Operation Acid Gambit

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Operation Acid Gambit was a plan to retrieve Kurt Muse, an American civilian living in Panama and widely reported to be a CIA operative[1] from the Cárcel Modelo, a notorious prison in Panama City. Muse had been arrested in 1989 for setting up covert anti-Noriega radio transmissions in Panama[2].

Political considerations delayed the raid, conducted by Delta Force and supported by the Night Stalkers, until the United States invaded Panama to arrest Noriega, in Operation Just Cause on December 20th, 1989. The retrieval went smoothly, and was carried out more quickly than any of the elaborate rehearsals. During extraction from the prison, the Hughes MH-6 Little Bird helicopter transporting Muse crashed.[3] Everyone except Muse was wounded, and they quickly ran and took cover in a nearby building. The Delta operators managed to signal one of the gunships flying over the area with an infrared strobe light, and shortly after an armoured personnel carrier from the 5th Infantry Division extracted Muse and the retrieval team.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Washington Post, May 2, 1991, U.S. Sought Premise for Using Military in Panama; Months Before 1989 Invasion, Bush Was Waiting for Noriega to `Overstep,' , Molly Moore.
  2. ^ New York Times, December 6, 1996, With a Bang, Panama Is Erasing House of Horrors, Larry Rohter.
  3. ^ Special Operations.Com

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