Manuel Noriega

Sure, Noriega was a bad man and a drug trafficker. But it makes me uncomfortable when the United States judiciary takes it upon itself to pass judgment on, sentence and imprison the former head of state of an independent country, a man who spent time on the CIA payroll.

When we play in a dirty world, we get dirty too--in Panama, Miami, Iraq or anywhere else.

First Noriega is our pal, then we deem him the personification of evil. Such political expediency is hypocritical and self-righteous, and it corrupts the U.S. judiciary to be party to the farce.

BRIAN WRIGHT

Hawthorne