Bush Defends Stance in Failed Panama Coup

President Bush on Friday firmly defended his Administration’s action during the failed coup in Panama, saying that he would do nothing differently, but leading Senate Democrats blamed him personally for a confused and erratic U.S. response.

“This Administration has good people, but policy guidance has to start with the President,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who charged that the Administration was caught without any plan of action. “Occasionally, we ought to foresee that our policy of encouraging a coup might succeed, and we ought to be prepared.”

Administration officials acknowledged that Tuesday’s coup attempt--Bush’s first foreign crisis--has exposed “organizational problems” in the way the White House handles such emergencies. As late as Friday, for example, senior officials could not agree on what orders had been given to U.S. troops in Panama. And as the confusion continued, senior officials began blaming each other for lapses.

And while attention appeared to center on those institutional failures, the week’s events also have called attention to a sharp division within official Washington about how to handle Panama and its controversial leader, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega. Many lawmakers assert that the President should be prepared to move aggressively against the Panamanian strongman, but Administration officials appear increasingly to favor a policy of restraint.

Would Not Change Decision

Even in retrospect, Bush insisted that he would not change his decision against using U.S. troops to ensure the coup’s success.

“I don’t see anything now that would have made me make a different decision,” he told reporters after emerging from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he underwent an operation to remove a cyst from his finger.

Nunn and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David L. Boren (D-Okla.) said the President had an obligation to issue detailed instructions to U.S. personnel in Panama telling them what to do in the event of a coup attempt.

They also said that U.S. officials should have been instructed to ask the rebels in advance of their attempted revolt whether they intended to recognize a duly elected government, which Noriega has refused to do.

If the rebels had been asked that question and if they had promised to install an elected government, Nunn said, the United States would then have had the “moral basis” on which to use military force to support the coup. “There are certainly circumstances under which American troops can be used,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, sentiment seems to have grown for strong U.S. actions to remove Noriega--perhaps even extending to the direct use of U.S. troops. But within the Administration, this week’s failure has accelerated a move in the other direction.

Emphasized Caution

Bush and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, for example, emphasized caution in their comments.

“What people--some people--seem to have wanted me to do is to unleash the full military to go in and, quote, ‘get Noriega,’ ” said Bush. “I suppose you could have gone to general quarters, but that’s not prudent and that’s not the way I plan to conduct the military or foreign affairs of this country.”

Late Thursday, Cheney noted that “we could--if the President gave me the order tonight--we could have Noriega out of there, probably by midnight. But one of the questions you have to ask yourself is how many dead Americans is Gen. Noriega worth, and under what circumstances are you prepared to use that kind of force?”

His tone, a senior Administration aide said, reflected a conscious decision to try to move public attention away from a foreign policy area that has become a frustrating embarrassment.

“Every Administration that knows what it’s doing tries to downplay things that don’t go well,” the aide said.

Subject of Recriminations

Within the Administration, Panama has rapidly become a subject of recriminations, several officials said. A senior Pentagon official identified White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu as the source of a number of comments critical of the Pentagon’s handling of the crisis. Another Administration official confirmed that Sununu had spread word that he was dissatisfied with how the National Security Council had responded to the events.

Cheney defended his department’s actions. “The only thing I can suggest is that, as is true a lot of places, not all the Monday-morning quarterbacks reside on Capitol Hill,” he said when asked about criticism from Administration colleagues.

Regardless of who bears the blame, reconstructions of Tuesday’s events make clear that at key points, the Administration’s response was confused. It was not at all clear, however, that a more coherent response would have led to a different outcome.

“The full story isn’t in yet; they’re still trying to sort it out,” said one Administration official. But, he added, “there was no clear line of authority that would lead to a Presidential decision” on how to handle the coup. “There were a lot of people providing information, and periodically the President was informed. There was no clear opportunity for the President to say, ‘OK, let’s go get him’ or ‘Let’s stay out of it.’ ”

“We may have done the right thing,” the official concluded, “but we stumbled into it.”

Nunn and Boren criticized Administration policy-makers, both in Panama and at the White House, for failing to consult with officials in the CIA as the coup unfolded. As a result, they said, decisions were made without adequate information.

According to Boren, no one from the CIA was invited to attend either of the two important decision-making meetings Tuesday between the President and his aides in the White House situation room. It is highly unusual for the CIA to be excluded from such meetings.

Perhaps the clearest examples of the confusion involved the movements of U.S. troops to block two key roads that pro-Noriega soldiers were expected to use to go to the general’s rescue. The troop movements had been requested by the leader of the coup, Maj. Moises Giroldi Vega, in a meeting with U.S. officials Sunday.

Even Friday, three days after the failed coup, U.S. officials could not agree what orders those troops had been given. Asked if the troops were authorized to block Noriega’s soldiers if they attempted to move, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater replied yes.

But Cheney, asked the same question, said no.

“That’s the kind of decision that would have come up the chain rapidly to the President, and he would have been given the opportunity to make the broad policy decision--’Yes, we want to intervene militarily.’ That decision was never made,” Cheney said.

In the end, Noriega’s supporters made the question moot by taking a third road. But once that happened, U.S. officials apparently failed to tell either the rebels or Bush.

According to Boren, who was briefed extensively by the CIA, Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, White House officials apparently chose not to interrupt Bush’s meeting with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to ask the President whether American soldiers should be stationed on that third road. The coup might have succeeded if the President had decided to block the road that the Noriega forces were using, Boren claimed.

“The real question is why did we let the coup fail,” Boren said. “The President should have been given a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ option on whether to block that road.”

Cable Supports Assertion

Both Boren and Nunn said they currently accept Cheney’s assertion that the rebels refused to turn Noriega over to U.S. officials. They said that account is supported by a cable from U.S. military officials in Panama to Washington.

But Boren said they also have seen another cable sent to Washington by U.S. intelligence officials in Panama saying that members of the coup wanted U.S. personnel to take Noriega while he was still in rebel custody. Cheney told the senators that this second cable was based on a misunderstanding.

When asked by his aides to decide whether U.S. troops should take custody of Noriega, according to Boren, the President replied “only if he’s delivered onto American territory.”

Times staff writers John M. Broder and Melissa Healy contributed to this report.