FBI director visits Panama

On October 28 FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who was in Panama about a law enforcement training program by which his bureau is helping to upgrade the skills of its Panamanian counterpart, held a press conference at the Ministerio Publico with Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez. The Panama News was invited to attend by the US Embassy,

Security was heavy around the entrance. Who was that masked man in black? He was a member of Panama's Institutional Protection Service (SPI), armed with a .50 caliber rifle with an infrared scope. Any wannabe sniper would thus be unable to find cover or protection from a brick wall. But unlike President Bush's visit a week later, there was relatively little disruption of vehicular or pedestrian traffic for Mueller's visit.

Inside the Public Ministry, first a visit to check in with the press flack. I was on the list of accredited reporters, but the woman hesitated to let me in because she said that she had never heard of The Panama News and since she can't read English couldn't find my name. (I didn't ask for her "union" card, but this was no doubt another in a long-running series of moves by members of the Sindicato de Periodistas, a racist and xenophobic organization whose members control virtually all government public relations jobs, to prevent access by Panama's English-language press to the Panamanian government.) Eventually the American Embassy's Judy de León came downstairs to straighten things out and I was allowed entry.

Upstairs, another Public Ministry press flack already had her list of who would get to ask the few questions allowed. I wasn't on it. Had I been I'd have asked both Mueller and Gómez about whether they are making, or plan to make, any joint efforts against fraud artists who use Panama as a base for swindles directed primarily against Americans.

The procuradora and director took their places in front of their lecterns, with the usually somber-expressioned Gómez smiling for the cameras for a change, greeting everybody, and thanking Mueller for the law enforcement training assistance and cooperation in a number of other areas. Mueller reciprocated the courtesy, and noted "very productive meetings," both with Gómez and with President Torrijos and other officials. "We have traditionally had a long relationship --- both between the countries and between the FBI and Panamanian law enforcement," he said.

"It is tremendously important in this time of globalization that we develop relationships across borders" to address drug smuggling, money laundering and other international criminal activities, Mueller said.

The FBI director lauded the present Panamanian administration's "particularly noticeable and remarkable" commitment to prosecute public corruption. "This stance is particularly important to us," the director went on, adding that "in the United States my primary concern is public corruption."

(Later that morning in Washington, a federal prosecutor announced the indictment of vice presidential aide I. Lewis Libby on perjury and other charges related to an investigation of the illegal identification of a CIA undercover agent.)

Now came time for the annointed mainstream reporters to ask their questions. From TVN came a long prologue about how in the United States the proportion of law enforcement resources dedicated to crime investigation compared to those spent for crime prevention is much greater than is the case in Panama, and a question about what Mueller thinks this country ought to do with its law enforcement budget appropriations. (It seems that we were dealing with a well-paid reporter with only the vaguest notion of American federalism, wherein the great majority of cops on the beat are local or state officers; and with someone who also didn't expect Mueller to show the traditional diplomatic deference that avoids criticism of other countries' budget priorities.)

Mueller could have ducked, belittled or done many of the other standard things when problematic questions are asked at press conferences. Instead he noted that Panama's Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) and FBI are roughly analogous investigative agencies "and we're always asking for a bigger budget." Which, he added, they never entirely get, even though he thinks it would be a good thing if legislators were more generous with resources for investigators and prosecutors.

Gómez added that in the next year the Public Ministry budget will be a somewhat higher priority than it has been under the prevailing government austerity measures. She said that part of her job is to go to the National Assembly and insist on a sufficient budget.

The next questioner wanted to know why Osama bin Laden hasn't been captured, and which are the five Latin American countries most affected by organized crime.

"It's not just the United States, and not just the FBI, that's pursuing bin Laden," Mueller pointed out. He said that he expected that sooner or later the mastermind of the September 11 attacks would be brought to justice.

About organized crime, Mueller didn't swallow the bait. He said it's a big problem everywhere, including in the United States. "There is no one country, there is no one agency, that can be effective on its own," he added. Which, of course, was one of the basic premises of the FBI assistance program that brought him to Panama in the first place.

Then came RPC-TV, whose reporter wanted to know Mueller's opinion about what Panama should do about Colombian terrorists.

"The threat of terrorism faces all countries in some form or fashion," Mueller responded. Fortunately, he added, there is now a "universal condemnation" against random attacks on innocent civilians. "To the extent that information can be shared to address terrorists, there is a willingness to share," he pointed out, and explained that part of his mission here was to grow such cooperative relationships.

Ending the conference, Gómez noted the limits with respect to Panama's principal terrorism problem, attacks by armed Colombian groups in remote areas of the Darien and Kuna Yala. "International cooperation is important," she agreed, "but the Colombian border is uncontrollable."

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