NORIEGA'S $10 MILLION JACKPOT?

Manuel Noriega racked up millions in drug money, but a big chunk of the Panamanian ex-dictator's cash flow may have come directly from D.C. According to a newly-declassified court filing, Noriega's attorneys have evidence that U.S. spooks paid him at least $10 million for favors -- a lot more than the $320,000 U.S. officials earlier acknowledged. U.S. censors blacked out large swaths of the brief, but Noriega's defense says he was paid to smooth clandestine U.S. efforts in Argentina and Nicaragua. What's more, he was paid $2 million to care for the shah of Iran. A judge barred the material from Noriega's drug trial, leaving his lawyers without "evidence to explain the source of his income in response to the government's claim of unexplained wealth," the brief says.