*************************
                         POSTSCRIPT:  July 4, 1990
                         *************************

As an indication of the on-going intent to obfuscate the true scope and impact
of US military activities in and results of the invasion, the following item
appeared in the July 4 issue of the "San Francisco Bay Guardian":
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
               U.S. SOLDIERS HARASS U.S. FILM CREW IN PANAMA

    by Jim Crogan
    -------------

      IN A PANAMANIAN refugee camp last month, soldiers from the U.S.
    Southern Command confronted a U.S. film crew that was interviewing
    Panamanian refugees.  The soldiers attempted to stop the interviews
    and confiscate the videotape and equipment.  An estimated 500
    residents of the camp surrounded and protected the crew and hid its
    taped footage.
      The crew, from Ronin Films (aka the Santa Monica-based Empowerment
    Project) returned to Los Angeles this week.
      Barbara Trent, EP's co-director and the director and co-producer of
    the Panama film, told the Bay Guardian her crew's confrontation with
    Southern Command military police and members of the U.S. Army Criminal
    Investigations Division [CID] took place at the Allbrook Field
    Displaced Persons Camp, a civilian war refugee facility administered
    jointly by the Panamanian Red Cross and the Panamanian government's
    Office of Disaster Assistance.
      "The camp was exclusively a Panamanian facility, and we had
    permission to be there from Panamanian disaster authorities, the Red
    Cross and the council set up by the refugees to govern the camp, so I
    didn't understand why SouthCom people were even there," said Trent.
    "The refugees saved the day for us," she added.  "They got between us
    and the military, surrounded us and eventually walked us over to the
    office used by the Disaster Assistance people.  They even hid our
    tapes.
      "The people wanted us there," Trent continued, "because they
    desperately wanted to tell the world about the losses they suffered
    during the invasion, and the camp conditions they've been forced to
    live under for the last six months."
      During the incident, which she said her crew captured on film, the
    CID people refused to explain to her or the Panamanian officials why
    or on whose authority they were trying to stop the filming.
    Eventually, after a series of negotiations between the Panamanians and
    representatives from SouthCom, the EP crew finished its interviews and
    left the camp.
      Lt. Col. Robert Donley, deputy director of public affairs for
    SouthCom, said the MP's actions were "definitely wrong.  They are
    there only to assist the Panamanians and had no authority to
    intervene."
      Asked why Army CID officials were participating in trying to stop
    the EP crew from filming, Donley said, "That's a good question.  I
    really don't know and haven't been able to find out why."
      Gary Meyer, co-director of EP and co-producer of the film, said the
    crew also brought back several interviews that apparently describe the
    U.S. use of laser weapons during last December's invasion.  One
    Panamanian said he saw "a bright red light, which made a distinctive
    sound that he repeated for us on camera, and was then followed by an
    explosion," Meyer said.  Another family said they had an intense white
    light come through their apartment window and explode whatever object
    it hit."
      Trent added that several people said they had seen "a Panamanian
    soldier killed by a laser beam."
      Trent reported that she had questioned General Maxwell Thurmond,
    head of SouthCom, about the reports that laser weapons were used.  "He
    responded by saying that was crap, and that lasers were only used by
    the U.S. Air Force to pinpoint targets," Trent recalled.

##################################################################

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting)
130 W. 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
(212)633-6700