U.S. Officer, Wife Beaten in Panama : Military alert: Bush reviews options for action in wake of fatal shooting. Cheney accuses Noriega of fostering violence.

A U.S. Navy lieutenant was beaten and his wife was roughed up and sexually threatened by Panamanian soldiers late Saturday after they witnessed the fatal shooting of another American military officer in Panama City, Administration officials disclosed Sunday.

The violence prompted President Bush and other Administration officials to quickly review a variety of possible actions by the United States to protect American lives in Panama against further provocations by the forces of Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega.

On Sunday, the President received frequent briefings on the situation in Panama, and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney huddled with his advisers at the Pentagon.

U.S. forces in Panama were placed on alert to guard against further hostile actions by the Panamanian military, but there was no indication that Bush was considering military retaliation. Bush was harshly criticized in October for failing to assist in a failed coup attempt against Noriega.

Cheney blamed Noriega for the slaying of the American officer and called for all of those responsible to be brought to justice. He issued a statement after his Pentagon meetings saying that the Panamanian leader’s brutality against his own people had “created an atmosphere in which Panamanian Defense Forces feel free to fire on unarmed Americans.”

The shooting came closely on the heels of a declaration Friday by Noriega’s rubber-stamp legislature that Panama is “in a state of war” with the United States, but it did not appear to U.S. policy-makers that the killers were acting under orders. Administration officials instead characterized the incident as part of a steady escalation in the harassment of Americans in Panama over the past two years.

“We are extremely concerned that a climate of aggression has developed that puts American lives at risk,” said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.

The identity of the fatal shooting victim was being withheld pending notification of the next of kin. The Pentagon did not identify the others involved, either.

In a statement released Sunday night, Pentagon officials said the victim and three other American military officers were fired upon as they drove away from a confrontation with soldiers at a checkpoint near the headquarters of Noriega’s Panama Defense Forces. A second officer was “grazed,” it said.

After witnessing the shooting, an unidentified U.S. Navy lieutenant and his wife were detained for four hours by Panamanian soldiers, according to the Pentagon. Officials said that the officer was “repeatedly beaten and kicked in the groin and head” and threatened with death if he did not disclose the nature of his duties in Panama.

While her husband was being interrogated, officials said, the officer’s wife was harassed and “sexually threatened” by Panamanian soldiers.

“His wife was slammed against a wall with such force that her head was cut,” the Pentagon said. “After standing at the wall for half an hour with her arms above her head, she collapsed onto the floor.”

U.S. officials strongly denied a statement issued by the Panama Defense Forces on Sunday claiming that the American servicemen had fired on a crowd at a checkpoint, wounding a Defense Forces soldier and two civilians--including a 1-year-old girl.

“That is bull,” declared Mercedes Morris, spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern Command headquartered in Panama. “The U.S. forces were not armed. They did not shoot into the crowd. My own guess is that one of their (the Panamanians’) bullets hit the civilians.”

The four men, dressed in civilian clothes, were driving to a popular downtown Panama City restaurant Saturday night when they made a wrong turn and were halted by soldiers at the checkpoint. According to the Pentagon, a crowd of five soldiers and about 40 bystanders swarmed the Americans’ car when it arrived at the checkpoint.

The men received no answer when they inquired in Spanish why they were not being permitted to pass through the checkpoint, according to the Pentagon. Instead, the soldiers’ rifles were loaded and aimed at the Americans.

When the Panamanian soldiers grabbed at the Americans through the windows of their car and bystanders started chanting anti-American slogans, according to U.S. officials, the U.S. military officers “felt they were in a threatening situation” and drove off.

The checkpoint guards responded by firing their Soviet-made AK-47s directly at the passengers in the fleeing vehicle, not at their tires, officials said. The Americans drove directly to nearby Gorgas Hospital, a U.S. Defense Department facility, where the victim died about 15 minutes after being admitted for treatment.

The Navy lieutenant and his wife witnessed the shooting because their car had been halted at the same checkpoint shortly before the four American soldiers arrived. The couple had become lost while driving home from a restaurant, according to the Pentagon.

They were immediately taken to a nearby Defense Forces office, blindfolded with masking tape and driven to another location for interrogation, according to the Pentagon. Officials said the lieutenant believed the questioning took place at Defense Forces headquarters.

After the interrogation and beating ended, the couple were released about three blocks away from PDF headquarters. Officials said they arrived about 2:15 a.m. at the naval security office, where they told their story.

It was apparently the bloodiest confrontation between the two nations since Jan. 9, 1964, when U.S. police and soldiers clashed with Panamanian rioters in the old Panama Canal Zone. Four U.S. soldiers and 22 Panamanians died in that clash.

Morris, in a telephone interview from Panama City, attributed the shooting to escalating anti-American rhetoric by government forces in Panama, which she characterized as “an attempt to distract focus away from the fact that Gen. Noriega is a dictator, and a bloody one.”

A top State Department official, who declined to be identified, said it is unlikely the killers were acting under orders since the checkpoint confrontation occurred without warning. Likewise, he said, subsequent detention, beating and harassment of the American bystanders was probably not a premeditated act on the part of the Panama Defense Forces.

Nevertheless, American officials were taking strict precautions against further loss of American life in Panama. U.S. soldiers dressed in battle fatigues were mobilized along the perimeters of American installations a few miles northwest of Panama City.

In addition, all 12,000 American military personnel in Panama were placed under a so-called Delta curfew, which requires them to postpone all unnecessary travel and confine their movements in Panama to restricted routes heavily guarded by U.S. forces.

Another 40,000 Americans also live in Panama.

The curfew added to a feeling of tension in the city on Sunday, according to military officials. There were no golfers on the links at Ft. Amador, a military base shared by U.S. and Panamanian military units, and a popular picnic ground near the base was also virtually deserted.

Despite the increased tension brought on by the shooting, there were no reported incidents of renewed violence Sunday.

U.S. officials refused to discuss what options were being considered for U.S. action or whether the President had considered a military response. But there was no sense of urgency in the statements made by Administration officials.

“The situation is being intensely watched, and the President will continue to review status reports and briefings in the days ahead,” said one State Department official.

White House spokesman Roman Popadiuk issued a statement accusing Noriega of using “force and intimidation” to thwart the will of the Panamanian people. “We deplore this act of violence,” he said. “We are presently looking into the circumstances of this incident.”

Tensions between the armed forces of the two governments already were high as a result of the United States’ long support for the overthrow of Noriega. Since October, the United States has been reviewing its legal options for direct action against Noriega, who is under indictment on drug charges in the United States.