The Redhunter

The subject of the book is the saga of Kurt Muse, who is one of the authors.

Muse grew up in Panama, working as a small businessman. His wife was a schoolteacher for the DOD, a fact which would be of great importance after his arrest.

Muse came to hate Manual Noriega and his regime. Taking matters into his own hands, he and another man discovered a way to "break in" on Panamanian national radio, seize control of the transmissions, and briefly broadcast their message to the entire nation. They learned to do this after accidentally discovering the the frequencies of the much-weaker "repeater" signal sent from the broadcasting station to the main transmitter. After that, it was simply a matter of setting up small transmitters that could temporarily overpower the repeater. At certain times, for example in the middle of one of Noriega's speaches, they would interrupt the broadcast and broadcast their own anti-Noriega message.

Although they initially started out as lone operators, at some point the CIA became aware of their opportunities, and after one false start, sent an agent that they were able to trust. This agent, who only identified himself as "Father Frank", provided cash, which Muse insists was only spent on operations.

Their eventual plan was to seize control of the airwaves during a national vote scheduled for May of 1989. They hoped to urge enough anti-Noriega voters to the polls so that he would be defeated by a margin so large that cheating could not hide. However, by this time Noriega had become infuriated by the pirate broadcasts and was pulling out all the stops to identify the perpetrators.

Before the elections, however, Muse was arrested at Panama City Airport after a trip back from Miami. It is still unclear as to why he was arrested, for those who arrested him appeared for several days to have no idea what it was all about, as the interrogations rambled through several subjects with no clear direction. After searching his residence and cars, however, the interrogators eventually found evidence that led them to the transmitters. Once they realized who they had a forced confession was inevitable.

Transfered to the notorious Modelo Prison, Muse was put in solitary confinement, with a soldier outside his cell who's sole task was shoot him if a rescue was attempted. Conditions were abyssmal.

Fortunately for Muse, his wife's status as a DOD employee meant that he had some legal protection under the Panama Canal Treaty. The US military, for example, insisted on and got permission for brief visits every other day. Among other things, they brought him food so that he wouldn't have to survive on prison fare, books and used the visits to assessed his medical condition. More importantly, however, his visitors gathered vital intelligence for Delta Force, which at the direction of President Bush was planning a rescue operation.

No less important than the rescue of Kurt Muse was the securing of his family. Because of his actions, everyone related to Muse was in danger of being arrested and tortured by Noriega's thugs. Once it because known that Muse was arrested, the CIA and US Military went to herculean efforts to gather them up and bring them to safety in the US.

The rest of the book details the rescue operation. I'm going to recommend that you purchase the book or pick it up at your local libarary, so I won't spoil it for you by providing details of the mission. It's an amazing story, one that no Hollywood fiction can touch. Suffice it to say that these things never go smoothly, as Mr Murphy always seems to come along for the ride.

In the end, you can look at Kurt Muse as someone who risked his life attempting to get rid of a noxious dictator, or as a man who had no business risking his family and friends on a foolish venture. Muse himself was racked by doubts about what he was doing. Although I can certainly sympathise those who would criticize him, I have to put him in the hero category. Anyone gutsy enough to risk his life to rid the world of evil gets my vote.