Noriega’s past

Re “Noriega to be extradited to France for prison term,” July 18

The Times fails to mention former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega’s strong ties to the CIA during his dictatorship. Without this wider context of U.S. intervention in Latin America, Noriega appears as just another corrupt dictator whom the U.S. righteously removed from power. Noriega’s client relationship to the U.S. was eerily similar to Saddam Hussein’s. This ahistorical journalism is the same applied ignorance that encouraged people to support the Iraq invasion of 2003. Enough already! Quit whitewashing our past uncomfortable foreign relations.

Daniel McClure

Irvine