A former agent of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, was accused in testimony at a congressional hearing last week of helping Gen. Manuel Noriega, Panama’s de facto leader, conduct international drug deals from 1982 to 1986.
The revelations came at the start of seven weeks of hearings on international drug trafficking in the Senate entitled “Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy.”
Jose Blandon, former consul general of Panama to the United States, told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Organizations that the Israeli is Michael Harare, who had close contacts with Noriega and was Panama’s honorary consul in Tel Aviv.
Blandon said Harare “has business with Noriega in Panama for a series of companies for arms contraband, smuggling to supply arms to Central America and to the counterrevolution, the Nicaragua counterrevolution.”
He added that the airplanes used to transport the arms “were used for other things.”
When Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) asked, “When you say ‘other things,’ what do you mean?” Blandon replied, “Drugs.”
Later, Kerry told Blandon that he wanted to ascertain for the public record, without any question that “there is a direct linkage that you are aware of this…Harare network and these airstrips, in which guns would go in one shipment and drugs would come out in another.”
Blandon replied, “Yes.”
The former Panamanian official also replied affirmatively when Kerry asked if “on some occasions drugs just went in and out on their own” without being traded for weaponry.
“The Harare network is a network that was established with Israeli citizens, Panamanians and U.S. citizens for arms supply purposes,” Blandon said.
Yosef Gal, the Israeli Embassy spokesman here, said Harare was “acting as a private citizen” in his dealings with Noriega, and that the Israeli government had no knowledge of his activities.
Meanwhile, Newsweek reported this week that Noriega, who is under pressure from the United States to leave Panama, is considering going to Israel, where he is said to own property.
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