1285, Reagan's numerous & false claims for invasion. Posted by HoChiGrimm, Sun Jun-13-04 02:55 PM
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/Shalominterven.html
One claim advanced was that the intervention had been requested and authorized by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States as a measure of collective security. This claim, however, was a transparent fig-leaf. While most OECS members did support the invasion, they in fact had no legal authority to authorize force.
Another U.S. claim was that the invasion had in fact been invited by the government of Grenada in the person of Paul Scoon, the Governor-General. Scoon, according to the U.S., secretly transmitted a request for intervention that the U.S. could not reveal until after the invasion out of concern for his well- being. But Scoon's position was entirely a ceremonial one: according to People's Law Number 3 of March 1979, the Governor- General "shall perform such functions as the People's Revolutionary Government may from time to time advise."<159> A report from the British House of Commons (recall that the Governor-General is supposed to be the representative of the British Queen) stated that "the timing and nature" of Scoon's request "remain shrouded in some mystery, and it is evidently the intention of the parties directly involved that the mystery should not be dispelled."<160> The British magazine _The_ _Economist_ (which supported the invasion) was more direct: the "Scoon request was almost certainly a fabrication concocted between the OECS and Washington to calm the post-invasion diplomatic storm."<161> Later, Scoon told the BBC that what he had asked for "was not an invasion but help from outside."<162> And he also informed reporters that he had not been aware of the possible involvement of U.S. forces until they landed in his front garden.<163>
With the pre-invasion danger to the students not credible and the legal arguments unconvincing, the White House resorted to its old standby: U.S. troops got to Grenada "just in time," Reagan declared, to prevent a Cuban take-over.<164> This claim was preposterous on its face -- Cuba had been outraged at the killing of Bishop.<165>
SOURCE: "PROTECTING AMERICANS ABROAD: PRETEXT FOR INTERVENTION" STEPHEN R. SHALOM: Imperial Alibis (Boston: South End Press, 1993).
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