BOOK REVIEW: A HOW-TO ON TOPPLING A DICTATOR

When American forces invaded the Panamanian offices from which General
Manuel Noriega had just fled, they found $120,000 in cash, two decorated
Christmas trees, assorted pornography and sex toys, a collection of
procelain frogs, a framed picture of Adolf Hitler, a walk-in cigar humidor,
and 110 pounds of a white substance they assumed was cocaine but which
turned out to be tortilla flour. I can hardly wait for the movie.

"Shooting the Moon" has the goods - plot, dialogue, colorful characters,
high stakes, at least one high-speed chase, glamour, the flash of Miami,
the power of Washington. Hey, there's even a mini-war. The only thing
missing is suspense: We all know how it ends, but we know how World War II
ended, and look at how many movies have been made about that.

The tale starts out with a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor from
New Jersey named Kenny Kennedy who's been sent to Florida to fight the war
on drugs and the Medellin cartel, so named when an agent characterized the
Colombian drug lords as operating more like Standard Oil than the Mafia.

When a snitch says that "everybody" in Panama is involved in the drug
business, including de facto ruler Noriega, Kennedy and assistant US
attorney Dick Gregorie decide to go after him under the RICO anticrime
statute. This was a far cry from the typical DEA case, which usually ended
with drugs and guns on the table as well as people in handcuffs. It also
marked the first time US authorities had mulled arresting the head of a
foreign government. A bigger snitch provides the means.

Floyd Carlton is the son of an America sailor stationed in Panama and a
longtime buddy of Noriega. Carlton feels that after all these years, the
General, as Harris usually refers to him, has hung Carlton out to dry when
he's arrested in Costa Rica. The United States wants Carlton on other
charges, and he's willing to tell all in exchange for a deal. But nothing's
easy here. For starters, Danny Moritz, a Spanish-speaking DEA agent,
invests considerable time interviewing Carlton to begin making the case,
only to be transferred to Cleveland because DEA policy requires periodic
rotation. Fortunately, he is replaced by a brilliant young agent, Steve
Grilli, who wins the chore of grilling the sometimes difficult witness
(Carlton at one point demands that his children's nanny accompany the
family into the witness protection program) and corroborating his story.

But this is a minor obstacle when stacked up against the General's friends
in high places in the US government, whom Noriega has been helping to aid
the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. And the DEA itself has had some dealings with
the General, too, to the extent that some consider him the agency's best
friend in Latin America.

So it's a tangled tale that Harris tells, with lots of ins and outs and
political maneuverings and subplots. This is a book not likely read in one
sitting, being, at its core, investigative reporting that gets all the
facts. But having noted that, it must be said that Harris makes it read
like a novel, bringing to mind a cross between "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"
and "Advise and Consent."

The author gives us great mental images of the characters and provides
lively details. One informer in the witness protection program is always
referred to only as "the fat pilot." Even though he's dead now and his
identity no longer needs to remain secret, using the sobriquet lends a
perfect conspiratorial touch. And quotes from Kenny Kennedy prove that A.J.
Soprano isn't the only person from Jersey who swears up a storm.

The book begins with the General in jail before retracing how he got there,
and in a scene right out of "Lethal Weapon," two federal marshals are
evacuating Noriega from prison because Hurricane Andrew is en route. One
marshal alludes to an incident shortly before his arrest when the General
appeared on television "taunting the gringos, pounding his chest." The
agent asks what made him do such a thing, and the General suggests with a
sheepish grin that he just screwed up.

Noriega's capture eventually comes about more for political reasons than
legal ones, at least partially as a chance for President George H. Bush to
recover from some embarrassing administration developments. Sadly, doing
their jobs well sandbagged the careers of Kennedy and Brilli because they
had stepped on too many bureaucratic toes in the process. And after being
passed over for promotion, Gregorie resigns and is in private practice by
the time the case comes to trial.