said that no such move appears to be necessary.

“Things are moving in the proper direction, just more slowly than we would like,” he said. “The policy is that we’re going to use our power and influence to get rid of Noriega.”

“Common sense has prevailed” so far, another senior official said. “But we are committed to do something because he (Noriega) does have to go.”

Times staff writers Jack Nelson and Melissa Healy contributed to this article.