Sea of Greed by Judge Douglas McCullough tells how a N.C. marijuana bust led to the downfall of Manuel Noriega who died May 29, 2017.

May 30, 2017 interviews pertaining to Manuel Noriega’s prosecution and death May 29, 2017 Viewpoint Radio  From three years prior 

On May 29, 2017, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega died in his home in Panama. The initial statement from the news wires states he died from complications from brain surgery in March. New York Times: Manuel Noriega, Dictator Ousted by U.S. in Panama, Dies at 83 – The …

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/…/manuel-antonio-noriega-dead-panama.html

Noriega had been imprisoned since 1989 after a long chain of events, some of which were initiated by former U.S. Attorney Douglas McCullough. Now retired from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, he prosecuted a sophisticated group of drug smugglers and money-launderers that had successfully gained access into Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky and Michigan, amassing over $50,000,000, which was placed in Panamanian banks with Noriega’s assistance. The investigation and apprehension of these smugglers eventually led to the exposure of Noriega as a drug lord and money launderer, even though on occasion he’d provided intelligence to the CIA and DEA and received an award from President Reagan. A conspiracy that spanned this hemisphere, stretching from Colombia to the Grand Caymans, Jamaica and the United States, involved local politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and entertainment agents as well as Noriega and members of Colombian drug cartels. This is the only occasion where a head of state has been prosecuted in a federal court like any other criminal.

Sea of Greed, based on the true story behind the arrest of Manuel Noriega and the invasion of Panama pursuant to “Operation Just Cause.” www.seaofgreedbook.com

Judge Douglas McCullough served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia before becoming Counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in Washington. He returned to his home state, North Carolina in 1981 and became the senior Assistant United States Attorney where he served until 1996. After four years in private practice, he won his first election to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and was re-elected in 2010.

Memorial Day

Today we honor and remember those who have dedicated their lives to democracy and the United States of America. Although we see and hear from some veterans that are determined to keep those soldiers’ memories alive, there are millions of other vets we will never know of; names that are not on the walls or in history books, those who did not wear a uniform but supported our troops and defended our country. Some have not and will not ever come home. Buried in mass POW graves or at the bottom of the sea, their families have only photos and stories; nowhere to lay a wreath. Their service was not in vain…

Today, across this home we call Earth, we can go to sleep knowing we are protected in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — because of them. A moment does not go by that I am not thankful for being a child of our Most High God whose love endures forever, and to be an American citizen, a proud and humbling privilege. Yes, privilege, not entitlement. Servicemen and women have sacrificed all so we can be free. It is an atrocity for anyone with their feet on American soil to complain, defame, criticize, or terrorize ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave.’ Let us stand unified in blessing and encouraging our President, our troops, and The Greatest Nation in the World, The United States of America. God bless America!

• Jeanie Loiacono

WE SHOULD REMEMBER…
1. The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne, France.. A total of 2289
2. The American Cemetery at Ardennes, Belgium… A total of 5329
3. The American Cemetery at Brittany, France… A total of 4410
4. Brookwood, England – American Cemetery… A total of 468
5. Cambridge, England… A total of 3812
6. Epinal, France – American Cemetery.. A total of 5525
7. Flanders Field, Belgium… A total of 368
8. Florence, Italy… A total of 4402
9. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium… A total of 7992
10. Lorraine , France… A total of 10,489
11 .Luxembourg, Luxembourg… A total of 5076
12. Meuse-Argonne.. A total of 14246
13 .Netherlands, Netherlands… A total of 8301
14. Normandy, France… A total of 9387
15. Oise-Aisne, France… A total of 6012
16. Rhone, France… A total of 861
17. Sicily, Italy… A total of 7861
18. Somme, France… A total of 1844
19. St. Mihiel, France… A total of 4153
20. Suresnes, France… A total of 1541

Apologize to no one. Remind those of our sacrifice and don’t Confuse arrogance with leadership. The count is 104,366 Dead, brave Americans.

And we had to watch Obama, an American elected leader who Apologized to
Europe and the Middle East that our country is “arrogant”! HOW MANY FRENCH,
DUTCH, ITALIANS, BELGIANS AND BRITS ARE BURIED ON OUR SOIL… AFTER
DEFENDING US AGAINST OUR ENEMIES?

WE DON’T ASK FOR PRAISE…BUT WE HAVE ABSOULUTELY NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE!
THANK YOU.

” Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.” John Wayne_

Rochelle Wisoff-Fields B&N Book Signing!  Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, author of Please Say Kaddish For Me, From Silt and Ashes, and As One Must, One Can, will be greeting, meeting, and signing all three books Saturday, August 12 from 4:00-8:00 https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/store/2668 NOTE: If you get one, you will want to get them all.

“The story of Havah Gitterman pulls you in from the first sentence. You will stay up late and get up early to read to the last word of one book only to pick up the next. This is Jewish history, events little has ever been spoken of, brought to life in art and ink by world-renown actress, artist, and author, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.” — CJ Loiacono

Rochelle’s Art    Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Art and Blogs  Fields Events  Fields Media  Facebook Author Page  Return Again 1930

Lori Ericson, Author

An author’s perspective of mystery and more.

Book of Words: Please Say Kaddish for Me by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

https://loriericson.com/2017/05/29/book-of-words-please-say-kaddish-for-me-by-rochelle-wisoff-fields/

Argus Publishing acquires Amanda Matti’s prequel to A Foreign Affair, Voicing the Eagle! What a grand way to celebrate Memorial Day!

The extraordinary true story of Fahdi Matti, a young Iraqi translator, who served as an interpreter for the U.S. military throughout the course of the Iraq War. In his own words, Fahdi recounts his experiences of going from life as a twenty-one-year-old, upper-middle-class student at the University of Baghdad to being recruited right off his neighborhood street to serve as an interpreter for a U.S. Army unit just days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Over the next three years, Fahdi goes on to translate for U.S. drill sergeants training new Iraqi Army recruits in Ramadi, serves alongside the Marines during the Battle of Fallujah, and eventually lands a position as a linguist with Iraq’s newly formed national intelligence agency in Baghdad. Along the way, he suffers combat injuries, faces the challenges of integrating with American military members while living on U.S. bases, and eventually falls in love with an American service member. A de facto prequel to Matti’s Iraq War memoir, A Foreign Affair, Voicing the Eagle is a unique, firsthand perspective on one of the United States’ most controversial foreign conflicts.

Amanda Matti holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Wilmington College of Ohio and is currently pursuing a Master’s in International Relations. She began a career in journalism following her separation from the military in 2006 and returned to the Middle East where she documented the lives and experiences of Iraqi and Lebanese refugees living in Jordan who escaped the turmoil in their respective countries. Her memoir, A Foreign Affair, chronicles her voluntary deployment to Iraq, falling in love and working with Fahdi, their subsequent fabricated false charges of espionage and treason, and how faith, hope, and Love conquer all. Voicing the Eagle is Fahdi’s harrowing, heroic, and patriotic journey leading up to his meeting Amanda, now his wife and mother of his two beautiful daughters.

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency   Published by Argus Publishing

WAXING POETIC by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Have a tissue handy. Fields wrings out raw emotions in so few words. https://rochellewisoff.com/2017/05/25/waxing-poetic/ Fields is the author of Please Say Kaddish For Me, From Silt and Ashes, and As One Must, One Can, books that should be on your Summer Reading List!

A Foreign Affair by Amanda Matti was selected as a 2017 San Diego Book Awards finalist for Best Published Memoir! http://sandiegobookawards.org/2017-finalists/

After their harrowing escape from Mississippi, abolitionist Durksen Hurst, his fiancée Antoinette DuVallier, and their friends — a group of undocumented slaves — land in guerrilla-infested Civil War Missouri, the most savage whirlwind of destruction, cruelty, and death in American history.

Trapped in a terrifying cycle of murder and revenge, scarred by Quantrill’s cold-blooded Lawrence massacre and the Union army’s ruthless Order Eleven, Durk and everyone he cares for soon find themselves entangled in a struggle for their very survival.

Honor Among Outcasts takes readers on a pulse-pounding journey of desperate men and women caught up in the merciless forces of hatred and fear that tear worlds apart, and the healing power of friendship to bring them together.

Ed Protzel has written five original screenplays for feature film and worked developing film scripts/projects for 20th Century Fox. He has a Master’s in English Literature/Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a B.A. in English, with a minor in history, from the University of Hawaii.

The Lies That Bind is based on Protzel’s screenplay which was recognized by the Missouri Playwrights Association. It had brief Hollywood exposure; was called “a great script” by 20th Century Fox’s Murray Silverman, Paramount’s Sherry Lansing, and Chelsea Studios producer Stan Zuckerman.

The final two novels of the trilogy include the same major characters as the original: Honor Among Outcasts is set in Missouri during the Civil War and Something in Madness during Reconstruction.

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com Published by TouchPoint Press www.touchpointpress.com

 Ed Protzel

Book Review: The Lies That Bind