Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 06:50 PM Oct 2014

New Documents Reveal Britain's Secret Plan to Invade a Tiny Caribbean Island

Source: VICE

New Documents Reveal Britain's Secret Plan to Invade a Tiny Caribbean Island
By Phil Miller Oct 24 2014

As mad and ruthless as Gairy was, his presence on the island represented stability for British interests. So British spies in the Caribbean were busy trying to stop opposition elements from assassinating him on Independence day, “when his public presence amongst crowds, noise and fireworks might present a favorable opportunity,” according to declassified UK government files that I found at the National Archives in London.

One intelligence report, marked “secret,” was written by an MI5 officer. Describing his work as “intelligence” might be a stretch, however, as the British spook also reported, “On the other hand, the West Indian temperament does not seem to lend itself to determined and fanatical action except sporadically.” That sounds like a weird mix of guesswork and racial stereotyping rather than legitimate insider information.

Nevertheless, the files reveal that information from this officer prompted the British military to prepare a full-scale invasion plan on the eve of Grenada's independence, “to restore law and order and constitutional government. This would involve a reversion to colonial rule,” the foreign secretary warned Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath in January 1974.

MI5 was worried about the New Jewel Movement ("Jewel" was an acronym for “Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation&quot . It was viewed as “an extremist organization whose main aim is the overthrow of Gairy and his government (by force if other means fail) and the setting up in its place of a people's revolutionary regime.” The files show that Britain's economic interests in the Caribbean were comparable with investments in India and oil reserves in the Middle East. They reveal that MI5 spied on Grenada's trade unions and ran informants inside the New Jewel Movement (NJM) in the months before independence, looking for plots against Gairy.

MI5 did this knowing that Gairy was no angel. Their intelligence reports refer to his Mongoose Gang as “ruthless” and described it as “an un-uniformed and undisciplined body... many of them have criminal records.”



Read more: http://www.vice.com/read/revealed-britains-top-secret-plan-to-invade-a-tiny-caribbean-island

4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
New Documents Reveal Britain's Secret Plan to Invade a Tiny Caribbean Island (Original Post) Judi Lynn Oct 2014 OP
"Education: A Right, Not a Privilege." Stuff like that makes GOP heads explode. valerief Oct 2014 #1
Not yours, but the headline is a misnomer - they're not "New Documents"..... George II Oct 2014 #2
Surely somebody knew they existed. Igel Oct 2014 #3
Ronnie Raygun had no plan to invade Grenada PeoViejo Oct 2014 #4

valerief

(53,235 posts)
1. "Education: A Right, Not a Privilege." Stuff like that makes GOP heads explode.
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 07:16 PM
Oct 2014
In the end, the British invasion plan was never used, because Gairy clung to power during independence. It would be another five years before the NJM ousted Gairy in a coup, creating a progressive republic in the Caribbean that would be a thorn in the side of American free marketers with slogans like “Education: A Right, Not a Privilege.”

George II

(67,782 posts)
2. Not yours, but the headline is a misnomer - they're not "New Documents".....
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 07:45 PM
Oct 2014

....in fact they're decades old. They headline should have been "Newly Discovered Documents" (as it's worded in the article itself)

I hate sloppy journalism or writing.

Igel

(35,191 posts)
3. Surely somebody knew they existed.
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 09:27 PM
Oct 2014

How could they be "discovered" if they were already known to exist?

(This, not because I think it's a serious objection--it's not, in fact it's puerile and simple-minded--but because precisely that kind of objection is taken seriously by some.)

 

PeoViejo

(2,178 posts)
4. Ronnie Raygun had no plan to invade Grenada
Sat Oct 25, 2014, 04:06 PM
Oct 2014

He just fucking went ahead and did it. There was no heads-up. The Marines landed before anyone in DC knew what was going on. I just happened to be Duty Officer that day and took the Flash Traffic down to management. It was all a seat of the pants cluster-fuck. Luckily it was one of my co-workers that got the pleasure of going there on Day2. His luxury accommodations was to sit on a pallet of Mortar shells in a C-130, with the entertainment being to watch the spots of light appear, as ground fire punched holes in the Fuselage.

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»New Documents Reveal Brit...