America’s Prisoner

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, containing revelations about dealings with George Bush, Oliver North, William Casey and the CIA, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, and Moammar Quadafi.

Noriega's story was independently investigated by Peter Eisner, a top foreign correspondent who has reported on Latin America for more than twenty years. Eisner's reporting confirms many of Noriega's assertions and provides additional perspective on his conduct as head of Panama's military, his relations with key U.S. officials, and the damage inflicted upon the people of Panama by the U.S. invasion. Eisner's reporting raises new questions about allegations that Noriega was a drug dealer, a murderer, and a thief.

America's Prisoner is one of the most unusual and important accounts ever written about U.S. aggression and duplicity. It's the story of how we have imprisoned a man — and a nation.

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Available formats: Print

Publisher: Random House
Language: English
Print (March 11 1997): ‎293 pages
ISBN-10: 0679432272
ISBN-13: 978-0679432272

“General Noriega, the Panamanian leader the Bush administration captured and put on trial after invading the country in December 1989, provides his own account from federal prison of the events leading up to his capture and trial and the twisted logic of the United States in embarking on its invasion strategy. This is not a complete or objective memoir, but as suggested by coauthor Eisner, a well-informed journalist of the region, it demonstrates repeated weaknesses, fabrications, and distortions in the government's case against Noriega and, perhaps more important, reveals unpleasant insights into the way many Americans continue to view Panama and our foreign policy initiatives in the region. A controversial and revealing portrait of the United States from a Latin American perspective.”
—Roderic A. Camp, Latin American Ctr., Tulane Univ., New Orleans Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

“Like Muammar al-Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega is vilified by the United States like few other statesmen (or ex-statesmen). Now Noriega has a chance to counter the charges leveled against him in America's Prisoner: The Memoirs of Manuel Noriega. As a former friend of the CIA, Noriega has a unique perspective on U.S. involvement in Latin America, and he has a heap of dirty laundry he's more than willing to air. From his prison cell in Miami, America's only prisoner of war expounds on such topics as his covert dealings with CIA agents, his relationship with high government officials such as George Bush and Oliver North, the U.S. invasion of Panama, and his own drug charges. Helping his cause is Peter Eisner, a former foreign editor and Latin American correspondent for Newsday, who calls in question many of the charges against Noriega while admitting the extreme unpopularity of the man. Brazen and controversial, America's Prisoner is an account of U.S. foreign policy from one who has been on both sides of the political fence.”
—Amazon.com review