Ghosts of Panama

A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion

De: Mark Harmon, Leon Carroll

Narrado por: Mark Harmon

The next-true life NCIS story from New York Times bestselling authors Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr.

Read by the author.

Panama, 1989. The once warm relationship between United States and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. Newly elected President George Bush has declared the strongman a drug trafficker and a rigger of elections. Intimidation on the streets is a daily reality for U.S. personnel and their families. The nation is a powder keg.

Naval Investigative Service (NIS) Special Agent Rick Yell has worked the job in Panama since 1986, and lives there with his wife Annya and infant child. Like most NIS agents, he’s a civilian with no military rank with a specialty in working criminal cases. The dynamic changes suddenly when Yell inadvertently develops an intelligence source with unparalleled access to the Noriega regime. Now the agent is thrust into a world of spy-versus-spy, of secret meetings and hidden documents.

Yell’s source – known as “The Old Man” – warns when Cuban military personnel arrive and identifies anti-American officers within the Panamanian Defense Forces, provides information about an imprisoned CIA asset and helps track Noriega’s movements, agitating for the dictator’s kidnapping. The reports created by Yell and his NIS colleagues shape the decisions made in Washington D.C., CIA headquarters in Langley and the innermost sanctums of Pentagon.

The powder keg is lit on December 16, 1989, when a young U.S. Marine is gunned down at a checkpoint in Panama City. Yell and his cadre of trusted agents deploy immediately to investigate the killing, and what they determine will decide the fate of two nations. When President Bush hears the details they uncover, he orders an invasion that puts Yell’s family, informants and fellow agents directly in harm’s way.

Using a blend of research and interviews with the NIS agents who were directly involved, Ghosts of Panama reveals the untold, clandestine story of counterintelligence professionals placed in a pressure cooker assignment of historic proportions.

Historical events around Manuel Noriega

Mark Harmon did a nice job of narrating. I remember this time period. It was an interesting time where Noriega’s involvement with the cartels and drug trafficking was very apparent. This book highlights American military and CIA involvement as well as Panamanian involvement through Noriega and his government. Well written with many facts of those times. I highly recommend it.

Educational

Ghosts of Panama

By Mark Harmon & Leon Carroll

I leaned a lot about the men and women who lived the hard times in Panama during Noriega’s escapades and the invasion. A lot of sacrifices were made, lives were ended or changed, and “cops” found themselves wrapped up in something far larger than they were accustomed to dealing with.
The book was interesting and educational.

Great book

Loved this book. It’s a must buy for people who like books about the 90s

I look forward to reading his other books

My mom got me the audiobook as a gift. I love the TV show NCIS and Mark Harmon’s character Gibbs. Mr. Harmon’s voice is so relaxing to me, so I thought I might enjoy this book even more with him narrating it. I was right! I was a young kid during that invasion, but I still remember a lot of it as it unfolded over the years. I really enjoyed the book on that level too, since it explained more about the events I remembered. I look forward to reading his other books.

The Unforgotten Sacrifices!

Very well documented and told. Thank you for shedding light on this time in Panama. My heart goes out to all who sacrificed.