GRENADA/COUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200920010-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2008
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: October 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200920010-6
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
27 October 1983
GRENADA/COUP JENNINGS: Good evening. While there was still some fighting on
the island of Grenada, here in Washington the administration
says overall the fighting is dying down. These are some of the
first Cubans on Grenada which U.S. forces have captured. VOICE
OF U.S. INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Would you introduce yourself,
sir? CUBAN OFFICER: Yes, my name is (INAUDIBLE).
JENNINGS: That's the voice of:a U.S. intelligence officer.
These are Pentagon films which have been released just a short
time ago: UNIDENTIFIED U.S. INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Who do we
have here, sir?
JENNINGS: Cuban prisoners, captured in the south of Grenada
around Ft. Salines-=Cubans,, who we are told, put up a very stiff
fight against U.S. Rangers who parachuted onto the Point Salines
Airport at the--beginning of the invasion. We also will see in
just a little while some of the weapons which the Pentagon says
have been found in very large numbers.
JENNINGS: U.S. forces have captured what is described as the
last two strong points on the island: Fort Fredrick in the
capital of St. George's and Richmond Prison just.outside. Gen.
Hudson Austin, the leader of Grenada's revolutionary council
which overthrew Prime Minister Bishop a little more than a week
ago, has been trapped by American troops. The trouble is he's
holding hostages. We don't know their nationality, and he is
demanding safe passage off Grenada to another island, Guiana.
American casualties as a result of the invasion are now eight
dead, eight missing,. and 39 wounded. We begin a series of
comprehensive reports with John McWethey at the Pentagon.
MCWETHEY: As the fighting continued today, Marines, Army
Rangers, and members of the 82nd Airborne surrounded, then
assaulted the heavily fortified prison on Richmond Hill. They
had been reluctant to assault it for fear that innocent
prisoners might be hurt. As it turned out, Pentagon sources say
just four prisoners were in-the compound--they were all safe.
After that assault, attention switched to Calivigny Point, a
barracks area apparently for Cuban troops. According to
military sources, elements of the 82nd Airborne were dealing
with the problem late in the day. Sources expected the fighting
there to end by dusk. Pentagon sources say one of the reasons
the press was kept off the island during the early stages of the
operation had to do with the presence of .the supersecret Delta
Group. This is an Army unit of-highly trained specialists which
had its genesis in the Iran rescue attempt--men trained to deal
with hostage situations under the most difficult of
circumstances. American military. sources say they were
staggered by the depth and strength of the Cuban military
- Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200920010-6
 Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200920010-6
presence they founa on Grenada. Intelligence sources say they
anticipated encountering 5-600 Cubans, most thought to be
construction workers. Now, from'secret documents taken from the
Cuban command center on Grenada, they believe more than 1,000
Cubans were on the island--virtually all of them soldiers. At
the Cuban command center at Frecuente, which the U.S. was also
unaware even existed, American forces discovered sophisticated
communications equipment, coding machines, and secret documents
outlining their presence there. Late yesterday, American troops
found something else they had not anticipated, what one
intelligence source described as an enormous supply of
ammunition and weapons, far beyond what could ever be used by
the forces then on the island. American analysts say they don't
.yet know what to make of all the Cuban activity, but they
offered several interpretations. One, the Cubans in the process
of making Grenada a heavily fortified base at the opposite end
of the Caribbean, and two, it was to be used as a trans-shipment
point for resupplying Cuban troops in either Nicaragua or
Angola, in Africa. When American forces first assaulted the
island two days ago, the Cuban ship Vietnam Heroica was in port
there. It set sail immediately, and American forces, not
wishing to fire on any international vessel that was not
shooting back at them, let it go. The ship steamed out beyond
the 12-mile limit and stayed there, relaying radio messages from
Havana to the island. Intelligence sources say the Cuban
government was telling its troops via radio to hold their
'positions and do their job. Military sources say there is just
one reason why the U.S. did not know more about the extent of
the Cuban presence on Grenada. There was apparently a massive
failure of the. American intelligence community--a failure which
some military men here at the Pentagon say ought to cost some
people their jobs. John McWethey, ABC News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200920010-6