GRENADA/COUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200930008-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2008
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 31, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-010708000200930008-8
31 October 1983
GR:NADA/COUP JENNINGS: Good evening. American forces in Grenada are still
being sniped at from time=to-time, but the fighting is
essentially over. We`ve learned more about American casualties.
Eighteen men died, 86 were wounded, and one is missing. Some
czsualties were caused by American troops firing on their oxn
men. The White House today confirms a tragic mistake involving
civilians. A mental hospital near the capital,.St. George's,
was destroyed by American bombing. As John McWethy reports from
the Pentagon, it is,-uncertain how many people died.
MCWETHY' The Pentagon today admitted that American warplanes
did accidentally bomb a mental hospital the first day of
fighting. A Canadian magazine first aired the charge, saying
the death toll from the bombing could reach ~0. Unofficially,
the Pentagon is saying the number.. will probably be less than 20,
that the facility ~as.near Cuhan artillery positions .and was not
known to be a hospital. Yesterday, American soldiers
encountered one of the elderly patients on the road and carried
him to safety. Pentagon sources confirmed that American troops
initially had to rely on tourists' maps during the first davs of
fighting. American air strikes :not only hit the hospital, but
also at least one U.S. position, wounding 1~;. Ir, the heat of
battle, two helicopters collided after being fired upon, killing
and wounding several other Americans, and one soldier on his wav
home by plane forgot to unlo2d his rifle and accidentally shot
and wounded the man sitting across from, him. Today in
Washington, three of the five wounded who were presented to the
media said they had received their injuries from American fire.
In addition to warehouses filled with Soviet and Cuban ns
and documents indicating big future Cuban plays for Grenada the
. U.S. also fount something else or the islane that is said to
in?rigue the intelligence community. Tne search of one Cuhan
barracks near Point Saiines revealed private Quarters far better
than most. In each room, the U.S. reportedly fount a closet
full of civilian suits, identical suitcases and briefcases,
. individual packets of American money, several thousand dollars
apiece, plus airline tickets and diaries indicating that some of
the occupants had recently traveled to the U.S. One
intelligence source speculated that it looked like a sizable
Cuhan spy network being run out of Grenada instead of Havana
because of easier access too er nations of the hemisphere.
Military sources also say despite initial resistance on Grenada,
they now believe the Cubans were taken by surprise. A number of
key anti-aircraft batteries were never fired or manned. An
. entire contingent of Cuban officers .was never able to join its
men but .had to fight as a separate unit while its troops were
leaderless. Also, Pentagon sources say if the Cubans had
expected an inva_s_ion, the U.S. would never had recovered so many
secret documents; they would have been destroyed. John McWethy,
ABC News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/07/25: CIA-RDP88-010708000200930008-8