The Last Prisoners of the Cold War: The Grenada 17 (blowback)

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The Last Prisoners of the Cold War: The Grenada 17

The Grenada 17
The Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
By RICH GIBSON

On June 28, 2004, the Organization of Eastern Carribean States High Court will hear a Grenadian government appeal seeking to set aside a lower court ruling in favor of the Grenada 17. The lower court ruling would, in essence, overturn the convictions of the Grenada 17 on murder and manslaughter counts, stemming from unjust trials nearly twenty years ago. The Grenadian government, staggering from a series of corruption charges that have roiled the little island nation off the coast of Venezuela, is vigorously pursuing a legal strategy that would keep the prisoners in jail-well beyond the length of their initial sentences-on the grounds that the judiciary should not be able to negate the executive branch. The lower court has declared the convictions, "null and void."
The invasion of Grenada, more than 20 years ago, presaged many of the events that blowback on the US today: unilateral warfare, official deceit about the motives for war, a massive military moving against an imagined foe, stifling the press, leaders proclaiming their guidance from God, denials of human and civil rights, systematic torture and subsequent cover-ups-and a hero who refused to go along. Many of the players in the Bush administration who promise perpetual war today cut their teeth on the invasion of Grenada. It is more than worthwhile to review the events that lead to the upcoming trial.

In 2002 I interviewed Grenada's ambassador to the US, asking him why his government is so determined to keep the Grenada 17 in jail. He replied that he, and the nation's current leader, Keith Mitchell, believe there will be riots if the Grenada 17 are set free. The possibility of serious civil strife in Grenada, about anything but the corruption allegations aimed at the Mitchell regime, are actually quite negligible, as leaders of the opposition party and the country's leading paper, the Voice, tell me.

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I spent 1996 in Grenada interviewing many of the jailed NJM leaders. To say they are innocent of everything is not the case. To say they are innocent of the charges brought against them is. Serious mistakes were made by the New Jewel leadership. The prisoners have issued extensive, indeed insightful, apologies to that effect, taking responsibility for the crisis of the revolution, but not for the murders they did not commit. Their continued imprisonment is a mysterious yet great wrong that needs to be righted. The truth of the Grenada revo, and its destruction, needs to be known.

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No one knows exactly how many people were killed and wounded. No firm count was ever made. There are films of people leaping over a wall at the fort (why a film-maker was so poised with such a powerful camera is an interesting question).

In any case, Bishop and other top leaders of NJM, including his pregnant companion Jackie Creft, were killed- after they had surely surrendered. The remaining leadership of NJM imposed a curfew on the island. In part because important documents taken from Grenada during the invasion remain classified in the U.S., no thorough-going investigation of this day's events has been possible.

Shortly afterward, on October 23 1983, 241 US troops were killed, blown up in their barracks in Lebanon by a truck bomb.

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Rich Gibson is a professor of Education at San Diego State University. He can be reached at: [email protected]

EDIT comment: Please pay attention to this case. The final hearing has been delayed until Jan. or Feb. of 2005. This is an important link to the Attorney General confirmation.
Torture is not new. The Grenada 17 were tortured. They are still in prison. Even after the hurricane (Ivan) destroyed the prison, they did not leave Richmond Hill. They stayed because they are innocent of the charges.