Shooting the Moon: The True Story of an American Manhunt Unlike Any Other, Ever

by David Harris

The true tale of three Americans who defied their superiors to make a criminal case against Manuel Noriega takes readers on a four-year manhunt featuring cops, diplomats, prosecutors, drug smugglers, spies, paratroopers, a famous cocaine cartel, and a president trying to make a name for himself. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: History

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

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Reviews

[Barry Sierer]

The book “Operation Just Cause” by Thomas Donnelly, Margaret Roth, and Caleb Baker, is a blow by blow account of the planning and execution of the invasion of Panama in 1989. The timeline in this book describes a series incidents between US and Panamanian Forces that eventually escalated to the point where open warfare became the only option left. One essential incident that appeared to drive this chain of events was the indictment of Manuel Noriega by a grand jury in Florida.

“Shooting the Moon” is the story of that indictment. This indictment seems surprising given that Noriega was a highly valued ally of the CIA and DEA (some managers within the DEA called him “the best friend in Latin America the DEA has.”). Harris explains in detail how political transformations in the US and Panama pushed Noriega into becoming an adversary of the US.

Harris’s prose and writing style is fast moving and holds the reader’s attention, but it suffers from two irritating faults that sometimes make it come across like a tabloid. He freely describes drug trafficking suspects as “scumbags” and frequently mentions how physically “ugly” Noriega was. While these descriptions may be accurate, they seem like a distraction. The other issue is the author’s strange reluctance to name certain people within the book. This would be understandable in order to protect information sources or confidential information, but Harris withholds the names of identities that don’t need to be protected such as the Secretary of State. In one passage he notes a “Senator from Arizona who was a naval aviator”. It’s John McCain, it doesn’t need to be a secret.

Though this book delves into the evolution of the Noriega situation in Washington DC and Panama, the main focus is the story of the Assistant US Attorney and the DEA Agent who compiled the case against Noriega. This is still a well written account that explains key aspects of the Noriega story.

[Adam Foster]

Horribly organized, with constant foreshadowing that usually goes nowhere. Also using titles instead of names, like "the senator from. . ." gets old fast. Must be better books out there, but then they are written by a "legendary activist", LOL.

[Don LaFountaine]

While mostly about the politics that surrounded the case, I thought that this was a pretty good book about details leading up to the eventual capture of General Manuel Noriega.

General Manuel Noriega was the military leader of Panama, and the in the mid 1980's he had strong contacts and support in the US Government. The DEA even stated that he was "The best friend the US has in all of Latin America". However, his side business of running drugs for the cartel, money laundering, and political corruption eventually caught up with him, and led to his arrest by American forces.

The case started as a drug case in Miami, Florida. The DEA were running down contacts and stumbled across the General's name as a possible source of cocaine that was being brought into the United States. Through the legwork of Dick Gregorie, Danny Moritz, and Steve Grilli, a Grand Jury was subpoenaed and a case was built against the General. Throughout this endeavor, politics played a heavy part. The DEA was dead set against it, (why would the "Drug Enforcement Agency" was to go after a suspected drug runner that was a defacto leader of another country?), the State Department was against it, (and then for it when politically convenient), the politicians in control were against it, (except for when it would make them look good to the American public), and in the midst of the investigation there was the "Iran-contra" scandal happening. Through it all, the agents in charge pushed through the "road blocks" that various agencies put up and were able to get an indictment on General Manual Noriega. The problem was being able to serve it. No one, including the General and the Washington powers that were in charge ever expected the General to be serve because it would mean that the United States would have to invade Panama to do it. Then President Bush decided that he needed to do something to shore up his image and sent American forces to Panama to capture the General and bring him to justice. This happened, the General was captured and convicted and eventually served his time in the United States.

While the title seems to imply a more action filled book, this was a book that mostly discussed the political intrigue of politicians, the egos of "important" people fighting one another from different departments, people who flip-flopped depending upon what was needed to cover their butts, and a lot of inner-office politics. The book shows how dysfunctional governmental agencies can be, especially when the case is not clear cut. The author does a very good job at providing many details about the case as he can, though at times it felt like things were being overstated just to fill pages. I would recommend the book to people who enjoy political science, to those who enjoy history, and to those who like political theater. However if a reader is looking for a book with a lot of action will want to avoid this book.

[Seth]

Decent history of the events leading to the indictment of and manhunt for Manuel Noriega. Not the best written book, but it flows pretty well. Interesting read.