Five years after the US military murdered thousands of Panamanian civilians, and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves prior to the arrival of the press, the US is again demonstrating its unmitigated arrogance on the world scene by staging a show trial of a Panamanian citizen accused of killing a US soldier. Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, the son of a prominent Panamanian politician. Gonzalez, who was at a demonstration protesting Bush's impending visit, denies any connection to the incident in which a US vehicle was sprayed with gunfire. He has been in hiding since the 1992 incident, fearing he could not get a fair trial from the US-installed Panamanian government. At the time, the US government promptly termed the killing of the US soldier a "terrorist act", and offered a $100,000 reward for the identity of the perpetrators. The pretense for the US invasion, and subsequent massacre, as announced on television by President Bush, was that Panamanian soldiers had kicked a US soldier who had run a roadblock. The hidden agenda was retaining US control over the Panama canal after it appeared relations between the US and Panama might turn sour. In addition to killing thousands of civilians, the US also kidnapped Panama's President, Manual Noreiga, and convicted him in the United States of various vague drug-related charges, after installing a regieme sympathetic to the United States. Gonzalez faces 20 years in prison if convicted. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"