ApexNews
Return to Main
Book

Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion

2024

Synopsis

Panama, 1989. The once warm relationship between United States and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. Newly elected President George Bush has declared the strongman a drug trafficker and a rigger of elections. Intimidation on the streets is a daily reality for U.S. personnel and their families. The nation is a powder keg.

Naval Investigative Service (NIS) Special Agent Rick Yell has worked the job in Panama since 1986, and lives there with his wife Annya and infant child. Like most NIS agents, he’s a civilian with no military rank with a specialty in working criminal cases. The dynamic changes suddenly when Yell inadvertently develops an intelligence source with unparalleled access to the Noriega regime. Now the agent is thrust into a world of spy-versus-spy, of secret meetings and hidden documents.

Yell’s source – known as “The Old Man” – warns when Cuban military personnel arrive and identifies anti-American officers within the Panamanian Defense Forces, provides information about an imprisoned CIA asset and helps track Noriega’s movements, agitating for the dictator’s kidnapping. The reports created by Yell and his NIS colleagues shape the decisions made in Washington D.C., CIA headquarters in Langley and the innermost sanctums of Pentagon.

The powder keg is lit on December 16, 1989, when a young U.S. Marine is gunned down at a checkpoint in Panama City. Yell and his cadre of trusted agents deploy immediately to investigate the killing, and what they determine will decide the fate of two nations. When President Bush hears the details they uncover, he orders an invasion that puts Yell’s family, informants and fellow agents directly in harm’s way.

Using a blend of research and interviews with the NIS agents who were directly involved, Ghosts of Panama reveals the untold, clandestine story of counterintelligence professionals placed in a pressure cooker assignment of historic proportions.

Suggested Reading

Sea of Greed: The True Story of the Investigaton and Prosecution of Manuel Antonio Noriega

Manuel Noriega, vicious dictator of Panama and kingpin of the illegal drug industry, had for years been flooding the United States with illegal drugs, causing the addiction of hundreds of thousands and the death of many of America's young men and women, even as young as twelve. When the US Coast Gua...

View Details

America's Prisoner: The Memoirs of Manuel Noriega

Important messages sometimes come from unlikely messengers. Manuel Noriega may be a demon in the eyes of most Americans, but he has a unique and alarming view of the reasons behind the U.S. invasion of Panama. His book is certain to be one of the most newsworthy and controversial events of the year,...

View Details

We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By continuing to browse, you accept our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.