Administration Seeks to Spread Panama Blame : Bush Aide Says Congress Has Hamstrung President

A top Administration official said Sunday that President Bush’s critics in Congress share responsibility for the United States’ reluctance to use American military personnel to assist in a coup attempt against Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega last week.

Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, said that Congress, through “micromanagement of the Executive Branch,” has historically discouraged Presidents from using military force to topple unpopular leaders of other countries. He referred specifically to an executive order prohibiting assassinations by agents of the United States.

“Congress has, by its actions and its demeanor, certainly leaned us against the kinds of things now they’re saying we should have done,” Scowcroft said on ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley.”

Host of Critics

Over the past week, members of both parties in Congress--virtually everyone except the most liberal members--have criticized Bush for failing to provide the mutineers with the military assistance that would have enabled their coup against Noriega to succeed.

Scowcroft was reacting to their criticism as well as a statement by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David L. Boren (D-Okla.) that the Bush Administration has never been denied any request for congressional approval of covert activity in Panama designed to oust Noriega.

Boren, also appearing on ABC, said: “Since George Bush became President, every single word of authority that he had requested from the Intelligence Committee and every single penny that he has requested from the Intelligence Committee relating to Panama, he has gotten and gotten with my support.”

Scowcroft replied that he was “astonished” by Boren’s statement, adding, “We did not get everything we had wanted.” But after the television show ended, and after he discused the matter privately with Boren, according to a White House spokesman, Scowcroft acknowledged that the senator’s statement was not incorrect.

Last year, according to sources, the Senate Intelligence Committee discouraged then-President Ronald Reagan from carrying out a covert plan that he had authorized to foment dissent against Noriega among his own forces. Scowcroft appeared to be alluding to that dispute.

Nevertheless, Scowcroft’s comments reflected a widespread view within the Administration that the President’s critics would have been equally--if not more--upset had the White House authorized U.S. military support for the coup.

“I have never seen so many bloodthirsty people as I’ve experienced over the last week . . . who say we should have used force,” said Defense Secretary Dick Cheney on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

‘Monday Morning Quarterbacks’

“I think there’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on. There are more Monday morning quarterbacks per square mile in Washington than any other city in the nation. The fact of the matter is, given what we knew then, and what we know now, I still think we made the right decision.”

White House officials have acknowledged that their decision-making during the crisis was not as efficient as it might have been, but Bush has declared that he still feels he made the right decisions.

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.), ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told ABC that he doubts members of Congress are speaking for their constituents when they call for the use of U.S. military force to oust Noriega. “My judgment is the American people do not want that, nor do the Latin American people,” he said.

Scowcroft, Cheney and Secretary of State James A. Baker III, all of whom appeared on television Sunday in an effort to counter congressional criticism, said the President last Tuesday authorized the commander of U.S forces in Panama to capture Noriega without the use of military force, if possible. Bush also instructed him to devise a plan for using troops to seize Noriega in the event such an action was warranted.

Neither of these two options were ever pursued by American forces in Panama, however, because the rebels said they were unwilling to surrender Noriega to the United States and because the coup collapsed shortly after Bush issued the orders.

“We never made the decision to use military force,” said Cheney. “That would have involved going in against the rebels and taking Noriega from them. I never thought that was a very good idea, but we told him (the U.S. commander) to be prepared in case he got the order to do so. And then, shortly after that, the coup fell apart.”

Cheney characterized the position of U.S. troops in Panama last Tuesday as follows: “We were leaning forward in case the President made the decision to intervene militarily.”

Baker Against U.S. Action

Baker, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said it would have been a mistake for the President to commit troops to assist the Panamanian rebels under the circumstances. “You do not commit American lives on somebody else’s plan and somebody else’s schedule,” Baker added.

Asked what order went from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the American command in Panama regarding the seizure of Noriega, Baker said, “I think the message that was sent was that, if there were an opportunity to do this without risking bloodshed and significant loss of American life and to do so without open military involvement, then he was free to go ahead--the commander on the ground was free to go ahead.”

Although Noriega succeeded in putting down the coup attempt, Baker said that the Panamanian leader continues to be weakened by his loss of support among other Latin American nations and among the officers in his own Defense Forces.

“He is isolated,” said Baker. “We are seeing his sole base of support--the Panama Defense Forces--come unglued, engage in insurrections against him, and I think frankly that this is moving in the right direction. I would argue that there’s a very good possibility that Gen. Noriega is a lot weaker after this unfortunately unsuccessful attempt than he was before.”

Boren has criticized the President for failing to bring U.S. intelligence officials into the decision-making last Tuesday, and Cheney acknowledged that the CIA was not represented at two key meetings between the President and his advisers in the White House situation room. But he insisted the President did receive intelligence reports from CIA officials in Panama.

“The suggestion that somehow the President did not convene his advisers and seek their advice is garbage,” Cheney said. “It’s not true.”