And yet, when Noriega was finally indicted in Miami in 1988, all the charges except one were related to activities that dated back before 1984, when he was our boy, helping with the U.S. war against Nicaragua. ... The fact was that at exactly the moment it invaded Panama because of its outrage over Noriega's abuses of human rights, the Bush administration announced new high-technology sales to China, noting that $300 million in business for US firms was at stake and that contacts had secretly resumed a few weeks after the Tiananmen Square massacre. ...