Pubdate: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press NORIEGA MADE APPARENT THREAT TO DAMAGE CANAL Ex-Senator: Leader Feared Treaty Denial MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Former Panamanian ruler Gen. Manuel Noriega threatened to blow up the Panama Canal in 1978 if the U.S. Senate tried to amend an agreement to hand it over, former Sen. Howard Baker said Friday. Baker said Noriega made the threat in a meeting with him during a trip Baker made to Panama City in 1978, while serving as the Republican leader in the Senate. The Senate was preparing to approve the treaty to give full control of the canal and the U.S.-occupied Canal Zone to Panama by the end of 1999. "We were talking about possible amendments, and I told him it is by no means certain that the Senate is going to approve this," Baker said in a telephone interview from Panama City, where he gave a speech to a conference sponsored by the Arlington-based Freedom Forum. "I asked him, `What are your plans if they don't ratify?' " "He grumbled around a little and then said, `We'll blow it up,' " Baker said. Asked if he thought Noriega was just posturing, Baker said, "I don't think so." The treaty passed the Senate without modifications that year. Noriega was arrested on drug charges when U.S. forces invaded Panama in 1989. Baker said he did not believe the threat made 11 years earlier influenced the U.S. decision to launch the invasion, in which about 600 Panamanians and 23 U.S. soldiers were killed. A U.S. federal court in Miami convicted Noriega in 1992 of money laundering and drug trafficking, and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. A judge reduced the sentence in March, and he could be eligible for release by 2007. However, a French court convicted him in absentia in July of money laundering and sentenced him and his wife Felicidad to 10 years in prison. Panama has also asked the United States to extradite Noriega so he can serve time there for the deaths of soldiers who attempted to overthrow him in a 1989 coup. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D